Penguin Parade

Our other must-do activity in Melbourne was the Phillip Island Penguin Parade.  I have mom to thank for this, actually.  The tour guide included it originally but I wanted to cut it, but Mom said no way, she wanted penguins.  I am so glad we left it in.

Philip Island was beautiful, but super windy and the waves got massive.  The penguin homes were all around this area, but I would be afraid if I was a penguin having to come in on rough waves over these rocks.  We learned that the penguins come back to next in the same area they were born, so I guess they don't know any different.

The penguins stay out all day fishing, they can actually stay out for a few days if they want.  They come in after sunset to mate, socialize, and re-waterproof their feathers.  Their nests are either in one of these man-made houses, or one they make for themselves.

 They travel the same path back home every night, so it wears these tracks in the vegetation.

We had the upgraded tickets, so we got to sit in a smaller area, much closer to the water.  The normal tickets sat in a big bandstand further down the beach, and much further away from the water.  There was one other option, where you could have a viewing area below where we sat, and look out at the ground level.  A good option if you want to stay dry, but we were above ground, and luckily the rain held out until we were ready to go.  You weren't allowed to take pictures in the are where the penguins came out, but I snuck just this one to show our view.

They came out of the water, over this short beach, the hopped over the rocks to waddle up the path the started just behind that cone furthest to the right.

Our tour guide described the process pretty well: They come out of the water in groups of about 20, then stand around looking all confused for a few minutes while they wait for their friends, then eventually travel as a group up the paths.  Then a new group will come out about 10 minutes later.

Tonight they came ashore in groups closer to 100 most of the time (there were 589 penguins counted the night before), and didn't leave much time between groups, so it was more exciting than usual.  The sea would virtually explode with tiny penguins as they rode the wave ashore, then stood up as the water receded.  Their white bellies shone like mother of pearl, so as they waddled up in a big group, they looked like a school of sardines swimming.  This was my favorite part.

After they got their group together, they would head towards the rocks and hop up (Mom's favorite part), and slowly make their way over them.  Then they would continue up whichever path led to home, and walk sometimes quite a distance, even past the parking lot, to get home for the night.  This led them right past us, and some were so close we could have touched them.  The walkway followed the penguin's path all the way up to the visitor's center, so you could walk right along side them.  We only made it half way before the rain started pouring and we ditched the penguins for cover.  When we got up to the visitor's center, there was a group of penguins right on the sidewalk, trying to get their bearings to find their way back home, while a park ranger roped the area off to make sure we didn't interfere.  Along the way we heard some penguins settling in for the night and making quite a racket.  If you were out there camping, and didn't know they were there, it would be a terrifying sound!

I wish I could have caught this on video for you, it was so cool!  Here is  pretty good representation of what we saw.  This one and this one are also good, but from different areas on the beach than we were, and here are some good pictures.

The penguins we saw were referred to alternately as Little Penguins and Blue Penguins.  They are the smallest penguins on earth.  Their bellies are white so that when predators look at them from below in the water, they blend in with the white clouds, but their backs are dark blue, so they blend in with the dark water when predators from the air are looking down. Those white bellies sure stuck out at night, even in the dim lighting provided, but it sure made a cool effect as they waddled away.

Size comparison to some other penguins.

Stuffed animals can be creepy, but this was my only chance to get an up-close view of them. 

I am pretty sure these were life-sized representations.  Look how little!

If you ever find yourself in any part of the world where you have a chance to see a penguin parade, I highly encourage it. This was a fabulous experience!

Oh, also, according to our tour guide, Chris Hemsworth, a.k.a. Thor, is originally from Philip Island and often comes home and participates in water sports.  So maybe just come here, see the cute little guys, and keep an eye out for a half-naked Thor ;)