Last fall, while I was still in the process of applying for this fellowship, Iattended a lecture by one of my advisors who had just returned from a year sabbatical in New Zealand with a side trip to Australia for several months. During his slideshow, Nat showed some photos taken at the famous Phillip Island Penguin Parade where several hundred Little Penguins come ashore to their burrows just after sunset. At that point,I only was just beginning to study the birds of Australia and didn't quite realize that if I recieved the fellowship I would be able to see penguins. Having always lived and travelled in the Northern Hemisphere, and primarily in North America, Ihad never seen a penguin in the wild so I was quite excited at the prospect.
Well, Isaw my first penguins when I was traveling in Tasmania with my girlfriend back in January but at the time I was not able to photograph them since we were on a tour. Ever since then, I have been in search of a colony that was publicly accessible but didn't require a tour to visit so that I could photograph at my leisure. It turned out that I came across a colony at Fortesuce Beach on the Tasman Peninsula quite by accident. As I was checking in with the caretaker at the campground, I mentioned my interest in photography and she told me about a penguin colony about a 20 minute walk from the campground.
She wasn't sure if the birds were still coming in at night or if there were just a few left in the colony while they molted their feathers. I headed down in the afternoon and found the colony easily. The burrows were quite easy to find and it was clear that the birds were molting as the ground was covered in feathers. I heard one bird in the underbrush but couldn't see the bird. I decided that I would return at dusk to see if they were still arriving at night.
Sure enough, just as it was dark, a small flock of penguins arrived on the rocks and those that had been in the burrows during the day became active. The calls of these birds are very difficult to describe but they are about the opposite of a canary or any other beautiful sounding bird. These wailing calls echoed through the forest as I spent an hour or so photographing these cute little birds as they approached their burrows and travelled along the paths in the forest. After a while, I returned to my campsite so as to not further disturb the birds and I was quite pleased with the photos I obtained.
|
