Little Penguins at St Kilda Breakwater
I participated in an ongoing research project monitoring the Little Penguin colony at St Kilda Breakwater. The monitoring is run by the organisation Earthcare as a citizen science project in which volunteers from the public are encouraged to participate. The aim is to count the number of penguins arriving back to their nesting sites on the breakwater in a half hour period starting from the first arrivals after sundown. The penguins swim back to the breakwater after spending a day hunting fish and squid in the open ocean, arriving in groups called “rafts”. We did our best to count the number of individuals in each raft. During our monitoring, three rafts arrived with a total of 50-60 penguins.
Nesting activity at the breakwater was first documented in 1974, with just two pairs. Since then, the colony has grown to around 1400 individuals. They are a break-off group from the main colony at Phillip Island and are now genetically separated.
All the pictures were taken well after dark, hence the quality. The pictures of the penguins on the breakwater were taken from the viewing platform. At this time of year there are chicks in the nests that remain during the day while their parents are out hunting.
The first raft of the evening arrives
A pair and two of their three chicks
A parent and three chicks
The lights of Melbourne from the marina from where we counted the rafts
