At Curio Bay, in the afternoon you can see Yellow-eyed Penguins return from a day’s work at sea. They deep sea fish during the day up to 40km off shore. At night they return to the bush to sleep and nest. They are the rarest penguin in the world, only found in New Zealand. [typed by Josh and dictated by Bethany - she of great biological knowledge]
Jon and I stayed at Curio Bay on our Catlins trip and went to this same spot. We were able to see a couple of penguins, but it was getting dark and they were hard to see and even harder to photograph. Beth and I went around 2pm, and even though they are supposed to be in the sea then, we managed to see three of them on shore. We got to get real close and get some great photos. It was fun to watch them bumble around the rocks and make penguin noises.
That night we camped on a cliff overlooking Dummy’s Beach. We believe it was given that name because of the road leading to the beach. It was marked with a sign saying “Road Not Maintained by Council.” In our few experiences with roads bearing this sign, we have figured out that only dummies proceed onward, expecially in old vans. Luckily we didn’t roll off the cliff in our sleep and were able to make it back out to maintained roads in the morning.
Nice penguins!!!! Thanks for posting the shot. Glad you got to see them so nicely. Wow! The rarest penguin in the world! I didn’t remember that from when you and Jon were there. Glad you explained Dummy’s Beach. That idea makes sense.
4 Comments »
Comment by Clara — September 22, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Neat! I’d never heard of this type of penguin.
Comment by josh — September 22, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
At Curio Bay, in the afternoon you can see Yellow-eyed Penguins return from a day’s work at sea. They deep sea fish during the day up to 40km off shore. At night they return to the bush to sleep and nest. They are the rarest penguin in the world, only found in New Zealand. [typed by Josh and dictated by Bethany - she of great biological knowledge]
Jon and I stayed at Curio Bay on our Catlins trip and went to this same spot. We were able to see a couple of penguins, but it was getting dark and they were hard to see and even harder to photograph. Beth and I went around 2pm, and even though they are supposed to be in the sea then, we managed to see three of them on shore. We got to get real close and get some great photos. It was fun to watch them bumble around the rocks and make penguin noises.
That night we camped on a cliff overlooking Dummy’s Beach. We believe it was given that name because of the road leading to the beach. It was marked with a sign saying “Road Not Maintained by Council.” In our few experiences with roads bearing this sign, we have figured out that only dummies proceed onward, expecially in old vans. Luckily we didn’t roll off the cliff in our sleep and were able to make it back out to maintained roads in the morning.
Comment by josh — September 22, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
Clara, you are on top of things!
Comment by dadman — September 24, 2007 @ 8:35 am
Nice penguins!!!! Thanks for posting the shot. Glad you got to see them so nicely. Wow! The rarest penguin in the world! I didn’t remember that from when you and Jon were there. Glad you explained Dummy’s Beach. That idea makes sense.
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