Birds of a feather

The pelicans start lining up on the Kingscote wharf around 4:30 for the 5PM feeding. We lined up around 4:55. The birds are striking to look at and we were up close and personal. Can you see Molly’s reaction? Charlie was smarter and sat a row or two up from the action.

Mike was appointed lifeguard by our host, in case he went in while feeding the birds in the water. It’s been a while since he’s done it professionally, but the kids thought he did an impressive job (I held his Mickey Mouse watch, just in case).

Our noble pelican feeder left us with this closing poem: "A wonderful bird is the pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak Food enough for a week, But I'm darned if I see how the $#*ican."

As good parents, we forced the kids to stay up WAY past their bedtime to do the Penguin tour. Kingscote is home to one of the many Little Penguin (formerly known as Fairy Penguin) colonies on the island. About 100 penguins call the town home and at night when they come back from their day in the water, you can head out with a tourguide to see them. Penguins don’t like white light, so all the penguins were under the cover of a yellow or red torch (flashlight) and the pictures didn’t come out too well. Lots of chicks were wandering about waiting for their parents to return from fishing to regurgitate the catch (nothing unites 3 kids in laughter like that thought).

We got to see a few of the moms and dads speedily swimming in and struggling up the hillside on flippers to their burrows. The life expectancies of these penguins is 7 years – the same penguins live 20 years in captivity - in part due to feral cats on the island and the seals we saw earlier in the day. After completing our last task (another threat to life-expectancy, see below), we headed home with 2/3 struggling to stay awake for the 2km drive. Was it worth it? We’ll tell you tomorrow…