Unfortunately, I can’t show you the real parade - photography is VERY STRICTLY FORBIDDEN! It frightens the penguins. I was amazed at how far they travel. Our ranger guide issued each of us earphones and binoculars and first took us to a good viewing spot at the beach near where the birds would come out of the water. Everyone was scanning the beach. Finally, off to our right, the first group of about 50 came out of the water and scrambled over the rocks. Then a few went across a wider section of the beach. Depending on the tides, they have a longer or shorter way to travel before they start hiking up hill. We watched birds coming ashore in groups for about 20 minutes and got pretty good at hearing them calling from the water and getting organized to come in.
Then the ranger moved us to another spot where we could watch them waddle along the path. They have very short little legs, so it took them the 20 minutes to get to that spot. It looked like they were playing red light. A whole bunch of them would surge forward and then abruptly stop dead. Some of the ones coming after would keep going and pinball through the stopped ones. The waddlers were pretty quiet, but once they got to their burrows, they had to greet and be greeted and share all the gossip. As they went along, some would split off on steep trails to get home.
We walked along with them. We were on a board walk and the penguins were on both sides of it. When we got back to the visitor center, there was a group of about 5 who realized that they were on the wrong side. The people traffic was stopped so that they could cross in front of us. It was pretty funny, because they dithered and stopped and started while several hundred people waited.
On main trails there are weighing stations where the penguins naturally go through. The birds are microchipped so they are studying how often they come ashore, how long they stay, how much they feed their chicks, etc.
Then the ranger moved us to another spot where we could watch them waddle along the path. They have very short little legs, so it took them the 20 minutes to get to that spot. It looked like they were playing red light. A whole bunch of them would surge forward and then abruptly stop dead. Some of the ones coming after would keep going and pinball through the stopped ones. The waddlers were pretty quiet, but once they got to their burrows, they had to greet and be greeted and share all the gossip. As they went along, some would split off on steep trails to get home.
On main trails there are weighing stations where the penguins naturally go through. The birds are microchipped so they are studying how often they come ashore, how long they stay, how much they feed their chicks, etc.
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