Phillip Island is also famous for its Penguin Parade.  You are not allowed to take photos – anyway it was too dark.  Magical despite the strict controls.  They appear from the sea in groups – or rafts – after the Sun has set.  Waddle up the beach and then clamber over the sand dunes or up cliffs to where they were born.  They are called the Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) and they are the smallest of all the penguins; also known as the fairy penguin.  They weigh about 1 kg but when they have to moult they feed up and weigh about 2 kg.  You could tell some of them were about to because they were so fat they could hardly waddle.  It takes about 3 weeks to replace their feathers and during that time they don’t eat – hence the doubling of body weight.  They have white undersides and blue-grey upper parts.  Fortunately at Nobbies Centre, just up from the Phillip Island Nature Park – where the show takes place loads of nesting boxes and this chap or chapette was out sunny him/her self.  We couldn’t tell if it was a chick (it’s the end of the breeding season) or an adult in moult.

Here’s one in a nesting box.