| As long as I live I'll never forgot my experience at
Oamaru. Oamaru is the home of the Yellow-Eyed Penguin and the Little Blue Penguin.
The Yellow-Eyed Penguin is the rarest of all the penguins. A guide took
twelve people at a time to the Yellow-Eyed Penguin's nest. As we watched the mom and
chick, dad returned to his family after being at sea for three days. His job is to
feed the chick by regurgitating its stomach contents. The next morning, mom goes to
sea for food and dad remains at the nest with the chick. Dad will remain for three days
without any food or water until mom returns. When mom comes back, she will only feed
the chick and the next morning dad will return to the sea for the next three days. Later on in the evening we observed a colony of Little Blue Penguins. Little Blue is the smallest of the penguins, only about eight inches in height. The Yellow-Eyed was around two feet tall. We watched these penguins from a wooden stand, set back from their nesting area. We couldn't get a good photographic of Little Blue. Check out Shirley Crawford's penguin site for children. My friend Terry Hongell also has a wonderful penguin resource for elementary students. |
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Yellow-Eyed Chick- About One Month Old |
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A Loving Family |
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Welcome Home! |
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They Just Love Affection |
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