The sun doodled on the Summerland beach sky, creating patterns like those by a flat stone skipping off a water surface.
At quarter to eight in the evening, it also signalled the homecoming of the penguins in Australia’s Phillip Island.
Ranger guides kickstarted the penguins’ homecoming session by scanning the ocean even as the sun called it a day. That’s when the distant blue dots on the water transformed into cute little seabirds we know as penguins.
Billed as the world’s first nightly live stream of a natural wildlife event at a regular time, with expert commentary to boot, Phillip Island’s Penguin Parade is now being live-streamed every night. Keeping in mind the travel restrictions, Live Penguin TV has brought the parade on your personal devices.
Organisers say that the live stream will continue even after the current travel restrictions are shown the door.
They believe that fans of the flightless birds, who cannot watch them against the giant canvas of the sea and sand, should be able to see them flitting across their digital screens at least.
Their electronic devices will conjure up images of an army of up to 3,000 Little Penguins emerging from the Bass Strait after fishing, and walking up to their burrows, amidst the unbelievable music of crashing sea waves.
Till the last of the birds, looking like men in tuxedoes, drifted in, the ranger guides kept observing the horizon from a skybox to keep a tab on the nightly penguin count.
However, 2020 has sounded the death knell for travel. Phillip Island, like most of the world’s tourist hotspots, is witnessing zero footfall. ‘Little Penguins,’ the tiniest of all penguin species, are the island’s biggest tourist draws. Just 33cm tall, these diminutive wild penguins had visitors lining up on the tiered viewing platform for years.
In the evening, when the ocean mirrored the rising moon, they craned their necks to catch the bird colonies to find their way home.
Understandably, it’s not wise to let such interest levels flag, even if a virus is on the loose. Hence, Phillip Island Nature Parks (PINP), like most tourism businesses, is innovating and looking at ways to bring their top-of-the-pile experiences to your living room.
While no tourist who had set foot in Phillip Island before could click penguin photographs owing to their sensitivity to hundreds of camera equipment, it will now be possible to see the cuddly avians from close quarters with the aid of technology.
The launch of Live Penguin TV also coincides with the annual breeding season, when penguin chicks looking like balls of fur are born in hundreds of burrows scattered across sand dunes above the beach. For me, these images bring back memories of the magical night I visited Phillip Island.
On that evening, tiny lights of the viewing platform glowed like fireflies in the nearby bushes. As I sat at the edge of the walkway, hundreds of penguins skittered to their nesting burrows, almost brushing past my dangling legs. Some of them were way behind their comrades and tried to do a Usain Bolt in the last leg of their journey.
This was a disaster as penguins are pretty unstable while standing on their feet. A few fell face-first into the sand, scrambled to steady themselves and scurried along. At that moment they were the stand-up comics of the avian world. When the sounds quieten and the moon slides behind the sand dunes, you realise you're an outsider. It’s then time to leave the tiny sea birds to an ancient landscape that has always been their own.
What and where
To watch the Penguin Parade, tune in from 6 pm (Australia Time) to
https://www.facebook.com/PhillipIslandNatureParks/;or https://www.youtube.com/user/PIPenguinParade.