There are a few piers along there but the longest one (the actual St Kilda Pier) has a breakwater at the and a cafe halfway. They nest in the man made break water. And I did mean early at night. They'll just arrive whenever the sun sets (in summer it's so late and winter it's earlier but freezing. You can never win) so right now I'd suggest getting there at about 5:30-6 or so and probably don't go on a weekend because it'll be packed.
I walked out on St Kilda pier about 4 years ago with my daughters. I told them to watch out for Penguins swimming in the water to keep them interested. It was the middle of the day and I did not expect to see any. Almost strait awy the 4 year old goes is that one, and it was. It was just swimming around the pier and spending a lot of time on the surface.
Yeah try St Kilda Pier. It's hit and miss out there off course. Oh, and the food at the restaurant is horrible. I wrote a review on Tripadvisor saying as much. Another place that you must get out to soon, in Kangaroo Island. If you go to Adelaide, then find the time and money to visit. More or less every southern Australian animal can be found there: seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, koalas, possums, cockatoos, macropods etc. I sold one of my cars 2 weeks ago for pennies to the dealer. I could have done you a deal if I knew you were in the market for a car. $700 registration and $700 insurance is extortion so it worked out cheaper to dump it - a fact that the dealer took advantage of.
@Monty, PAT & nanoboy, thanks for the advice on St Kilda, I will check it out sometime and report back when I do When we organise a trip to Adelaide we will definitely incorporate Kangaroo Island, although that won't be for a while. I thought you didn't drive We have bought a car today, which is very exciting, although I haven't seen it in person yet.
No I do drive! You need a car if you live in suburbia. It's Chlidonias who said he doesn't drive. Oh very exciting! Tell us more about your car.
And penguins too! Plus Black Tiger Snakes, Glossy Black Cockatoos, Hooded Plovers and lots more birds. Hix
Oh, I thought you didn't drive either. Don't know why I would have thought that though. Its just a car, rather massive blue falcon, probably uses far too much gas, but seems tidy enough. I'm not interested in cars, so can't really discuss it any further. Should be good for getting me from A to Zoo, which is the main thing
Sounds great, I still haven't seen any wild snakes since I moved here, although I haven't really wanted to. I've only ever seen one, I think it was a tiger, at my aunt's house, and my uncle caught (probably killed) it and put it in a bucket and then we took it to a clearing where there were lots of kookaburras. And they ate it. P.S. Hix (or anyone else that knows): what wallabies would I have seen wild on Phillip Island? I didn't really get a good look, they were grazing on the dunes at the Penguin Parade, and would have been ~red-necked wallaby size. Any ideas?
Oh yes I forgot penguins and black cockatoos despite them being the reason I thought of KI in the first place. Zooboy, I am not surprised that an animal lover bought a Falcon. Petrol is so expensive here. I seem to use $50 a week because of traffic. Google says they are black swamp wallabies that are on Phillip Island.
Well we basically just bought the cheapest car, would probably have preferred a Holden, but in terms of fuel consumption they are pretty evenly matched. And the petrol here is significantly cheaper than in NZ, so I'm not too concerned about that. So are there only swamp wallabies on Phillip Island? They be the right size for what I saw, so that sounds good.
Are you planning on going to Kyabram Fauna Park or Altina Wildlife Park. If you are let me know as Kyabram is an hour from me and Altina is nearly 2 hours.
Oh yes, Kyabram is a nice little zoo, but it's probably not worth driving all the way from Melbourne to specifically visit it, unless he is heading up to the Murray for at least a night. If he is up for a really long day-trip, then I would advise that he visit Halls Gap Zoo instead. Although, this is best incorporated in a trip to the Grampians for a couple days. A more manageable day-trip to visit a zoo, is a visit to Ballarat Wildlife Park. Zooboy, petrol is cheaper here in Oz at $1.50 a litre?? Yikes! Oh, don't forget to keep those discount vouchers from the supermarket when you spend $30 or more. The voucher is printed on your receipt, and you get anywhere from 4c to 18c off per litre. I am not sure if there are only swamp wallabies on PI, but that is what PI-related websites suggest as being the most common. One wikianswers webpage said "Black Wallaby, also known as Black Swamp Wallaby - common around the penguin reserve. Easily seen by driving the coast track from Seal Rocks to Summerlands Beach in the late afternoon".
walk all the way out to the end of the pier where the restaurant is, and the penguins nest in the breakwater of boulders beyond that (there is a sign there and a little boardwalk). The main part of the colony is on the other side of a protective fence though. Have a look in the holes between the boulders when you're on the boardwalk and you can usually find some penguins in there during the day. The water rats are cool, and they come out at dusk to go fishing. You can see their dining tables on the tops of the flat boulders (remains of starfish etc).
Day Seventy-seven Today we took our new car out to test her legs, and were not at all disappointed. Got a little bit lost though, but eventually found our way to Healesville Sanctuary, where we spent another cold and wet morning. There was not much to report, the highlight was a presumably wild Swamp Wallaby, in a clearing by the waterfowl aviary. Also spent a while in the parrot aviary, where we fed and held a range of lorikeets, small parrots and red-tailed black cockatoos. Got good views of the platypus too. In total, I saw nine species I didn’t see last time, mostly birds, two of which were new species. The only real news from the park is that the nocturnal house, wombat and Tasmanian devil section was shut off for major renovations, which (in the case of the outdoor enclosures at least) should be a major improvement. The northern quolls have been moved into the hospital for the duration of this work, which makes them rather more photographable. The birds of the bush aviary has reopened, and features a number of, mostly endangered, interesting birds, and looks like a new amphibian exhibit may be added to one side of it. Missed the bird show again, due to the weather, it’s definitely my priority for next time. Bought the paperback Melbourne Zoo history book, although I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. After leaving the sanctuary, we had lunch in Healesville itself before heading back towards the city. On the way we saw a sign for Lilydale Lake, which sounded (to me anyway) intriguing, so we drove in to have a look. This is a large lake, which was rather busy, with a number of picnickers, fishermen, and others enjoying the rather better afternoon weather. However, next to the lake is a wetland area, which was where we saw a variety of common waterfowl, and a few more interesting species, including a fishing darter and some very active Australian water rats! That was definitely the highlight of the day, great to watch such busy little mammals. New species: Little Lorikeet, White-eared Honeyeater.
Yes, we've been keeping our Coles vouchers for petrol, . In NZ, standard petrol is NZ$2.08.9/L (AU$1.75/L) at the moment, but has been well over $2.20 lately. Mind you, its not impossible to get 25c petrol vouchers from the supermarket, and sometimes even more when they have a big deal on.
I will definitely do this when I get a chance, it sounds very cool. I saw water rats in the Lilydale wetlands the other day, and they were great to watch, although I think seeing them in the sea would be even more amazing.
that's cool! I've only ever seen water rats at dusk and at night. I'd love to see them active during the day! Any photos of them?
They were very active, in and out of the water, very busy. Unfortunately the photos are genuinely terrible, not helped by the overcast weather, undergrowth between me and the stream, and the quick movement of the rats. I've attached a couple of photos below though. I might try and go out there again and see if I can get some better photos.
I saw my first water rat three weeks a go - a wild one living in a lake in Western Plains Zoo. I saw it for about 1/4 second before it dived - and never saw it again. Didn't manage to get a shot of it. Hix
