Fairy Penguins...

It was very exciting when we caught our first glimpse of why we were gathered on the St Kilda Pier: to watch some of the area’s 1,400 fairy penguins come ashore at sunset. Here you can see the ripples from the penguins on the bay side of the pier...

...and on the harbor side. We were fortunate to find a great vantage point to see magic happen before our eyes: one moment the smallest penguins in the world were swimming along... 

...and the next they were chattering away while hopping around the rocks.

Due to their sensitive eyes and the high number of human observers, flash photography wasn’t allowed so my photos aren’t great.

They were adorable and had us mesmerized for quite a while.

If you look closely, you'll see several on the right side.