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Island Diary
Cat
Bay, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia
I am lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful parts of Victoria, Australia, on an island called Phillip Island. Phillip Island is connected to mainland Victoria by a bridge so it is not hard to get to. In fact, it is one of Victoria's most popular tourist destinations and people come from all over the world to see the wildlife that lives here. One side of Phillip Island faces a bay, called Westernport Bay. The other side of the island faces the open ocean. So we have sandy beaches on both sides, some with big waves while others have the calmer waters of the bay. Many people have holiday houses on the island and around 7000 people (including me!) live here permanently.
Since I came to live here a few years ago, I have seen many of the wild animals that live on the island and in the seas around it. I am not an expert on the wildlife of the island but one thing I have learnt is that actually seeing the animals that live here in the wild and not on television or in a zoo is an amazing and rewarding experience. I decided to begin a diary on this website to tell readers some about some of the animals I've seen. If you are a student , especially from a country outside of Australia, you may like to go on and learn more about the following animals by looking them up at Google or one of the other search engines. You are sure to find lots of photos of them too. I have included a few photos of animals that I have taken myself and hope to take more over time. So read on! I hope you enjoy sharing my experiences.
Click on the links below to take you to different stories on this page:
Penguin Feet
Grunting Koalas
Sneaky Snakes on Hot Sand
Dolphins in the Bay
A Baby Seal
Gull Attack!
Shearwater Story
Shy Swamp Wallabies
Dangerous Redbacks
Lapwing Neighbours
Humpback Whales
Looking Out for the Animals
Penguin
Feet...
Sneaky Snakes On Hot Sand
A Baby Seal
Phillip
Island is world-famous for the colony of Little Penguins that live
here. Little Penguins are birds, but they cannot fly. In other words,
they are 'flightless birds'. They use their modified wings to help them
to swim and they have feathers which are modified to form a waterproof
pelt and
keep them warm in the cold sea. There are several different species of
penguin but all penguins live in the southern hemisphere. The Little
Penguins we have on the island are the smallest species of penguin. In
fact, they used to be called 'fairy penguins' when I was a kid.
Every evening there is a 'penguin parade' on the island. You can read about this at: www.penguins.org.au if you wish to. During the day the penguins fish out in the sea and at night they return to their burrows in the sand dunes to feed their babies, and to rest. They all come out of the sea in a large group and waddle up the beach, looking like little people heading off to dinner in their black and white dinner suits. Hundreds of people sit in stands to watch the event, and it is carefully managed by wildlife officers to make sure nobody disturbs the penguins but everyone gets a good view. I haven't been to the parade for many years, but that doesn't mean I don't see penguins on the island. There is a lonely beach on the other side of the island from the penguin parade beach (the island is quite narrow at this point) where I sometimes like to go to look out at the entrance to Westernport Bay. Usually there is nobody there outside of weekends and I can walk for a long distance and feel that I am the only person left in the world.
One day, I noticed something strange at the top of the beach - dozens and dozens of tiny webbed footprints in the smooth sand, all marching down towards the water. I noticed there was a well worn narrow track heading up into the sand dunes and followed it a little way, only to come across a hole in the dunes. A penguin burrow! Peering down inside, I could just make out a young penguin squatting in the burrow. It was waiting for its parents, who must have been hunting out at sea. The tracks went further, all over the dunes, but I didn't follow them. They were private, belonging to the penguins. The road to this beach is closed each night at dusk to protect the wildlife on that part of the island. I like to think of all those little penguins marching up their own private beach at the end of the day, without us humans watching them. And in the morning, after they have gone back out to sea for another day's fishing, all they leave behind are their busy little footprints...
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The
koala is one of Australia's most
famous animals, and we have quite a lot of koalas on Phillip Island.
Originally, there were no koalas on the island because before the
bridge was built it was cut off from the mainland. In the 1870s or
1880s, koalas were brought here by European settlers and they
flourished. Koalas are very fussy eaters and only eat leaves from
certain kinds of eucalyptus trees (also known as gum trees). Luckily
for the first koalas who were brought to the island all those years
ago, the trees grow here. Koalas are sometimes called 'koala bears' but
they are not bears at all. They are marsupials, which means they carry
their babies in a pouch. When the tiny koala babies are born, they
crawl up the mother's fur and into the pouch. There they latch on to a
teat and they don't come out of the pouch for many weeks, until they
are much bigger. If you want to, you can learn more about koalas on th
Internet.
Many of the koalas on Phillip Island are now found in reserves, or at a place called The Koala Conservation Centre which you can visit. However, some can be seen wandering the island on their home range, or territory, moving from tree to tree. It's been my experience that koalas mainly move about at dusk, or at night. My first meeting with a koala in the wild was shortly after I moved to the island. I had just gone to bed when we heard a very loud grunting, and the sound of something crashing through undergrowth just outside the front fence. My poor old cats got a heck of a shock at the noise. The grunting sounded exactly like a large pig and as we have lots of farms on the island, I assumed a pig had escaped from somewhere. Jumping out of bed, I ran out with a torch - just in time to see a huge koala clambering up a thin eucalyptus tree outside our house. In spite of his size, he easily scaled the tree and was soon at the top, plucking off new shoots and cramming them into his mouth. Every few weeks this koala and another one would appear, travelling around their home range picking fresh leaves off the trees. And we always knew they were coming by the sound they made!
Now I live elsewhere on the island but we still have koalas moving along a bush track behind the housing estate where I live. I was lucky enough to see a smaller young one recently, which leapt up the trunk of a tree when she saw my dog and I. My dog didn't know what to make of her, but we walked quickly on so as not to scare her on her nightly hunt for food.
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Every evening there is a 'penguin parade' on the island. You can read about this at: www.penguins.org.au if you wish to. During the day the penguins fish out in the sea and at night they return to their burrows in the sand dunes to feed their babies, and to rest. They all come out of the sea in a large group and waddle up the beach, looking like little people heading off to dinner in their black and white dinner suits. Hundreds of people sit in stands to watch the event, and it is carefully managed by wildlife officers to make sure nobody disturbs the penguins but everyone gets a good view. I haven't been to the parade for many years, but that doesn't mean I don't see penguins on the island. There is a lonely beach on the other side of the island from the penguin parade beach (the island is quite narrow at this point) where I sometimes like to go to look out at the entrance to Westernport Bay. Usually there is nobody there outside of weekends and I can walk for a long distance and feel that I am the only person left in the world.
One day, I noticed something strange at the top of the beach - dozens and dozens of tiny webbed footprints in the smooth sand, all marching down towards the water. I noticed there was a well worn narrow track heading up into the sand dunes and followed it a little way, only to come across a hole in the dunes. A penguin burrow! Peering down inside, I could just make out a young penguin squatting in the burrow. It was waiting for its parents, who must have been hunting out at sea. The tracks went further, all over the dunes, but I didn't follow them. They were private, belonging to the penguins. The road to this beach is closed each night at dusk to protect the wildlife on that part of the island. I like to think of all those little penguins marching up their own private beach at the end of the day, without us humans watching them. And in the morning, after they have gone back out to sea for another day's fishing, all they leave behind are their busy little footprints...
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
The
koala is one of Australia's most
famous animals, and we have quite a lot of koalas on Phillip Island.
Originally, there were no koalas on the island because before the
bridge was built it was cut off from the mainland. In the 1870s or
1880s, koalas were brought here by European settlers and they
flourished. Koalas are very fussy eaters and only eat leaves from
certain kinds of eucalyptus trees (also known as gum trees). Luckily
for the first koalas who were brought to the island all those years
ago, the trees grow here. Koalas are sometimes called 'koala bears' but
they are not bears at all. They are marsupials, which means they carry
their babies in a pouch. When the tiny koala babies are born, they
crawl up the mother's fur and into the pouch. There they latch on to a
teat and they don't come out of the pouch for many weeks, until they
are much bigger. If you want to, you can learn more about koalas on th
Internet. Many of the koalas on Phillip Island are now found in reserves, or at a place called The Koala Conservation Centre which you can visit. However, some can be seen wandering the island on their home range, or territory, moving from tree to tree. It's been my experience that koalas mainly move about at dusk, or at night. My first meeting with a koala in the wild was shortly after I moved to the island. I had just gone to bed when we heard a very loud grunting, and the sound of something crashing through undergrowth just outside the front fence. My poor old cats got a heck of a shock at the noise. The grunting sounded exactly like a large pig and as we have lots of farms on the island, I assumed a pig had escaped from somewhere. Jumping out of bed, I ran out with a torch - just in time to see a huge koala clambering up a thin eucalyptus tree outside our house. In spite of his size, he easily scaled the tree and was soon at the top, plucking off new shoots and cramming them into his mouth. Every few weeks this koala and another one would appear, travelling around their home range picking fresh leaves off the trees. And we always knew they were coming by the sound they made!
Now I live elsewhere on the island but we still have koalas moving along a bush track behind the housing estate where I live. I was lucky enough to see a smaller young one recently, which leapt up the trunk of a tree when she saw my dog and I. My dog didn't know what to make of her, but we walked quickly on so as not to scare her on her nightly hunt for food.
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Sneaky Snakes On Hot Sand
Poisonous snakes are a part of life in
Australia - though it's not as if you see them every day. If you live
outside of the big cities, in the outer suburbs or in the country,
there are sure to be snakes somewhere around. They like to sunbake in
the
grass, especially near water, where they find frogs and other small
animals to eat. Snakes may be poisonous but they are usually very shy.
All they want to do is mind their own business and they won't bite
unless some clumsy human steps on them, or scares them. Nevertheless,
they are best avoided as some have a bite that can kill you. Some years
ago I spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning in hospital after being
bitten by a black snake. Fortunately I wasn't severely poisoned and
apart from a rise in blood pressure I was fine - and it was my own
fault because I was walking through long grass without looking where I
was going! Weird as this sounds, being bitten by a snake actually
made me lose my fear of them completely. They are beautiful creatures
and have an important place in our ecosystem.
Phillip Island is home to at least two types of snake to my knowledge - the tiger snake and the copperhead snake. Both snakes are extremely poisonous. There may be more species but I haven't seen them (yet!). Early every morning I walk our young German Shepherd Dog along a nearby beach for about an hour. It's a popular beach with dog walkers and many people do the wrong thing and let their dogs run up off the beach and into the bushy hills behind it, which is a shame. These hills are covered in small trees and grasses, and are home to a variety of birds and other animals. They are also home to snakes, as I have discovered. Walking at the top of the beach last summer, I began to notice strange, long patterns in the sand at the edge of the bushland. At first, they almost looked like parts of bicycle tracks to me. Some were thick as a bike tyre and others were as thin as a finger. In the smooth, wind-blown sand, the tracks really stood out. They never went very far from the edge of the bushland - maybe only a metre (three feet) or so. Taking a closer look, I realised what they were. I could actually see scaly patterns, and some of the tracks came to a point, like the imprint of a tail. Snakes! It took me a while to work out what was going on - why were snakes coming down out of the bushland at night, leaving their tracks for me to see the next morning? The answer lies in the heat from the sand, I'm sure. Snakes cannot regulate their own body temperature the way we do and need to keep warm so they can be active and hunt for food. During the day this isn't a problem, as they can sunbake. But at night? Well, during the day the sand is also warmed by the sun and stays warm for some time after dark. It's my bet that the snakes are coming out of the bushland and lying on the sand to soak up that stored heat. Then they can slither off for a good night's hunting, full of energy! From the number of different snake tracks I've seen, there must be a lot of snakes in the bush behind our dog-walking beach. Maybe one night I'll sneak down there with a torch and see if I can spot them sand-baking...
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Surely the dolphin is one of the most magical creatures on Earth. I always wonder what is going on inside those magnificent dolphin brains, which actually weigh more than human brains. How do they view the world? And how do they see us? Western Port Bay, which is on one side of Phillip Island, is one of two bays near the Victorian capital city of Melbourne. A short distance from Westernport lies a bigger bay, called Port Phillip Bay. Port Phillip Bay is home to quite a large number of bottlenose dolphins. They are seen in Western Port Bay too, and I think from my own observations that the dolphins we occasionally see in Western Port are actually swimming around from Port Phillip at certain times of the year to take advantage of various fishing seasons. I think this is so because I don't see dolphins in the bay regularly - just sometimes. However, I believe there is a move to study dolphins in Western Port more closely because not a lot is known about how many dolphins regularly appear in our bay. You can learn more about bottlenose dolphins in my part of the world by visiting: www.dolphinresearch.org.au and going to the section on dolphin education projects.
My experiences with wild dolphins here have been amazing and perhaps the highlight of all my animal encounters.
The most memorable occurred a few months ago in the spring. In the spring there is always a big run of a fish called snapper into our bay. On the weekends the bay is dotted with lots of small fishing craft, full of hopeful fisherfolk. The beach where I walk my dog every morning faces the bay, and there are rocks at two points on this beach. A current runs around the rocks at one point, not far offshore, and it is there that I have seen dolphins on more than one occasion. I think that fish must get in this current and the dolphins cruise slowly along it, hunting for breakfast. Early one morning I was alone on the beach with my dog when I looked out across the water and saw a pod of around six dolphins, cruising the current very close in to shore. The tide was out and I was able to walk quite a way down the beach towards them. As I got closer to them, I realised that there were two smaller ones that must have been babies. The rest were adults and up close, they were much bigger than I expected. They swam so slowly and effortlessly, and I am sure they were aware that I was there watching them. As they came towards the rocky point, I was able to get even closer to them by walking out across the rocks. I was thrilled to be able to get within about 6 metres of them (18 feet). They were fishing right up against the rocks, in very shallow water. Then, sadly, my dog spotted them and barked! Before I could get a closer look they quietly and unhurriedly turned away and swam into an inlet. Then they began to play with some buoys that are there, for small boats to anchor on. It was incredible to watch them leaping around those buoys in the early morning sun. I watched them until they decided to get back to their fishing and slowly swam off together, further into the bay. The dolphins only seem to frequent my beach during the snapper run and it will be interesting to see if they return every spring. I hope they do!
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Phillip Island is home to at least two types of snake to my knowledge - the tiger snake and the copperhead snake. Both snakes are extremely poisonous. There may be more species but I haven't seen them (yet!). Early every morning I walk our young German Shepherd Dog along a nearby beach for about an hour. It's a popular beach with dog walkers and many people do the wrong thing and let their dogs run up off the beach and into the bushy hills behind it, which is a shame. These hills are covered in small trees and grasses, and are home to a variety of birds and other animals. They are also home to snakes, as I have discovered. Walking at the top of the beach last summer, I began to notice strange, long patterns in the sand at the edge of the bushland. At first, they almost looked like parts of bicycle tracks to me. Some were thick as a bike tyre and others were as thin as a finger. In the smooth, wind-blown sand, the tracks really stood out. They never went very far from the edge of the bushland - maybe only a metre (three feet) or so. Taking a closer look, I realised what they were. I could actually see scaly patterns, and some of the tracks came to a point, like the imprint of a tail. Snakes! It took me a while to work out what was going on - why were snakes coming down out of the bushland at night, leaving their tracks for me to see the next morning? The answer lies in the heat from the sand, I'm sure. Snakes cannot regulate their own body temperature the way we do and need to keep warm so they can be active and hunt for food. During the day this isn't a problem, as they can sunbake. But at night? Well, during the day the sand is also warmed by the sun and stays warm for some time after dark. It's my bet that the snakes are coming out of the bushland and lying on the sand to soak up that stored heat. Then they can slither off for a good night's hunting, full of energy! From the number of different snake tracks I've seen, there must be a lot of snakes in the bush behind our dog-walking beach. Maybe one night I'll sneak down there with a torch and see if I can spot them sand-baking...
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
Surely the dolphin is one of the most magical creatures on Earth. I always wonder what is going on inside those magnificent dolphin brains, which actually weigh more than human brains. How do they view the world? And how do they see us? Western Port Bay, which is on one side of Phillip Island, is one of two bays near the Victorian capital city of Melbourne. A short distance from Westernport lies a bigger bay, called Port Phillip Bay. Port Phillip Bay is home to quite a large number of bottlenose dolphins. They are seen in Western Port Bay too, and I think from my own observations that the dolphins we occasionally see in Western Port are actually swimming around from Port Phillip at certain times of the year to take advantage of various fishing seasons. I think this is so because I don't see dolphins in the bay regularly - just sometimes. However, I believe there is a move to study dolphins in Western Port more closely because not a lot is known about how many dolphins regularly appear in our bay. You can learn more about bottlenose dolphins in my part of the world by visiting: www.dolphinresearch.org.au and going to the section on dolphin education projects.
My experiences with wild dolphins here have been amazing and perhaps the highlight of all my animal encounters.
The most memorable occurred a few months ago in the spring. In the spring there is always a big run of a fish called snapper into our bay. On the weekends the bay is dotted with lots of small fishing craft, full of hopeful fisherfolk. The beach where I walk my dog every morning faces the bay, and there are rocks at two points on this beach. A current runs around the rocks at one point, not far offshore, and it is there that I have seen dolphins on more than one occasion. I think that fish must get in this current and the dolphins cruise slowly along it, hunting for breakfast. Early one morning I was alone on the beach with my dog when I looked out across the water and saw a pod of around six dolphins, cruising the current very close in to shore. The tide was out and I was able to walk quite a way down the beach towards them. As I got closer to them, I realised that there were two smaller ones that must have been babies. The rest were adults and up close, they were much bigger than I expected. They swam so slowly and effortlessly, and I am sure they were aware that I was there watching them. As they came towards the rocky point, I was able to get even closer to them by walking out across the rocks. I was thrilled to be able to get within about 6 metres of them (18 feet). They were fishing right up against the rocks, in very shallow water. Then, sadly, my dog spotted them and barked! Before I could get a closer look they quietly and unhurriedly turned away and swam into an inlet. Then they began to play with some buoys that are there, for small boats to anchor on. It was incredible to watch them leaping around those buoys in the early morning sun. I watched them until they decided to get back to their fishing and slowly swam off together, further into the bay. The dolphins only seem to frequent my beach during the snapper run and it will be interesting to see if they return every spring. I hope they do!
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A Baby Seal
Phillip
Island is also home to the largest colony of Australian Fur Seals in
the country. There are an estimated 20,000 fur seals living here, at a
place called Seal Rocks. This is fully one quarter of all the existing
Australian Fur Seals. Seal rocks is a small rocky island just off the
tip of Phillip Island, and the tip of Phillip Island is called The
Nobbies. Seal rocks can only be reached by boat, but the seals can be
viewed from The Nobbies with telescopes provided there. The seals spend
most of their time hunting fish in the bay and the open ocean, or
resting on the rocks. Tour boats take visitors out and anchor near Seal
Rocks, so that the seals can be viewed more closely. The seals' world
is a tough one and they were almost hunted to extinction by sealers
back in the 1800s. Today they are protected but I still occasionally
see seal carcasses washed up on beaches that face the ocean, victims of
accidents or the elements. Seals are
superb fishermen but they are also hunted by great white sharks, which
sometimes hang around seal rocks hoping for a feed.
I had a close-up experience with a young seal last summer. Once again it was at my favourite dog walking beach but this time I happened to be there without the dog. I'd been out shopping and decided to stop of for a morning tea break there before returning home. As I walked down onto the beach I heard a strange bleating noise and spotted the small young seal sitting on the rocks at one end of the beach, calling out. I wondered if it was injured in some way but I think it had simply fallen off the rocks at Seal Rocks and been washed into the bay (this happens a lot and the babies usually don't survive when it does). It is not advisable to approach wild seals and get too close to them. I've seen their teeth and they make my German Shepherd's teeth look small! However, I went towards the seal anyway because I was concerned about it. It turned out that the seal was okay, just frightened I think. I stayed with it for a while and it leapt up and down the rocks, watching me and bleating. I was surprised at how restricted it was in the way it moved on land - very ungainly. It reminded me of a beached mermaid. Once in the water it was a different story. The seal floated about, twisting and turning in the waves with ease. Eventually I left it and came home. I rang the local wildlife authority here, the Phillip Island Nature Park, and told them about it and they said indeed the young seal may not survive. I'm happy to say that I'm pretty sure they were wrong. I checked on the seal later that day, only to find it sunning itself on the beach. Then every so often over the following weeks I would see it hanging around offshore, frolicking in the water and growing stronger. So I like to think that my young seal was fine, and made it back to Seal Rocks safely at some point.
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Thousands of Silver Gulls live on Phillip Island at certain times of the year. They come to nest each year at The Nobbies on the tip of the island, and they also come for the rich pickings they get in the way of food from human visitors to the island. Silver Gulls are beautiful birds - your typical seagull and very common in southern Australia. However, they cause quite a lot of trouble here during the tourist season. They will dive bomb children and steal the food from their hands, as well as pester people for scraps from their picnics, literally flying in their faces. Because of this, signs at The Nobbies and in the main town of Cowes ask people to please not feed the gulls, as it encourages them to be bolder and bolder, and cause more problems.
Sadly, many visitors to the island think it's their right to feed the gulls, even if their hot chips are bad for the birds and turn them from mild-mannered birds into bold attackers!
Although I see gulls every day, I've had two interesting experiences with them that stand out. The first was a nice one, the second... well, let's just say I'll be guarding my food well the next time I visit The Nobbies in spring! In early spring thousands of silver gulls arrive on the barren, treeless cliffs to nest. The first time I saw The Nobbies during the nesting season I was reminded strongly of a David Attenborough documentary. I was surrounded by gulls, some squawking and squabbling, some sitting tightly on eggs in small bowl-shaped nests scraped in the grass and low plants that grow on the cliffs, some with tiny grey chicks cheeping as they followed their parents around. It gets extremely windy and cold at The Nobbies and sometimes the wind is so strong that it can almost blow you over. In fact, there is a beautiful big glass building there that is home to an education centre about seals and the bay but it was closed for a couple of years and only recently opened again because of the wind. A huge storm came and blew part of the roof off! Apparently the incredibly rough weather doesn't bother the gulls because they still manage to nest successfully at The Nobbies year after year, the wind blowing over them and waves pounding into the cliffs below them. You've got to admire their tenacity.
My second experience with gulls was also at The Nobbies. As I've mentioned before, the gulls should not be fed. However, gulls at The Nobbies have apparently found a way to get around this problem. They simply dive bomb likely humans with food in their hands as they leave the canteen in the building. My poor mother was a victim of such an attack. We visited the canteen and went to sit on some tables outside. My mother was carrying a container of hot chips when all of a sudden a gull swooped down and grabbed at her chips, sending a whole bunch of them scattering on the ground! Then several gulls gleefully swept down and scooped up the chips. The hooligans! The worst thing is, chips are not good for them. Their natural diet is fish.
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I had a close-up experience with a young seal last summer. Once again it was at my favourite dog walking beach but this time I happened to be there without the dog. I'd been out shopping and decided to stop of for a morning tea break there before returning home. As I walked down onto the beach I heard a strange bleating noise and spotted the small young seal sitting on the rocks at one end of the beach, calling out. I wondered if it was injured in some way but I think it had simply fallen off the rocks at Seal Rocks and been washed into the bay (this happens a lot and the babies usually don't survive when it does). It is not advisable to approach wild seals and get too close to them. I've seen their teeth and they make my German Shepherd's teeth look small! However, I went towards the seal anyway because I was concerned about it. It turned out that the seal was okay, just frightened I think. I stayed with it for a while and it leapt up and down the rocks, watching me and bleating. I was surprised at how restricted it was in the way it moved on land - very ungainly. It reminded me of a beached mermaid. Once in the water it was a different story. The seal floated about, twisting and turning in the waves with ease. Eventually I left it and came home. I rang the local wildlife authority here, the Phillip Island Nature Park, and told them about it and they said indeed the young seal may not survive. I'm happy to say that I'm pretty sure they were wrong. I checked on the seal later that day, only to find it sunning itself on the beach. Then every so often over the following weeks I would see it hanging around offshore, frolicking in the water and growing stronger. So I like to think that my young seal was fine, and made it back to Seal Rocks safely at some point.
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
Thousands of Silver Gulls live on Phillip Island at certain times of the year. They come to nest each year at The Nobbies on the tip of the island, and they also come for the rich pickings they get in the way of food from human visitors to the island. Silver Gulls are beautiful birds - your typical seagull and very common in southern Australia. However, they cause quite a lot of trouble here during the tourist season. They will dive bomb children and steal the food from their hands, as well as pester people for scraps from their picnics, literally flying in their faces. Because of this, signs at The Nobbies and in the main town of Cowes ask people to please not feed the gulls, as it encourages them to be bolder and bolder, and cause more problems.
Sadly, many visitors to the island think it's their right to feed the gulls, even if their hot chips are bad for the birds and turn them from mild-mannered birds into bold attackers!
Although I see gulls every day, I've had two interesting experiences with them that stand out. The first was a nice one, the second... well, let's just say I'll be guarding my food well the next time I visit The Nobbies in spring! In early spring thousands of silver gulls arrive on the barren, treeless cliffs to nest. The first time I saw The Nobbies during the nesting season I was reminded strongly of a David Attenborough documentary. I was surrounded by gulls, some squawking and squabbling, some sitting tightly on eggs in small bowl-shaped nests scraped in the grass and low plants that grow on the cliffs, some with tiny grey chicks cheeping as they followed their parents around. It gets extremely windy and cold at The Nobbies and sometimes the wind is so strong that it can almost blow you over. In fact, there is a beautiful big glass building there that is home to an education centre about seals and the bay but it was closed for a couple of years and only recently opened again because of the wind. A huge storm came and blew part of the roof off! Apparently the incredibly rough weather doesn't bother the gulls because they still manage to nest successfully at The Nobbies year after year, the wind blowing over them and waves pounding into the cliffs below them. You've got to admire their tenacity.
My second experience with gulls was also at The Nobbies. As I've mentioned before, the gulls should not be fed. However, gulls at The Nobbies have apparently found a way to get around this problem. They simply dive bomb likely humans with food in their hands as they leave the canteen in the building. My poor mother was a victim of such an attack. We visited the canteen and went to sit on some tables outside. My mother was carrying a container of hot chips when all of a sudden a gull swooped down and grabbed at her chips, sending a whole bunch of them scattering on the ground! Then several gulls gleefully swept down and scooped up the chips. The hooligans! The worst thing is, chips are not good for them. Their natural diet is fish.
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Shearwater Story
Phillip
Island is also the summer home of more than one million very special
sea birds, called Short-tailed Shearwaters. Short-tailed Shearwaters
are largish seabirds with wingspans of around a metre (3 feet). Each
year they complete a huge migration of 16,000 kilometres. I'm not sure
what that is in miles but it's a heck of a long way! They spend summer
in the northern hemisphere, near Alaska around the Aleutian Islands.
Then, as the weather begins to turn colder, they head south. They
arrive here on Phillip Island in late September every year, which is
our springtime. They
nest on headlands and in sand dunes on the seaward
side of the island. The birds dig out burrows and lay their eggs in
them, taking turns to incubate (sit on and hatch) the eggs. Birds not
sitting on eggs spend all day fishing, returning to their burrows at
night. They fly in in a large group and are as spectacular a sight as
penguins walking up the beach, though they are not as well known an
attraction and the areas they nest in are not as easy to get to (no
convenient seating for a start!). All summer the shearwaters raise
their babies. Then as the weather begins to cool and the days
grow shorter, the parents fly away and begin their long migration back
up to islands near Alaska... leaving their babies behind. The
shearwater chicks are still covered in down and cannot fly but over the
next two or three weeks, an amazing transformation takes place. The
chicks do not eat, but their down is replaced by feathers. Then, once
they are fully feathered, they fly away and follow their parents north.
They have no help from adult birds to find their way, yet somehow they
have an internal world map that leads them to the right place. It is
one of nature's amazing feats.
I was first introduced to Short-tailed shearwaters through their burrows. They nest on one part of the island where there is a six kilometre walking track around an area of nature reserve that includes the highest part of the island. It is a fabulous place to walk, though you need to be fit as some parts are steep and it takes about two hours to walk the track. During the nesting season, walkers stray from the track at their peril! The land on either side of the track is riddled with burrows and if you step off the track you could very easily break an ankle, as although the ground beneath your feet looks solid, it is hollow with burrows beneath. Fluffy grey chicks can be seen inside the burrows if you are lucky, so you wouldn't want to step into the burrows and hurt them anyway. To see the birds flying is also a beautiful sight. They are so graceful as they swoop about in the strong ocean winds.
Sadly, I also see lots of young shearwaters killed on the roads as they set off on their long journey north. The young birds are attracted to lights at night and become confused and disoriented, flying in front of cars. There are lots of lights on the Phillip Island bridge too and until this year, many young shearwaters were killed on the bridge. This year, however, a really great thing happened. A group of people who live in the town next to the bridge contacted the government after the first night of the young shearwater migration when a lot of birds were killed. They managed to organise to have all the lights on the bridge switched off (an unheard of event that could be considered dangerous under other circumstances, but desperate measures were called for). Because the lights were switched off the lives of dozens of young shearwaters were saved and they continued on their way to their northern home, 8000 kilometres away. So a happy ending! I'm sure that switching the bridge lights off will now be an annual event. Signs were put up at the approach to the bridge to explain what was going on, so it helps make more people aware of the amazing Short-tailed Shearwaters too.
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Kangaroos are such a well-known Australian animal and sometimes I think their smaller cousins, the wallabies, are forgotten. Here on Phillip Island we have lots of small brown wallabies, called Swamp Wallabies. Swamp Wallabies are considered a pest by some on the island because at times we are told we have plagues of them that eat a lot of farmer's grassland and run on the roads, causing a hazard to cars. I must say that in all my time on the island, I've never seen the wallabies in huge numbers. They are around and can be seen grazing in fields in the evenings, but mostly they seem to me to be very shy.
We have a fire track running along the back of the housing estate where I live - a wide bushy track lined with eucalyptus trees. I often walk my dog along this track in the evening as it leads onto a road, and then to another fire track that runs alongside the beach. This is a favourite walk of mine and the dog enjoys it too. She loves the smell of the wallabies. We can always tell when they've been around as they leave an unmistakable smell behind from their droppings. I have read that they are sometimes called 'stink wallabies' and I can see why, but Tess the dog is not complaining about the smell. The entrance to the second fire track that runs alongside the beach is home to one particular shy wallaby. We regularly see him near a little creek that runs down onto the beach and out to sea. He freezes amongst the bush that lines either side of the track and blends in so well that you really have to be watching for him to spot him. But he is there and we see him most evenings when we pass this way. I also have to take great care if I walk the dog on the beach very early in the morning, as wallabies often come out of the bushland behind the beach and hop along the sand. I think they do this because it's a quick way to travel, out of the bush with no small trees to slow them down. They can really get up some speed when they are hopping fast. If Tess the dog sees wallabies on the beach in the morning, she goes crazy and tries to get to them. She also loves to track their smelly footprints, racing along the beach from headland to headland with her nose accurately jammed to the sand. It's hard to keep up with her at times. I don't think she knows what to make of the wallabies, as they are around her size but move so differently. Swamp wallabies really are beautiful little animals and if you can find a picture of them on the Internet, I'm sure you'll agree.
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Many kinds of spiders make their home in Australia and some are poisonous to humans. Somehow, spiders have always bothered me a lot more than snakes but I still find the spiders we have in Australia fascinating and have a great respect for them. Until we moved to Phillip Island I had only seen a redback spider once, even though I lived for years in a very heavily treed area with lots of bush around. However, redback spiders are fairly common in Australia and they have a very dangerous bite. They are related to the notorious black widow spider from America, but they are smaller. The females are black with a distinctive red stripe on their back. Males are much smaller and the stripe is not so obvious. I have read that males are hardly ever seen and indeed, I've only seen females. Redback spiders like to live around houses, in dry sheltered areas. They are found in woodsheds, in piles of wood, in garages and under houses. Apparently, they can even hide in the bodywork of cars. I'm not saying they are everywhere but if you see one around, it usually means there will be more nearby.
Redback spiders have a small, strong web and they like to spend most of their time in it. They don't bother people unless people bother them. In fact, I can't ever remember hearing about someone dying from a redback bite and from what I have read, nobody has since antivenom became available, I think, in the 1970s. But believe me, they need to be treated with respect! And if someone is bitten, they need to get to a hospital quickly for treatment.
My first encounter with a redback was when I was crawling around underneath a rainwater tank I have in my garden that I use for watering the vegetables. My car's window sun shield had blown behind it and as I picked it up, a redback ran across it. I got the shock of my life and almost dropped the sun shield, but the spider jumped off it and disappeared, back behind the water tank. I hunted around looking for it and must admit I would have killed it if I could have found it, as where there is one female redback, there are sure to be egg sacks with babies in them. No luck, I'm afraid. Then sure enough, I was under our house getting something out and saw another one! Needless to say, I am extremely careful when in that area of the garden or crawling under the house now... Then I ran into another one at a local nursery the other week, when I turned over a big plant pot looking for a price. It had set up home right in the middle of the plant pot.
I have read that some spiders, like the common house spider, kill redbacks. So as you can imagine, if I see a house spider around I don't kill it. I practically welcome it with open arms!!!
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We share the housing estate we live on with several different types of birds, but the noisiest and most obvious are some very funny birds called Masked Lapwings. These birds are also sometimes known as Spurred Plovers, but I think Masked Lapwings sounds nicer. These lapwings remind me of turkeys - I don't really know why but I think it's something about the way they walk, and they way they behave. They are about the size of a small chicken - a bantam chicken, perhaps. They have beautiful yellow markings on their faces and are gray and white and black. They also have very sharp spurs on the joints in their wings, which they can use to defend themselves. I've never seen them do this though. Masked Lapwings live in swampy places, places close to the sea and also open pasture. Here they like to live in the gardens of holiday homes that are closed for much of the year outside of the summer holiday season, or in parks, or on vacant blocks of land. They also spend a fair bit of time squatting on the beach, staring out to sea. They are extremely noisy birds and think nothing of flying about at night, making a loud 'kek-kek-kek' noise, or squawking. The lapwings have an interesting life. In the winter they spend their days socialising, gathering in large groups on vacant blocks of land near my house. Then they separate and pairs choose various areas around the estate as their territory, vigorously defending it against any intruders. A lot of squabbling goes on about land rights. I have read that the birds pair for life and they certainly stick closely together, once they have chosen their territory. Eggs are laid in spring, in a small nest scraped in the ground out in the open on their territory - not very safe! During this time the birds get pretty aggressive and tend to dive bomb poor Tess the dog as we are walking along the street, even though they leave her alone for the rest of the year. After about three weeks, two or three chicks usually hatch and this is a very dangerous time for the birds. Chicks are often lost to birds of prey, or stray cats or dogs, or cars on the road. I really feel sorry for the poor parents at this time of the year. Once the chicks have grown, they seem to go off and pair up with other birds in the area. They don't fly away and migrate. Masked Lapwings can be seen all over the island, as well as other parts of Australia.
Something else I find interesting about the lapwings is how in tune to their various squawking sounds that Tess the dog is. She can tell if someone is walking nearby, or if someone has a dog running loose on the housing estate by the sounds the lapwings are making. She uses the lapwings as an alarm system and will often jump up and begin to bark purely on the strength of the sounds the lapwings are making. Smart dog...
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I'm cheating a bit by including humpback whales here on this page , as I've never actually seen one myself. However, I just couldn't leave these beautiful giants of the sea off my list, as they regularly pass the island at certain times of the year, on their annual migration. Humpback whales are a large baleen whale, which means that to feed, they suck in tiny creatures such as krill and trap them over large plates in their mouth, before expelling the water. Adult humpbacks are around 15-18 metres long and weigh as much as 40 tonnes. They spend the southern summer in Antarctica feeding. Then when the weather begins to get colder, they travel past Phillip Island in late autumn and early winter, on their way north to warmer waters where they give birth, or calve. They do not eat during this time. At the end of winter they then swim back down the eastern Australian coast and back to Antarctica, to feed again. It's always a cause for great excitement when a whale is spotted off the coast of Phillip Island and articles appear in our local paper. The whales are seen most often on the seaward side of the island and sometimes they come close to the shore, resting and playing with their young. Occasionally (like last year) a whale will wander into the bay too, to have a look around and a bit of a rest in the calmer waters. Each year I look out to sea and hope to spot a passing whale when I am over on the seaward side of the island in the colder months but so far, I've had no luck. Because I live on the bay side of the island, I don't visit the seaward beaches every day. However, it's an ambition of mine to spot a whale out there, in the ocean.
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I've come to the end of this page, though there are many more animals living here on the island that I could talk about and I'll add them in from time to time. I do hope that in future years, people will still be able to come here and see as many animals as I do. Not just in parts of the island designated as nature park but all around, the way they can be seen now. However, I do worry that this may not be possible. In the past few years Phillip Island has become more and more popular with holidaymakers. The population swells in summer time from 7000 to around 50,000. That's a lot of extra people! When there are more people on the island in the summer season, the wildlife really suffers. Animals are hit by cars - especially masked lapwings who don't have any road sense. People leave
rubbish such as plastic bags and fishing line on the beaches and then sea creatures such as seals and sea birds swallow them, or become entangled in them. People run all over the sand dunes or let their dogs run, destroying the dunes and disturbing the nests of fragile sea birds that are under threat of extinction. Apart from this, there have even been suggestions of a 'regulated' seal cull each year, to reduce seal numbers at seal rocks because the seals eat a lot of fish and make it harder for fishermen to get a good catch. And I would also like to mention that Japan's moves to increase their annual cull of whales for 'scientific purposes' is downright unacceptable in this day and age.
On a positive note, it is my hope that in future years more will be done to help protect the animals of the island, such as the great idea of switching off the bridge lights I mentioned in the short tailed shearwater section. And the more people learn about the environment and animals - especially young people - the greater the chance that the wildlife will be protected. As I mentioned at the beginning of this page, nothing compares to seeing these beautiful creatures in the wild, living their lives freely and safely. Let's hope that our grandchildren are lucky enough to have the same opportunities to do this as we have today.
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home of the
shearwaters
Phillip
Island is also the summer home of more than one million very special
sea birds, called Short-tailed Shearwaters. Short-tailed Shearwaters
are largish seabirds with wingspans of around a metre (3 feet). Each
year they complete a huge migration of 16,000 kilometres. I'm not sure
what that is in miles but it's a heck of a long way! They spend summer
in the northern hemisphere, near Alaska around the Aleutian Islands.
Then, as the weather begins to turn colder, they head south. They
arrive here on Phillip Island in late September every year, which is
our springtime. They
nest on headlands and in sand dunes on the seaward
side of the island. The birds dig out burrows and lay their eggs in
them, taking turns to incubate (sit on and hatch) the eggs. Birds not
sitting on eggs spend all day fishing, returning to their burrows at
night. They fly in in a large group and are as spectacular a sight as
penguins walking up the beach, though they are not as well known an
attraction and the areas they nest in are not as easy to get to (no
convenient seating for a start!). All summer the shearwaters raise
their babies. Then as the weather begins to cool and the days
grow shorter, the parents fly away and begin their long migration back
up to islands near Alaska... leaving their babies behind. The
shearwater chicks are still covered in down and cannot fly but over the
next two or three weeks, an amazing transformation takes place. The
chicks do not eat, but their down is replaced by feathers. Then, once
they are fully feathered, they fly away and follow their parents north.
They have no help from adult birds to find their way, yet somehow they
have an internal world map that leads them to the right place. It is
one of nature's amazing feats. I was first introduced to Short-tailed shearwaters through their burrows. They nest on one part of the island where there is a six kilometre walking track around an area of nature reserve that includes the highest part of the island. It is a fabulous place to walk, though you need to be fit as some parts are steep and it takes about two hours to walk the track. During the nesting season, walkers stray from the track at their peril! The land on either side of the track is riddled with burrows and if you step off the track you could very easily break an ankle, as although the ground beneath your feet looks solid, it is hollow with burrows beneath. Fluffy grey chicks can be seen inside the burrows if you are lucky, so you wouldn't want to step into the burrows and hurt them anyway. To see the birds flying is also a beautiful sight. They are so graceful as they swoop about in the strong ocean winds.
Sadly, I also see lots of young shearwaters killed on the roads as they set off on their long journey north. The young birds are attracted to lights at night and become confused and disoriented, flying in front of cars. There are lots of lights on the Phillip Island bridge too and until this year, many young shearwaters were killed on the bridge. This year, however, a really great thing happened. A group of people who live in the town next to the bridge contacted the government after the first night of the young shearwater migration when a lot of birds were killed. They managed to organise to have all the lights on the bridge switched off (an unheard of event that could be considered dangerous under other circumstances, but desperate measures were called for). Because the lights were switched off the lives of dozens of young shearwaters were saved and they continued on their way to their northern home, 8000 kilometres away. So a happy ending! I'm sure that switching the bridge lights off will now be an annual event. Signs were put up at the approach to the bridge to explain what was going on, so it helps make more people aware of the amazing Short-tailed Shearwaters too.
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
Kangaroos are such a well-known Australian animal and sometimes I think their smaller cousins, the wallabies, are forgotten. Here on Phillip Island we have lots of small brown wallabies, called Swamp Wallabies. Swamp Wallabies are considered a pest by some on the island because at times we are told we have plagues of them that eat a lot of farmer's grassland and run on the roads, causing a hazard to cars. I must say that in all my time on the island, I've never seen the wallabies in huge numbers. They are around and can be seen grazing in fields in the evenings, but mostly they seem to me to be very shy.
We have a fire track running along the back of the housing estate where I live - a wide bushy track lined with eucalyptus trees. I often walk my dog along this track in the evening as it leads onto a road, and then to another fire track that runs alongside the beach. This is a favourite walk of mine and the dog enjoys it too. She loves the smell of the wallabies. We can always tell when they've been around as they leave an unmistakable smell behind from their droppings. I have read that they are sometimes called 'stink wallabies' and I can see why, but Tess the dog is not complaining about the smell. The entrance to the second fire track that runs alongside the beach is home to one particular shy wallaby. We regularly see him near a little creek that runs down onto the beach and out to sea. He freezes amongst the bush that lines either side of the track and blends in so well that you really have to be watching for him to spot him. But he is there and we see him most evenings when we pass this way. I also have to take great care if I walk the dog on the beach very early in the morning, as wallabies often come out of the bushland behind the beach and hop along the sand. I think they do this because it's a quick way to travel, out of the bush with no small trees to slow them down. They can really get up some speed when they are hopping fast. If Tess the dog sees wallabies on the beach in the morning, she goes crazy and tries to get to them. She also loves to track their smelly footprints, racing along the beach from headland to headland with her nose accurately jammed to the sand. It's hard to keep up with her at times. I don't think she knows what to make of the wallabies, as they are around her size but move so differently. Swamp wallabies really are beautiful little animals and if you can find a picture of them on the Internet, I'm sure you'll agree.
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
Many kinds of spiders make their home in Australia and some are poisonous to humans. Somehow, spiders have always bothered me a lot more than snakes but I still find the spiders we have in Australia fascinating and have a great respect for them. Until we moved to Phillip Island I had only seen a redback spider once, even though I lived for years in a very heavily treed area with lots of bush around. However, redback spiders are fairly common in Australia and they have a very dangerous bite. They are related to the notorious black widow spider from America, but they are smaller. The females are black with a distinctive red stripe on their back. Males are much smaller and the stripe is not so obvious. I have read that males are hardly ever seen and indeed, I've only seen females. Redback spiders like to live around houses, in dry sheltered areas. They are found in woodsheds, in piles of wood, in garages and under houses. Apparently, they can even hide in the bodywork of cars. I'm not saying they are everywhere but if you see one around, it usually means there will be more nearby.
Redback spiders have a small, strong web and they like to spend most of their time in it. They don't bother people unless people bother them. In fact, I can't ever remember hearing about someone dying from a redback bite and from what I have read, nobody has since antivenom became available, I think, in the 1970s. But believe me, they need to be treated with respect! And if someone is bitten, they need to get to a hospital quickly for treatment.
My first encounter with a redback was when I was crawling around underneath a rainwater tank I have in my garden that I use for watering the vegetables. My car's window sun shield had blown behind it and as I picked it up, a redback ran across it. I got the shock of my life and almost dropped the sun shield, but the spider jumped off it and disappeared, back behind the water tank. I hunted around looking for it and must admit I would have killed it if I could have found it, as where there is one female redback, there are sure to be egg sacks with babies in them. No luck, I'm afraid. Then sure enough, I was under our house getting something out and saw another one! Needless to say, I am extremely careful when in that area of the garden or crawling under the house now... Then I ran into another one at a local nursery the other week, when I turned over a big plant pot looking for a price. It had set up home right in the middle of the plant pot.
I have read that some spiders, like the common house spider, kill redbacks. So as you can imagine, if I see a house spider around I don't kill it. I practically welcome it with open arms!!!
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
We share the housing estate we live on with several different types of birds, but the noisiest and most obvious are some very funny birds called Masked Lapwings. These birds are also sometimes known as Spurred Plovers, but I think Masked Lapwings sounds nicer. These lapwings remind me of turkeys - I don't really know why but I think it's something about the way they walk, and they way they behave. They are about the size of a small chicken - a bantam chicken, perhaps. They have beautiful yellow markings on their faces and are gray and white and black. They also have very sharp spurs on the joints in their wings, which they can use to defend themselves. I've never seen them do this though. Masked Lapwings live in swampy places, places close to the sea and also open pasture. Here they like to live in the gardens of holiday homes that are closed for much of the year outside of the summer holiday season, or in parks, or on vacant blocks of land. They also spend a fair bit of time squatting on the beach, staring out to sea. They are extremely noisy birds and think nothing of flying about at night, making a loud 'kek-kek-kek' noise, or squawking. The lapwings have an interesting life. In the winter they spend their days socialising, gathering in large groups on vacant blocks of land near my house. Then they separate and pairs choose various areas around the estate as their territory, vigorously defending it against any intruders. A lot of squabbling goes on about land rights. I have read that the birds pair for life and they certainly stick closely together, once they have chosen their territory. Eggs are laid in spring, in a small nest scraped in the ground out in the open on their territory - not very safe! During this time the birds get pretty aggressive and tend to dive bomb poor Tess the dog as we are walking along the street, even though they leave her alone for the rest of the year. After about three weeks, two or three chicks usually hatch and this is a very dangerous time for the birds. Chicks are often lost to birds of prey, or stray cats or dogs, or cars on the road. I really feel sorry for the poor parents at this time of the year. Once the chicks have grown, they seem to go off and pair up with other birds in the area. They don't fly away and migrate. Masked Lapwings can be seen all over the island, as well as other parts of Australia.
Something else I find interesting about the lapwings is how in tune to their various squawking sounds that Tess the dog is. She can tell if someone is walking nearby, or if someone has a dog running loose on the housing estate by the sounds the lapwings are making. She uses the lapwings as an alarm system and will often jump up and begin to bark purely on the strength of the sounds the lapwings are making. Smart dog...
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
I'm cheating a bit by including humpback whales here on this page , as I've never actually seen one myself. However, I just couldn't leave these beautiful giants of the sea off my list, as they regularly pass the island at certain times of the year, on their annual migration. Humpback whales are a large baleen whale, which means that to feed, they suck in tiny creatures such as krill and trap them over large plates in their mouth, before expelling the water. Adult humpbacks are around 15-18 metres long and weigh as much as 40 tonnes. They spend the southern summer in Antarctica feeding. Then when the weather begins to get colder, they travel past Phillip Island in late autumn and early winter, on their way north to warmer waters where they give birth, or calve. They do not eat during this time. At the end of winter they then swim back down the eastern Australian coast and back to Antarctica, to feed again. It's always a cause for great excitement when a whale is spotted off the coast of Phillip Island and articles appear in our local paper. The whales are seen most often on the seaward side of the island and sometimes they come close to the shore, resting and playing with their young. Occasionally (like last year) a whale will wander into the bay too, to have a look around and a bit of a rest in the calmer waters. Each year I look out to sea and hope to spot a passing whale when I am over on the seaward side of the island in the colder months but so far, I've had no luck. Because I live on the bay side of the island, I don't visit the seaward beaches every day. However, it's an ambition of mine to spot a whale out there, in the ocean.
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
I've come to the end of this page, though there are many more animals living here on the island that I could talk about and I'll add them in from time to time. I do hope that in future years, people will still be able to come here and see as many animals as I do. Not just in parts of the island designated as nature park but all around, the way they can be seen now. However, I do worry that this may not be possible. In the past few years Phillip Island has become more and more popular with holidaymakers. The population swells in summer time from 7000 to around 50,000. That's a lot of extra people! When there are more people on the island in the summer season, the wildlife really suffers. Animals are hit by cars - especially masked lapwings who don't have any road sense. People leave
rubbish such as plastic bags and fishing line on the beaches and then sea creatures such as seals and sea birds swallow them, or become entangled in them. People run all over the sand dunes or let their dogs run, destroying the dunes and disturbing the nests of fragile sea birds that are under threat of extinction. Apart from this, there have even been suggestions of a 'regulated' seal cull each year, to reduce seal numbers at seal rocks because the seals eat a lot of fish and make it harder for fishermen to get a good catch. And I would also like to mention that Japan's moves to increase their annual cull of whales for 'scientific purposes' is downright unacceptable in this day and age.
On a positive note, it is my hope that in future years more will be done to help protect the animals of the island, such as the great idea of switching off the bridge lights I mentioned in the short tailed shearwater section. And the more people learn about the environment and animals - especially young people - the greater the chance that the wildlife will be protected. As I mentioned at the beginning of this page, nothing compares to seeing these beautiful creatures in the wild, living their lives freely and safely. Let's hope that our grandchildren are lucky enough to have the same opportunities to do this as we have today.
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
home . about heather . books . what's new . for kids . for grown-ups . contact . links