Category King skink

Penguin Island Day Trip

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I took some time off during my son’s first lot of school holidays as he has just started kindy this year.  He has been saying for ages that one of his favourite animals was the penguin – so we planned to take him down to Penguin Is.  Only 45 mins south of Perth is Penguin Is – just south of Rockingham.

Accessible by a quick 5 min ferry from Rockingham Wild Encounters the island is part of Shoalwater Marine Park and home to 1200 Little penguins (Eudyptula minor).  DBCA have a discovery centre on the island where you can see captive rescue penguins.  They really reinforce to use the boat – as there have been deaths with people using the sandbar to access the island.

Liam and I made the quick ferry ride across and were pleased to see a sea-lion frolicking in the bay not far from the boat.  There is a colony of sea-lions on another island in the marine park.

Liam on boat with Penguin Is in background.

We headed into the discovery centre to get some really good looks at penguins – Liam really enjoyed it and was attentive for the ranger talk as well.

One of the penguins is named Kevin and he is quite a show pony penguin.

We then headed to walk around the island to look for wild penguins in amongst the boardwalks.  Penguins are out at sea feeding for most of the daylight hours – so you don’t actually see many penguins on the island!  We heard there were a couple of male sea-lions that were nursing shark wounds and had been seen on the beach – so we went looking!  None there that day.

We went to the western side of the island which was much rougher and Liam had a great time in the waves – despite me telling him I forgot to pack in a towel 🙂

We then walked up to one of the lookouts finding this fat King skink (Egernia kingii) – we wondered if it might be pregnant?  They are live bearers.

King skink @ Penguin Is

Lots of steps!

At the lookout we were harassed by seagulls who had nested right next to the boardwalk – Liam marvelled at the colours of the eggs.

Silver gull eggs @ Penguin Is

Silver gull eggs @ Penguin Is
Silver gull eggs @ Penguin Is

We then headed back to the beach looking for penguins but none were found.  I was glad we had spent the time in the discovery centre.

We then headed back into the discovery centre just to see the penguins once more before heading back to the mainland for lunch.

A great day – well worth a family trip.  Bring towels though – kids are highly likely to get wet!

Busselton holiday – tales of herps, underwater & possums..

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Last weekend we enjoyed an extra long weekend at a holiday house in Busselton with my wife, 2 kids and my mom-in-law.

It started well from a wildlife point of view, as I parked outside our house to collect the keys I saw a new species of skink – southwest cool skink.

Southwest cool skink @ Busselton
Southwest cool skink @ Busselton

Later that afternoon we discovered we had a resident King skink pair that slept behind a plant pot just on our front porch and spent the late afternoon sunning itself there – not sure where they spent the rest of the day but we did see one in the back garden.  They were very camera shy and the kids also wanting to see didn’t help me!

King’s skink @ Busselton
Sienna trying to see it!

We also had quite a few bobtails out and about – we had a pair being friendly in the garden just next to the carport.

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I see you and I need some privacy!

That night we took advantage of my mom-in-law babysitting our baby and my wife, Liam and I went to the possum trail I have blogged about before – see blog for directions.  We kitted up with headtorches, cameras and mozzie repellent.

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Ready to go!

We didn’t see possums straight away – our first sighting was this spider and pair of tawny frogmouth.

Tawny frogmouth pair

Liam was having a great time looking for critters in all places like this hollow log.  He did say he saw bears!

We then saw our first Western ringtail possums – all up about 15 that night.

Western ringtail possum @ Busselton
Western ringtail possum @ Busselton
Western ringtail possum @ Busselton

…..then followed by some roos.

And some brushtail possums – they look quite different from the ringtails – especially the ears.

Common brushtail possum @ Busselton
Common brushtail possum @ Busselton

The last possum sighting of the night was this cute mum & bub which completed our night out very nicely.

Western ringtail possum @ Busselton

On one of the days we took the train out to the end of the Busselton Jetty – one of the longest wooden jetties in the southern hemisphere – over a mile!  At the end of the jetty they have built an observatory in approx 8m of water.  I have dived the jetty before in the past but was keen to show the family.

Liam enjoying the marine life
Mel & Sienna having a great time.

We had a lovely time seeing heaps of marine life – Liam proudly pointing out a dead crab which he said was asleep on its back!  We all really enjoyed the observatory – while not a cheap thing to do – it was good to experience while on holiday and you are supporting the upkeep of the jetty.

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We had a lovely relaxing holiday – I got to see plenty of wildlife and better yet show my kids!