penguins, baboons, and ostriches, oh my!

Well, can't believe we really live here.  So Saturday was another mind-blowing day.  We took 269 images with the big camera just to give you an indication of all the eye candy South Africa offered up to us.  Amazing!

I'll have to make multiple postings in order to really do our day justice.  But let's start with the penguins.  There is a colony of African Penguins (aka Jackass Penguins, due to the braying sound they make) on Boulders Beach just south of Simon's Town on the eastern shore of the Cape Peninsula.  This is just a little further down the road then our previous foray in to Kalk Bay.

The colony only established itself in the 1980's once the fish stocks were able to recover somewhat from the vast overfishing that occurred up through the 1970's.  The penguins took over the beach but started making a nuisance of themselves by showing up in people's gardens.  So the South African National Parks System (or it's predecessor at the time) made Boulders Beach a national park. They put up "penguin fence" to contain the colony and allow people to view and experience the penguins without tramping over their nests or putting the penguins (or the people...) at physical risk.  There are boardwalks that wind through the thickets that border the beach and jut out over the sand to provide viewing points for the beach itself.  The penguins seem completely unfazed by all the human attention they receive and just go about their business as usual, which is fascinating to watch.

Some of our favorite penguins but first a warning:









It was quite common to see two penguins cuddled up together as they mate for life.  If they are nesting on their own they'll seek out the shelter of the dense thicket and bushes.  Otherwise they build nests in the sand and group together for security.

Their interactions could be quite hilarious.  In the photo of the the penguins in the sand nest, the one penguin that you can barely see because he's so far in the nest is actually digging the sand and flipping it up and out of the nest.  The sand was hitting the penguin on the far left of the photo full on in the face and you could just see him getting more and more irritated, until he finally moved out of the line of fire.


That security thing is key as Tim spotted this mongoose in the grass not far from the above nests.  The mongoose is pretty well camouflaged but you should be able to see his tail in the center of the photo.  For whatever reason, he didn't make a move on the penguins while we were watching.


More shots of life on the beach, penguin-style.  In the first you can see some penguins are molting. This is a 5-6 week long process that they do entirely on land, meaning they don't eat during that time.  The brown penguins are under 2 years of age and haven't had their first molt yet.  You can see the boulders that give the beach it's name and provide some shelter and security for the penguins.




We leave you with a few parting shots.  First of the Boo showing off his "penguin egg." You put the penguin egg in water and after a while it hatches a baby penguin, leave the baby penguin in the water and it continues to grow.  This process fascinated the Boo for the rest of the weekend!

The Boo got a huge kick out of the boardwalks through the thickets that brought us up close and personal to the penguins.  He loved spotting the penguins in the bushes and even found one right under the steps of the boardwalk that we would have completely missed.  He had less patience for the hanging out over the beach and watching the colony as a whole.  But the whole day made a big impression.  He kept asking to go back to the "Wild."






Watch for our next post for babboons and ostriches and 360 degree views.