Kelp Gulls & Little Penguins, The Nobbies, Phillip Island

While Australia's endemic Pacific gull is the most common large gull seen around Southern Victoria I read that the Kelp gull Larus dominicanus has been moving in on its territory since the 1940s. Kelp gulls breed on many Southern Hemisphere coasts. In Australia they compete with Pacific gull as they share similar habitat, diet and behaviours (including dropping molluscs from a height to smash them).

It was a long time before I started to recognise that not all the large gulls I was seeing were Pacific gulls. I have since become aware that a particular rock stack at The Nobbies on Phillip Island is a popular site for Kelp gull which actually breed there.

Here are some shots taken on a recent dull Saturday.

Kelp gull, The Nobbies, Phillip Island

Kelp Gull, Legs and bill colour much more insipid than Pacific Gull

I wonder who is studying these guys?

Phillip Island is well-known locally for its Little penguin colony. Man-made nesting boxes seem popular at The Nobbies (both for the penguins and interested humans who watch from boardwalks). I think this must be a moulting phase for many penguins as the kids counted some 32 penguins on our visit.

Little penguin, The Nobbies, Phillip Island

"The Nobbies". On the horizon at far left is Seal Rocks …. 

…home to a colony of Australian Fur seals (you can just make the seals out in the above photo)

A Cape Barren Goose begrudgingly left the road as we drove back (iPhone shot from the car window)

Bird on!

The Nobbies

These few pictures from last weekend capture the breadth of bird-watching experiences available at the Nobbies, Phillip Island.

Firstly the headland's viewing platforms provide some good vantage points for observing birds in flight up at their level and at close range .... perhaps a little too close!

Immature Pacific gull (Larus pacificus)

Then if you have some decent optics you might be able to hazard an educated guess as to what some distant seabirds might be. People see albatross and the like I believe (obviously not in this photo).

Small dark seabirds 500m from shore (as always - click to enlarge). I really have no idea. The island is however Short-tailed shearwater territory at the right time of year. This photo at 3pm, 25 March 2012 (don't they only come close to shore at dusk?)

But while I had my eyes & camera focussed on passing gulls and distant specks normal people engage in the most popular form of bird-watcing at the Nobbies:

Fairy penguin spotting at The Nobbies, 25th March 2012
Little penguin (Eudyptula minor)

The remaining images are from previous years

The Nobbies looking east (C 2004)

There have been several massive breeding seasons of Silver gull in recent years and there has been Crested tern colonies as well.

Silver gull & chicks (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

"Son, I'm watching you. Put that cigarette down!" (below) ...

Crested tern (Thalasseus bergii), The Nobbies, 3/1/2011

Crested tern colony, The Nobbies, 3/1/2011