When we visited Australia we toured a this place on Phillips Island that is a penguin preserve for the little penguins called the PhillipIsland Penguin Parade. It is part of a group of natural history museums on the Island.
At the Penguin Parade there is a visitor center, the nesting grounds for the colony of little penguins and a big cement viewing stand that sits on the beach. The stand must hold close to five hundred people.
You get there at dusk and watch the penguins come home from a day out in the ocean. Even though this colony are protected for last several generations instinct still kicks in. It starts with one penguin coming on the beach to see if any predators there. He checks things out and goes back into the ocean. Then a little later a couple more repeat the action until there are at least a couple of dozen checking things out. Finally there is one penguin that makes a run for it and goes across the beach to his nest back to his family. That somehow starts the mass of penguins coming out of the ocean, racing across the beach and going to their nest. The whole process takes an hour and half or so.
Getting to the view stand you walk an a series of boardwalk over the nesting ground. While walking over to the stand you start to hear all there noises but you can see nothing. It was the babies waking up and wanting their parents to come home to feed them. The nests are all buried in the rocky area so you really have no idea that there is a large colony of penguins just under foot.
The visitor center give information on the little penguins and how their habitat are disappearing around the world. It is also a care facility for the penguins. In the lower floor of the building is a room that has a series windows. Each window is a one way mirror into a nest. After watching the penguins come home for the evening you can go and watch the parents interacting with their young in the nest.
It was a great experience and one that someday I would like to do again.
