King Penguin in South Australia (1 Viewer)

SteveClark

Well-known member

• Feb 24, 2004

• #1

G'day all

A King Penguin was found moulting on a beach at Port MacDonnell in se South Australia recently and I saw it today. A magnificent bird - either just starting or nearly finished its moult. King Penguins are rarely seen on the Australian mainland - only a handful of records. The nearest breeding site is Maquarie Island half way to Antarctica.

Hopefully it will survive its visit and head for its normal haunts soon - but not before a few more twitchers have seen it.

I took a few photos and if any are worth posting I'll do so soon.

Cheers

Steve Clark
Hamilton, Victoria, Australia
http://members.datafast.net.au/clarkja/sw_birds.htm

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Feb 24, 2004

• #2

What a superb sight that must have been Steve. I suppose you've seen plenty of Little Penguins in Victoria but King Penguin must have been most unexpected. I thought it would be more likely to turn up in winter anyway, not the middle of summer (?) Look forward to seeing some photos.

E

 

steve_nova

Well-known member

• Feb 24, 2004

• #3

What a great sight, can't wait for the pics!

 

SteveClark

Well-known member

• Feb 24, 2004

• #4

G'day all

Here are four photos of the penguin:

http://members.datafast.net.au/clarkja/photos/kingpenguin1.jpg
http://members.datafast.net.au/clarkja/photos/kingpenguin2.jpg
http://members.datafast.net.au/clarkja/photos/kingpenguin3.jpg
http://members.datafast.net.au/clarkja/photos/kingpenguin4.jpg

Not great shots but a great bird.

Cheers

Steve

 

Andrew Whitehouse

Professor of Listening

Supporter

• Feb 24, 2004

• #5

Excellent stuff Steve. I'm not much of a one for twitching but twitching a penguin - how cool is that.

 

steve_nova

Well-known member

• Feb 24, 2004

• #6

Poor thing looks lost and alone. Great sight though.

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Feb 25, 2004

• #7

Looks like it has an injury on top of its head - or is that just the moult?

Also looks a bit hot!

Michael

 

SteveClark

Well-known member

• Feb 25, 2004

• #8

The bird had moulted lots of its head feathers so looked a bit scruffy. Not as bad as some other moulting penguins I've seen. They can be very hard to identify when they are in the middle of the process. I don't know if the bird was hot - air temp would have been about 20 Celcius. We watched it go for a brief swim at one point.

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Feb 25, 2004

• #9

Did you call to Adelaide zoo to see if they had any birds missing? ;-)

E

 

N

Nancy

Well-known member

• Feb 25, 2004

• #10

Great find, Steve. Unfortunately I'm heading in the opposite direction this weekend. I haven't been on a twich for ages, have almost forgotten what it feels like.

 

pduxon

Quacked up Member

• Feb 25, 2004

• #11

Nice find. I wonder what the chances of a penguin appearing on the Briitsh list are?

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Feb 25, 2004

• #12

pduxon said:

Nice find. I wonder what the chances of a penguin appearing on the Briitsh list are?

Click to expand...

You'd be surprised how many people think Puffins are penguins, Pete, and lots of tourists leave Iceland every year thinking that they've seen penguins.

The general word for penguin in Icelandic (mörgæs) is almost identical to the one for Brent Goose (margæs) and once a birding friend of mine organised an evening excursion to show the hoi polloi the local Brent Geese (which are common passage migrants in the area in April and September). Afterwards several people were bitterly disappointed to find out that they had gone to see geese not penguins!

But to answer your original question, Pete, very little but a lot more likely than say, any kiwi sp. or Kagu!

E