Off to visit a lost penguin

This was one of those mixed blessing kind of situations.

On Monday, a juvenile emperor penguin was found far from home (it came from Antarctica, and had travelled about 4000kms) on one of our local beaches. Initially it was reported that the penguin was healthy and seemed to be doing well.

On Thursday evening he was still there, so we decided to take the kids for an early morning visit before school on the Friday. We woke the kids up while it was still dark (6.45 - not that early really lol), didn't tell them what kind of adventure we were going on, but to be dressed and ready to leave in 20mins. We made lunches for school bags, had toast and tea ready for consuming in the car on the way there, and were off. It's only a 20min drive up the coast to where the penguin was, so we had loads of time before we needed to be back for school, and to drop Simon at work.

Upon arriving, the light was still low, but there were plenty of other people with the same idea as us! Off we went for a short wander to find it (how convenient it decided to come in right near the beach access).

When we got there the penguin was sleeping and it wasn't looking too hopeful that we would get to see him stand up.

But, after about 10mins he stood up, had a shake and started stretching his neck and mouth. He looked a bit uncomfortable and like he had something stuck in his throat.

We got some neat photos (there was a makeshift barrier set up by this stage to give it a bit of space from people), then about 3-4mins later he lay back down again. We headed off to drop the kids to school.


Due to the low-light, and not wanting to use my flash, my photos weren't the best. However, I took a short video and was able to capture a shot from it as it came out much clearer.

 

As the day went on, I saw news reports that the penguin had declined in health from the previous days, and the zoo were brought in and took him away. I guess, being out of its natural habitat, and it not being that cold here, he couldn't really survive for long in the situation that he was (and had been eating sand and sticks). The latest report was that he has had some of the sand pumped from his stomach and will be going for surgery today). Hopefully the poor fella survives!

 Who can resist a bit of a play at the beach - even if it is 8am on a chilly winter's day!