the African Penguin a link to some information on the African Penguin, which I believe only occurs along the south of the country.


These images were taken at Boulders beach near Simons Town, where there are a colony of African penguins breeding, and have been for years.

A view of the rocks away from the beach where most of them seem to nest, with only the odd one it seemed to venture over to the bathers beach

I also have a short video taken at the same time, which I hope to post soon

Hi Dawn, Yep arn't the penguins great ,I have seen a doco on these little guys if I remember rightly they were living in town as well is that right or is that somewhere else? :?:

These are wonderful images, Dawn. Love them. Penguins are great little critters, aren't they??? You did an excellent job to get such terrific images. Doubt they would be the easiest subject. The link you provided was very informative too. It sounds as though they might have to do a bit of a cull of the Cape seals to give the penguins more of a fighting chance of survival.

When I lived by a beach, near Wellington NZ, there were some little blue penguins which would come ashore at night & rest in flax bushes, etc. Boy, did they make a noise. Just like the African penguin, they sounded like donkeys braying. Eeeeorrr, eeorrr, over & over but we never saw them. If a light went on they would stop making a noise & remain still so you couldn't see them. They were gone by daylight. There was quite a climb for these little birds just to get to our (& other's) yard & seemed to be seasonal, too. \

Thanks for sharing these beautiful pics with us. We live too far north to have any penguins on our beaches or dunes, unfortunately.

bruiser wrote:Hi Dawn, Yep arn't the penguins great ,I have seen a doco on these little guys if I remember rightly they were living in town as well is that right or is that somewhere else? :?:

I never saw that documentary Bruiser but sounds like it really could be Simons Town.

Check out this link.

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Thanks Joy, they were very inert while I was taking the photos surprisingly enough. I think they were quite hot as the temps were high that day. But once they moved off they went quite fast.
We had an opportunity in the 80's of hand feeding the oil slicked penguins at Sancob as volunteers, (a rehab and sanctuary for Penguins here in Table view). We had severely cut hands doing this job before we finally got the hang of how to do it, their beaks are very sharp. So I tried not to get too near with the memories of that.

Their 'main' threat is the lack of good quality food, they eat sardines and anchovies, The authorities are now controlling the penguin waters with no-fishing policies in and around the nesting area's to help them, as they cannot swim more than 20km looking for food whilst they are nesting apparently. But yes the seals are a threat to them as well.

I just googled Blue Penguins arn't they cute . So nice looking, never heard of the Blue Penguins before now.

Controlling fishing in their feeding areas would be a wonderful help for them during breeding times, wouldn't it?? Sooooooo, you have been close up & personal with penguins, eh, Dawn. Your poor hands. No wonder people working with them wear thick gloves. Did see that cleaning oil covered penguins worked for the African penguins whereas other types of penguins, elsewhere, it wasn't as successful. Your penguins must be tough little critters.

Just Googled blue penguins & did see that they are the same as the Australian Fairy penguins, as I thought. We did used to call them little penguins, if I remember, as they are really small, but very feisty, as are all penguins.

In those days when Sancob was just in its infancy I seem to remember their gloves were difficult to use in feeding the Penguins. Or they were the wrong type of gloves. (I think they must have better designed gloves now) probably both, can't remember exactly I just remember if you wanted to get the fish down its throat ( as it was like force feeding geese in a way) it was so much easier to do it without the gloves.
I might add that I was not as dedicated to this volunteer work as DH and my sister were . I opted out after only a few sessions I am a baby with hand and finger wounds. They persevered though. I followed DH and L after that only as my children wanted to be down there at feeding time. It was a good experience at the time and they were desperate for volunteers. They are far more funded and organised in these recent years, and I don't think just anyone can come along and do it now. We fed some gannets and cormorants too who had been treated for oil slick damage.

It would still have been an interesting experience, Dawn. Think I, too, would have opted out if it got too painful. Cuts on hands & fingers can take a while to heal & hurt so much. :cry: