Posts tagged penguins
March of the Penguins
In fifth grade, I wanted to be a marine biologist more than anything in the whole world. In sixth grade, I wanted to be a singer like Britney Spears, so it’s funny how goals evolve.
However, our time in the Tasmanian wilderness took me back to those fifth grade days of old, and I became enamored with sea life yet again.
After a long day of sight-seeing, our tour group returned to our cabin (think along the lines of a rustic Tasmanian real world house) and cooked a family dinner of spaghetti bolognese and chocolate cake. Our Crocodile Dundee Jr. tour guide, Greg, told us to “eat like your life depends on it because we have a parade to see.”
A Penguin Parade that is.
This is the moment I had been waiting for all day. I put on every ounce of warm clothing I could find to ward off the winter chill and was ready to go.
On our walk to the beach, Greg points out that we know that we are getting close to the right area because of the white stuff on the ground.
“What’s the white stuff?” we ask.
“Penguin poo,” he says with a hearty Aussie chuckle.
Great. So we settle down into our ocean view seats on the rocks and wait. And stare at the waves crashing. And wait. And it’s getting darker. And colder. And we wait.
And finally, I see a tiny black and white speck emerge from the white sea spray. It floats in and out with the surf, but eventually it appears on the sand. It’s a penguin! I am amazed at what these waves just birthed. Nature’s magic trick you could say. Then, I look to my left and 6 more little birds are huddled together, trying to decide if they should stay in the water or waddle to their nests.
“Please waddle, please waddle,” I whisper to myself.
They waddle and frolic over to the other solo penguin and get together to have their penguin pow-wow. To the nests they must go they decide, and we watch these precious birds in their tuxedo attire parade past us and into their holes.
Later that night I contemplated a second degree in marine science.