Christmas Night at Lillico

Christmas Day has come and gone here in Australia. My husband and I spent it with my Mum and we had a lovely roast lunch and salad for tea which is what we call our evening meal. The weather was warm and mild which is a bit different from the rain we are having now. We have needed the rain desperately as the land is parched.

As the weather had been balmy all day I suspected the penguins may have been out of their burrows early so we went down to  Lillico even thought Friday is not our regular guiding night. We were not disappointed and to make things even more impressive we had the first full moon on a Christmas day for 38 years. Just before sunset the sun turned red as there was smoke in the atmosphere. I have lots of photos and a couple of videos to show you.

Sunset over Lillico Christmas Day 2015

The moon was breathtaking over the water

Full Moon over Lillico Christmas Day 2015

This chick had his head out of his burrow last week when the days were very warm. He was doing the same again and last night he came out in the daylight, a true delight. He is not yet fully feathered with a large amount of down still on him however, the characteristic blue tinge of his adult feathers starting to become evident.

Penguin chick

Penguin chick

 Think he has had too much Christmas dinner

Penguin chick -too much Christmas dinner

I took the little videos on my camera. I have a lot to learn about video editing skills.

A parent brings its single baby out of the burrow.It is a whopper, nearly larger than its parent and all feet. The chick is probably only about 6 weeks old but because it is a single has been receiving all the food. 

The parent had been peeking out of its burrow earlier and you can see the shadows and red hues of the sunset on the walls of the burrow.

Penguin in burrow

There were also a couple of other penguins peeking out and about early