A roadsign with penguins on is not your everyday roadsign. Oamaru, though, is not your everyday place, it is home to the world's smallest penguins; the blue penguins. While staying in the town I went to the colony which is looked after by scientists to help protect these rare birds.
My visit kicked into life just after sunset (About 8:30pm) when I heard some squaking on the water from my viewing seat. Within a few minutes these penguins, which don't get much taller than a 30cm ruler, had negotiated the waiting seals and waddled up the rocky beach face on their way home after a long day catching fish at sea.
In the first gang, 32 tiny blue penguins emerged together and made a run for their holes through the fence that protects their colony from predators. These are possibly the cutest animals I've ever seen and every so often one would fall over onto it's belly before getting itself back up and running that extra bit quicker to catch up with the group. Once through the fence they all split up and head slowly towards their nest boxes to share their catch with their chicks.
Blue penguins pair for life and when those parents in the nest boxes know penguins are coming back they call out to their partners to direct them home. It didn't take long before the colony was alive with penguin calls. In total nearly one hundred penguins were at the colony that night and it was great to see such rare birds in the wild being cared for by conservationists.
Did You Know?: A blue penguin chick only takes two months to fully grow and will have around 10,000 feathers when it heads into the water!
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