M.I.A.

We went in this morning to check the i-gotU logger’s nest but just like last night only found her mate and chick in the burrow. A quick look at the time lapse camera revealed that she had not returned during the night either. Where is she?

After spending most of the day cleaning the house and our gear in Neil’s Beach, we returned to the Head around 5pm and found comfortable spots behind some rocks on the shore just below our bird’s colony. The first penguins started to come in around 6pm. They all took their time preening and getting their plumage in order before heading up into the bush, forcing us to stay in hiding with as little movement as possible so as to not scare the birds back into the water.

As entertaining as it was to watch the penguins during their preening routines, the sandflies did their bit to make us wish tha the sun would finally set.

Quite a good number of penguins arrived long after darkness. Through the night vision scope I peered at each bird until I could confirm that none had an extra-backpack on board. Numbers of penguins dropped off after 8pm and by 9m it did not seem as if any other birds would show up tonight.

Unfortunately, that also applies to our logger bird. Again.

We headed out around 10.30pm. We’ll try again tomorrow then.