I Spent 4 Nights on a Remote Island With 6 Friends and 240 Penguins

We Are Explorers acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the Country on which this adventure takes place who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants, for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

Let’s Start at the Beginning

Each year in September, NSW plays host to the Great Big Little Penguin Count. Dedicated seabird researchers and volunteers head out to coastal islands to sit quietly on the beach at dusk and count Little penguins as they come in to land.

Luckily for me, my boss is a certified bird nerd who runs an outdoor adventure company, so naturally he’s the go-to guy for helping the bird researchers with their logistics. And as a fellow bird nerd, you best believe when the call out for volunteers reached my ears I couldn’t sign up fast enough.

Read more: How to Tell if You’re a Bird Nerd

Dats me! | Photo by Michael Lawrence-Taylor

As the end of September rolled around, my boss Josh, Nicholas the seabird researcher, four other volunteers, and I, found ourselves on a barge loaded with camp gear, food, and monitoring equipment, heading to the Tollgate Islands for four nights and five days of penguin counting.

The Tollgate Islands sit offshore from Batemans Bay and are highly protected for their value as seabird breeding habitat. The islands themselves are both a ‘no landing zone’ and a national park, and the surrounding waters are a sanctuary zone within the Batemans Marine Park.

In short, they’re really special and very few people are lucky enough to set foot on them, let alone camp there overnight.

Let The Research Begin

We arrived at the first island around mid-morning. After unloading, the first step was to set up our communal kitchen, ensuring we didn’t erect anything that would get in the way of penguins making their way home that night. Tents went up, swims were had, and we explored the shores around our campsite. 

Lots of pitching in to help, exploring together, and bonding over our mutual penguin excitement. 

As the sun sank lower, we started to gear ourselves up for the night’s penguin count, AKA the real reason we were there. We selected our designated sections of beach, made an early dinner, and were briefed by Nicholas about the data collection methodology and ground rules for the count.

Chiefly, not making noise or moving, and using as minimal red light as possible so as not to spook the penguins.

Armed with a red-light head torch, a waterproof notepad and pencil, a connection to the group chat named ‘Tollgate Penguin Nerds’ and a handful of Minties, we set off to our spots to watch the sunset and settle in for the count. 

Mich and I had braved the high tide in wetsuits (and got very wet in the process) to reach a secluded beach as our designated spot before rugging up in multiple jackets, beanies, and towels to watch the sun go down.  

This is what volunteering to count tiny penguins looks like!

As dusk settled in, so did the nervous excitement. The sunset glowed over Batemans Bay and White-faced storm petrels swooped and zoomed overhead, occasionally pooing on us (so lucky). 

A brief sweep of my torch showed that, yes there were in fact five Little penguins peering around a rock at the far end of the beach! Holding my breath, I sat as still as possible and watched as they waddled past me and up the cliff behind.

One came close enough to investigate my presence by pecking my shoe!

At around 8pm when all the penguins were safely tucked away in burrows, we reconvened to debrief on numbers and our various stories of curious penguin interactions. It’s hard to go to sleep after that, partly because you’re so hyped, and partly because penguins make an absolute racket at night!

At this point you’re probably wondering why we’re bothering to count penguins in the first place.

Why were we counting Little Penguins?

Well, Little penguins (also known as Fairy penguins) used to be found all along the NSW coastline, but human impact, habitat destruction, and feral animals have mostly driven them from the mainland.

Now the majority of penguin populations nest and breed on offshore islands because they’re a safe haven, away from people and predators.

What’s so important about Little penguins is that they’re a key indicator species.

Monitoring them each year – in key spots within their breeding range along the NSW coast – is the best way to keep a finger on the pulse of the health of the coastline.

It’s critical that the count happens at this time of year specifically – almost down to the day.

When a pair of penguins is looking after eggs or young chicks, they alternate feeding days. One parent leaves before sunrise to spend the whole day in the ocean catching fish, and returns precisely at dusk. It then swaps with its mate who heads out for the day and returns the following night.

That means monitoring for two nights should give an accurate count of the population at that site.

When we weren’t monitoring penguins we were wandering the island up huge cliffs and through tunnels, swimming and snorkelling in the incredible marine park, making cheese boards out of driftwood, doing sunrise yoga sessions, reading, napping, chatting, and birdwatching.

Read more: Why Birdwatching Will Improve Your Next Adventure & How To Get Started

After two days on the first island, we transported our gear to the second island by boat and conducted some daytime nest monitoring and tagging.

Nicholas, the researcher, has worked with shorebirds his whole life and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that passionate about anything.

We were all captivated by his wealth of knowledge about penguins and seabirds in general, and very impressed with his ability to become an impromptu cliff-scaling mountain goat as soon as there was a bird to be monitored or data to be collected.

There were more than a few pinch-myself moments

It’s like when you go on a multi-day hike and you feel that unique, indescribable, and exhilarating feeling of being somewhere that not many other people get to visit. Only, those feelings were heightened by the presence of the most adorable creatures you’ve ever seen and the knowledge that the data we were helping collect would inform scientific research and environmental conservation for generations.

On our last night, we shared three things we were grateful for and Nicholas shed an emotional tear as he told us he was grateful that other people cared. It hit home for me in a way I hadn’t thought about – this man has devoted his life’s work to protecting shorebirds.

After all, it was a no-brainer for me to be insanely excited about visiting a remote island and volunteering to count little penguins. But it never occurred to me that it might mean so much to someone else that I even cared at all.

For ourselves (body and mind), for people like Nicholas who are so grateful and happy to share all they know, and for the planet itself.

I have no clue when or if I’ll be able to go back to the Tollgate Islands and watch the sunset over Batemans Bay again. Likely never. But I’ll keep the memory of those four days close to my heart as a reminder of why we should all keep volunteering our time, skills, money, and hands to help protect the places we love.

Volunteering is a Simple Way to Help Our Planet

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