A visit to Phillip Island

Yesterday my family and I all went to Phillip Island, to spend the day at a holiday home some friends of ours owned. I managed to fit some birding into the trip.
When we got to the holiday home, I saw a common blackbird on top of a fence. I told my mother and father where I would like to go. We had a bit of a talk about it and decided that we would all go to the Nobbies Visitor Centre.
For those of you who don't know Phillip Island, the Nobbies are a series of rocky islands and cliffs about 1.5 kilometres away from the Seal Rocks (home to a colony of Australian fur seals). Underneath these cliffs are some rocks where terns and gulls nest along with the occasional black-faced cormorant and sooty oystercatcher. In bad weather the Nobbies can be a good place to watch for sea-going birds. Shy albatrosses, black-browed albatrosses, short-tailed shearwaters and Australian gannets are the most common seabirds.
When we got to the Nobbies the weather was fine (generally a bad sign). We decided we would try our luck anyway. We looked around a bit and saw some silver gulls. Then we walked to the cliff. There is a boardwalk that goes down the cliff. At the top of the cliff, there are two telescopes that provide views of the rocks. Right under the boardwalk, I managed to spot a little penguin.

The penguin

After spotting the penguin, I looked around again. Underneath us were some rocks, and on these rocks were thousands of crested terns, along with a few silver gulls. 

 We walked further along the boardwalk, getting better looks at the birds on the rocks. Eventually, we came to the end of the boardwalk. I spotted several kelp gulls, including two brown juvenile birds, as well as a sooty oystercatcher. I carefully scanned the ocean, but I couldn't see anything.

A kelp gull

We walked back to a spot where the boardwalk split into two boardwalks. My father, my friend Dylan and I went along here and spotted 8 black-faced cormorants with some crested terns.

After eating some barbecued sausages and garlic bread for lunch, we drove down to the Cowes Jetty for a seal-watching cruise. We passed the Nobbies and saw all the birds mentioned before, including one great cormorant. In the stretch of water between Seal Rocks and the Nobbies, I saw some medium-sized, black birds flying around the waves. Short-tailed shearwaters were flying around the boat. Eventually, we got to the Seal Rocks. There were fur seals everywhere- lying on the ground, swimming in the water. We saw crested terns, silver gulls, black-faced cormorants and kelp gulls on the island as well- apparently kelp gulls breed on the rocks. 

Lots and lots of seals

A crested tern with a fish in its mouth

A seal swimming near the boat

A male and female seal

Soon, we had to head back to the holiday home. We quickly got ready and went to a beach nearby. There were huge, red rocks on the beach which I quickly climbed. I didn't see many birds- just 1 silver gull. We got back, got out of our bathers, got in our pyjamas and drove home, happy and satisfied with the great day we had.