Phillip Island's fairy penguins

They are as regular as clockwork.

Every night just after sunset, the fairy penguins appear from the cold waters of Bass Strait and waddle up the beach like drunken sailors from a nightspot.

And every morning, at least an hour before the sun considers rising, they are back in the ocean.

It has been like that for many years on Phillip Island, a beautiful part of the world 135km southeast of Melbourne.

they are the lifeblood of the island's economy. Other tourist attractions, restaurants, hotels and everything else, exist because of the public pulling power of the penguins.

The penguins are the No.1 wildlife attraction in Australia. Japanese visitors find them magnetic, and it's easy to see why.

They emerge on Summerland Beach on the Summerland Peninsula like soldiers in little platoons.

They yap, preen and peer, and when all are assembled, they again look like soldiers as, with eyes to the front and wings slightly raised, they advance up the sand and somehow find their home – a burrow full of hungry chicks.

Source: Daily Telegraph