It must be them!

Mikala Peters
Photographing the shearwaters returning

Shearwaters Return Exhibition

October 2013

Photographs taken by M. Peters. 2012.

"One year ago exactly to the day, 

I witnessed the homecoming of 

hundreds of shearwaters back to 

Cape Woolamai for the first time. 

I wrote in my diary how we spotted a couple of small dark birds swoop closer and closer, 

"it must be them!" we cried out. 

Following that day we watched the homecoming from the dunes many times, feeling their anticipation for darkness, spotting the first one to cross from sea to land, listening to the faint whoosh of their gliding flight, then the crash-land into the bushes. Our minds filled with awe for their long journey, their mysterious life, so near yet so foreign, they remain elusive in the fading light. 

I tried photographing them, 
and the blurry results actually represent them perfectly, 
we just get glimpses, 
our imaginations left to fill in the details. 

A year on, and I am excited to welcome them home again, a complete year, eggs have been laid, midnight squabbles had, chicks hatched, food gorged, journeys began and journeys ended, did last year's chicks make it back? 

Thank you shearwaters, for sharing Cape Woolamai with us."

- Mikala Peters, October 1st 2013