Featherdale Wildlife Park

My week from Hell began with a phone call Sunday night. But some background first: my office manager (Angela) is away on her month's holiday until the end of the first week in October. We are also preparing for a Parish Fete (Festival) on October 15, our first in four years, to raise money for the renivations of our church. Unfortunately the timing of Angela's vacation is terrible as she is spearheading much of the Fete planning. Before she left we had a meeting, she, myself and Catherine, her office assistant and the parish book keeper. Angela basically said, "No worries Father, Catherine knows everything I know and she'll be here to walk you through what needs to get done while I'm away." Well…you guessed it: Cathy called Sunday night. Sick int he hospital with a minor, but painful ailment. And would not be in to work for the next few days. (By the way, she's still not come in and it's a week from her call!)

And then the copier went down. And then the phone system died. And that is connected to the Internet in the office! And I knew nothing of what to do or whom to call. And becuase the Internet and copier were down, I couldn't access the bulletins or produce one. I had to do an old cut and paste over last weekend's bulletin! I felt like a student again! Need less to say, it's been stressful and not fun.

This week, we have a gathering of the Australian friars in our home. Some have already arrived and it's been nice seeing brothers from far away. One in particular, a student friar named Thomas is from the States too. He's studying in a Melbourne Theological School in preparation for ordination to the priesthood. I thought it would be fun to take him to a local wildlife park that has some pretty cool animals. It's called Featherdale and is but 20 minutes from the home (1). I have been taken to it once before, when I first visited Australia to have a look-see. If you come, I would take you to it, too!

The park is quite small and can be seen in 1-2 hours ro so. But it is also full of a great collection of critters. From many of the colorful birds of Austrlia (2) to the famous Kookaburras (3-4) even a Blue Winged Kookaburra (4). This small little dove like bird had such incredibly iridescent wings(5)! It really didn't look real!

Wallabies wander throughout the park and freely interact with people (6-10). I especially loved the two cuddle buddies (7). There's a shot of Br. Dominic come for a visit (9) and a selfie of Thomas, myself and a wallaby just hanging out by a fence (10). Some were behind fences, and you can see why by the boxing match on exhibit (11).

This owl is not one legged; he's just resting (12). And this regal eagle was eating a raw fish a bit later (13). That hooked beak seemed very sharp and perfect for gutting sea creatures!

Perhaps the cutest animals of all were the wombats (14-16). They keep them in enclosures with very low fences. You could easily reach out and scratch their heads. They almost seemed to want it. As I put my camera in front of the cutey (15), he just ambled over (16). So cute!!!

Here are some more of the various fowl of this continent: Fairy Penguins (17); a wild pheasant that looks like something out of a Japanese flding screen (18) and a tiny little black and white hen that followed us around the park looking for anything we might drop (19).

This rock wallaby was a baby (20) and looked like a stuffed toy; the spotted lizard seemed frozen in place (21); and this "inland taipan" (22) is noted for being the most venomous snake in the world get bit by it and you have about 30 minutes of life left; here is a black cockatoo (23); the fastest animal on earth, a peregrin falcon (24) which I don't believe is native to Australia; a blue headed stork (25); and my favourite: the cassowary (26-27)! This bird stands about 4 feet tall. It has such a beautiful blue-colored head with striking red markings. And then there's it's crest; looks like something survived from prehistoric times! Way cool!

Finally a trio of Aussie favourites: The Koala (28) is first. Did you know that the word Koala is indigenous meaning "no water." The marsupial (it carries it's young in a pouch) gets all it's fluids from the leaves it eats. This ekidna (29) is one of only two mammals that lays eggs! (Can you name the other? Hint: it's also Australian!) Finally we have a pair of dingoes (30), that ate no baby. They had one of their own, actually. A cute cub just out of the picture. I couldn't really get a good shot of him or I'd have shared it.

See you next week. Hopefully Cathy and the electrical ailments will all be better!