Featherdale Wildlife Park

While my parents were here last month we took them to Featherdale Wildlife Park. It's less than a half hour drive from our place so perfect for an adventure in between Morgan's naps.

It was a sunny day but the wind was freezing cold so we rugged up and took a packed lunch. Featherdale contains all Australian wildlife, some in cages and some roaming free! I was surprised by birds that sat on logs to be admired and showed no interest in flying off. Whether their wings are clipped or they're just happy and comfortable in the environment, who knows. There was a group of 4 or 5 tawny frogmouths sunning themselves on some branches. They're a gorgeous/intimidating-looking bird. I'm sure one was thinking "come any closer and I'll bite ya finger off" as I took a photo! We also saw cockatoos, macaws, corellas, albino kookaburras and even a couple of storks. 

Tawny Frogmouth

We moved on to see some sleepy koalas, nosey koalas and hungry koalas. Morgan had his first ever encounter with a big fella called Billy (or was it Bobby?!). He also got to feed a wallaby that followed us around the roo/wallaby section. We stopped to eat our packed lunch in the picnic area, where Mum got hit on the head by a stray branch falling out of a tree, poor thing thought she'd been attacked by a free-roaming bird!

The Park has a couple of small nocturnal enclosures, one with Ghost Bats and Bilbies (funny looking things with an anteater nose, rabbit ears and rat tail). The other enclosure had a selection of snakes, including 4 of the top 20 most venomous snakes in the world. Lovely! At least they didn't have a spider display, I would've avoided that like the plague! There was a lonely crocodile lazing around doing nothing, a farm animal section, a cute fat wombat, tassie devils and dingo puppies playing and climbing all over their mother.

I was really impressed with Featherdale, having never been before. I loved seeing some of the animals roaming around not bothered by people, coming up to us for food, and it was cool being able to pat a wombat (surprisingly softer than a koala). It was a great day out and a place we will definitely revisit once Morgan is older and can learn all about the different animals. Highly recommended to anyone heading out Western Sydney way!