The Exit

Our shower here at the elegant Terrigal Pacific Hotel, has six valves. Two on the right-hand side that work the shower head. Then there are two that are low and frame the spigot to fill the tub, and then an extra two low on the wall outside the shower, sort of behind the commode that I haven’t touched and have no idea what they do and refuse to find out, mostly because it might cause a mess in the kitchen area that we must leave neat and tidy and we did.

 

As it turns out the great Australian mystery of the Entrance is no mystery at all. The Entrance among other things is a town that sits on a peninsula near the out-flow channel of Lake Tuggerah     The passage isn’t navigable to the ocean, but pleasure boats, jet skis and kayaks all run on the lake. The town is a growing resort area, with good food and coffee, and a Pelican feeding every day of the year at 3:30, rain or shine, and that was enough to get me and my traveling compadre to drive the 30 or so kilometers through enough round aboot to make a whirling dervish dizzy.

Peaceful Lake Tuggerah

 

Despite not doing serious birding that would involve wading in mud, hiding in piles of reeds, and being attacked by insects, that most likely here in Australia could do serious damage to you, I have managed to stumble across several species of birds that are new to me.

Silver Gulls

 

Sitting on the waterfront at the entrance it is hard to tell who is having more fun. The silver gulls or the fellow feeding them.

Minas

 

These yellow beaked minas are found in New Zealand and Australia. These two were in the Auckland park  working the park benches and manicured lawns.

 

Australian Magpie

 

Everything I read aboot the Australian Magpie said they could be very aggressive, but every one of them I have spotted, and they are quite common, has been minding its business working the grass, hopefully eating the bugs that otherwise might be eating me.

 

Varied Oystercatchers

Varied oystercatchers from a beach in New Zealand, come in all black or black and white, and were quite willing to pose for photos in the rain.

 

 

And did I mention Australian Pelicans? Bigger than our Browns or Whites and the ones that come in for the feeding seem to know when 3:30 rolls around…

Australian Pelicans

The 3:30 feeding of the fish scraps from the restaurant was an interesting presentation put on by the locals. It was quite hard to hear the specifics of the show as we were all seated around concrete benches by the water’s edge. Afterward I went up and asked the presenter a few questions aboot the birds. They are not endangered, and the feeding started to get rid of the fish scraps. We had a nice chat, and so impressed the locals with our knowledge of birds, that they told us to wait for the crowd to thin out, and when it did they brought up a young bird for my traveling compadre to hold, which she did and I took several hundred photos of the event, one of which is a profile picture on  the big book of face, and I am just glad they didn’t let her keep the bird, because we would have to spend most of our time feeding the thing and that would leave little time to explore this small part of New South Wales.