A short stopover at Pheasant’s Nest, NSW

Sydney Trip Report June 2011

After a cold and wet stay with family in Sydney earlier this year we headed back home. We were planning to travel home via Bathurst but the roads that way were closed due to a heavy snow fall. We decided to head home the way we had come.

After negotiating the Sydney traffic – the Lane Cove Tunnel is a quick way to get out of Artarmon where my son lives – we headed SW towards Wagga Wagga. Mid morning we stopped at a roadside rest area and service centre at Pheasant’s Nest. No – we didn’t see any pheasants. In fact, I saw very few birds.

A few Noisy Miners scratched around on the grassed areas near the car park, and several Australian Ravens flew overhead while we were having our cuppa and morning tea. A few minutes later a flock of about 20 Pied Currawongs flew out of the nearby forest and began foraging in and around several rubbish bins in the car park.

And that was it.

Oh… I nearly forgot. The wind chill factor felt like it was going to snow at any moment, except for the lack of clouds and bright sunshine I guess it would have snowed. I found our later that it had snowed that morning a little further north. It was a most unpleasant break in our journey. I didn’t even bother to get the camera out, so I’ve included a photo I’d prepared earlier.

Pied Currawong