Western NSW bird adventure - Day 1

Day 1.
Medowie to Nyngan.
After picking up the hire car for the family to use while I was away, I finished packing the last couple of things and headed west. The plan was not to look for birds on this leg, but rather to hopefully reach Narromine and camp overnight instead of risking night driving with kangaroos and wombats. The Golden Highway was looking like its name suggests as the road was lined with stunning, flowering wattle trees the whole way to Dubbo.

I did work out a couple of things along the way to Dubbo.

1. The brakes on the car are very good. Driving along happily at 100km/h on cruise control when a young fox wanders out from under the side rail and into the middle of my lane. A heavy planting of the anchors meant both the fox and the car avoided injury and all my packing stayed put.

2. Long-necked Tortoises are nuts. Found a determined little guy crossing the highway so after driving over him without squashing him, I pulled over and went and moved him off the road.

One surprising thing I did notice was the lack of any large raptors along the journey. Plenty of Kestrels and Black-shouldered Kites seen but nothing bigger.

I reached Dubbo in good time and after filling up on fuel and food, I pushed on towards Narromine (at least that was the plan). Upon reaching the 110km/h zone I thought I might try and push on to Nyngan instead. No wildlife along the dark, straight road but oncoming headlights are very deceiving. A couple of times I didn’t overtake because I could see traffic heading towards us, only to have the vehicle pass about 10 mins later!!! Anyway I reached Nyngan just after 7pm and pulled into the Riverside Caravan Park (on recommendation from Dave Stowe) for the night.

Birds seen on day one... Black-shouldered Kite, Nankeen Kestrel, Australasian Grebe, Chestnut Teal, White-necked Heron, Eastern Great Egret, Apostlebird, Eastern Rosella, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Galah, Indian Myna, Starling, Pied Butcherbird, Grey Butcherbird, Australian Raven, Australian Magpie, Magpie Lark, Willy Wagtail, Welcome Swallow and Double-barred Finch.