Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Goldfinches eat Thistledown

The mist has cleared. It gave way this morning to an overcast, showery day.
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There are European Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) eating the "Thistledown" seeds of some Scotch Thistles in my garden beds. (Photo: Bill Pound, Reading Ornithological Club, UK). I shall get the Whipper Snipper fired up, and chop down the Thistles. Not that I mind the Goldfinches. They are pretty, and more importantly, do not seem to compete with native Finches, as they seem to exclusively eat weed seeds (especially Dandelions and Thistles). And they have very different nesting habits from the native Finches.



In fact there are lots of Red-browed Finches ("Firetails")
(Neochmia temporalis) around the place, but they mostly seem to eat grass seeds.
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Crimson Rosellas (Platycercus elegans) also love the Thistles, which is good. The more things which eat their seeds and prevent the "Thistledown" seeds blowing on the wind, the better.

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