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.

Baby Blue Wrens in the mist

I have a nest of baby Blue Wrens - OK, Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus). To me, they will always be Blue Wrens. (Photo: David Cook, COG Photo Gallery)

Out in the paddock below my house, there are lots of dead Scotch Thistles (remember that debate about spraying Thistles?). Well the spraying was successful in knocking off the Thistles before their seeds dispersed.

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Anyway, the Blue Wrens have nested in the dead thistles, or perhaps the thistles have died since the nest was built. Either way it seems a vote of confidence in "Round-up". Judy and I were watching them coming and going to the nest while we were having dinner last evening.

This morning I could not see any "activity" around the nest, and was concerned that the babies had been taken, or the nest abandoned. So I went out in the mist, and approached the nest carefully, and gave a little "squeak" while still several metres away. Sure enough, the female (known as a "Jenny Wren") flew out of the nest, so I immediately left without disturbing the chicks. The female wren is brown, with a reddish eye stripe, very different from the male above. (Click on the hot-link for her picture.)

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Judy returned to Canberra at lunchtime, having achieved the hanging of some block-out curtains in my loungroom. This wall of curtains looks great, and will help control the temperature in the house, (if summer returns to Robertson this year). Thanks, Judy.

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Day 3 of this fog is dragging on. Today it is a wet fog, with occasional rain periods. Yesterday the house temperature varied from 15 *C to 16*C. Just a week before, the heat had driven us away from Robertson.