248 LOWE and LOWE [ B ird \\-'atcher

Extremes in behaviour of Goldfinches in both group nesting and feeding.

By V. T. and T. G. LOWE, Mystic Park, Victoria. SUMMARY

These notes refer to clutch sizes of Goldfinches at Lake Charm, the unusual feeding habit of an isolated flock and the crowded colony-nesting of another isolated group.

INTRODUCTION A friend of ours, Eric Adams of Lake Charm, enjoys a garden

of flowers and mixed shrubs bordering the Murray Valley High­way 6.4 km south of Lake Charm. The garden surrounds an isolated farmhouse - there being no other within 2.5 km, and, doubtless because of this a population of Goldfinches, Carduelis carduelis, uses it for colony-nesting of amazing density. The garden boundary is 98.5 m by 92.3 m, but the nesting is confined to two-thirds of this area. During a number of years this nesting built up to a peak of 55 nests in one season, of which 44 were occupied almost at the same time.

CLUTCH SIZE Eric, at our request, made frequent visits to these nests and

recorded the highest total for each of the 44 nests, the result giving a mean clutch size of 4.7 eggs. One nest of 8 eggs was not considered in this calculation, being considered a multiple clutch.

This figure of 4.7 can be compared with 4.8 obtained by Middleton ("The Breeding Biology of the Goldfinch in South­eastern Australia," Emu, 70: 159-167) at Monash University, and 4.5 at Wantirna, a few miles away. Middleton quotes other figures- 3.7 at Griffith, N .S.W. (Frith), 3.0 in W.A. (Serventy and Whittell) and 4.7 at Kindred, Tas. (Leicester).

The peak of nesting in Adams' garden was reached in the first week in December. Eric considered that 51 of his nests were first sittings and that the later 21 nests observed were re-used or newly built for second clutches. Certainly a number of old nests were used a second time but he had no marked birds and attempted no close study of this aspect. We, on our property at Mystic Park, see some twenty nests each year but have not proved a second clutch. Middleton banded some birds but saw no second broods involving them.

DENSITY The amazing feature was the density of nesting. A glance at

the plan will show that, in a small wisteria-covered pergola, only 2.5 m by 1.8 m, there were six nests occupied at the same time, and the two nests in the middle were only 1 m apart. Eric once had three nests in a grape-vine, each 1 m from the others. Further across the plan is shown a tree of Golden Ash in which were five nests close together.

The most novel site was in a rose bloom. All gardeners know how a rose tree will throw up a strong growth a metre high with

Sept. 1976 ] Extremes in behaviour of Goldfinches 249

a huge middle flower encircled by a number of taller rosebud stems. It was in this big, open, middle bloom ( var. Hawaii, colour scarlet) that the finch wedged its nest, the rose petals in turn being wedged out against the surrounding ring of rosebud stems and, being thus trapped, remained for the duration of the goldfinches' occupation . Eric was able to stroke this bird on the nest, and some weeks later another clutch was in the nest but it came to grief through the attentions of a cat.

Viscount Grey in The Charm of Birds wrote of the beauty of a brooding Goldfinch on a nest framed with apple-blossom -probably a more lovely picture, but surely less arresting than Eric's Hawaii rose.

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BUILDING SITES Middleton writes that of 166 nests found all but 14 were

found in exotic plants. Though Adams has a few young eucalypts all of his nests were in exotics. A windbreak of Athel trees pro­vided leaves which were excellent material for nest construction, the "needles" being serrated and very binding, but though the Goldfinch uses this material freely it never builds in the somewhat open growth of the trees.

Though sited in the outer branches of any tree the nest is always hidden by a tuft of. leaves or the like. While Goldfinches nest commonly in vineyards at a height of 1 m it is plain to us that when more height is available, as in citrus trees, the pre­ferred height is 2.5 m or more.

250 LOWE and LOWE, Extremes in behaviour

of Goldfinches

[ Bird W a tc her

Middleton has recorded nests in a number of native trees but we have only one record, in a eucalypt. This was in a sapling­like growth, 3 m high, which was broken at the base and leaning against the trunk of a large Sugar Gum, Eucalyptus cladocalyx, thus not at all a typical eucalypt. On Adams' property a clump of Black Box, E. largiflorens, grows 150 m from the garden and 0.8 km away a line of Red Gums, E. camaldulensis, and Black Box fringe a lake, together with masses of Lignum, Muehlenbeckia cunninghamii, but despite the crowded garden these were all ignored by the Goldfinches.

PREDATION In the following season the nests in the garden were badly

ravaged by a number of Ravens, Corvus sp. , which descended on them persistently about dawn on many mornings. However, this predation was much less in successive seasons and has now ceased, and, at present, after a further five or six years, the Goldfinch nesting is still above average, and still a notable feature of the early summer life of the garden.

COMPATABILITY Middleton refers to Lord, and also Bryant, as claiming that

exotic species have displaced native forms in some places. He made no statement that this had happened with Goldfinches in his area while remarking that he seldom saw native finches in their habitat. Here at Mystic Park, on our own property, a resident population of Zebra Finches, Poephila guttata, gathering into a winter flock of 50 birds, lives and breeds quite amicably with a similar number of Goldfinches, and has done so for many years.

EXTRAORDINARY FEEDING Although House Sparrows, Passer domesticus, are well-known

wreckers of vegetable seedlings we had never heard complaints about Goldfinches until Lynda showed us her ravished garden at Lake Charm. She, like Eric Adams, enjoys an almost isolated garden set amidst a fine collection of native trees and shrubs.

She also had a big nesting flock of Goldfinches which, over the years grew to menace her vegetable growing. Finally Lynda was forced to cover every seedling and plant with fine mesh wire-netting.

We were once shown an astonishing spectacle of several Gold­finches pecking away at the mature leaves of a solid cabbage, shredding the coarse fare. The Goldfinches were in greater num­bers than the Sparrows and attacked every vegetable, favourites being red beet, lettuce, peas, beans and cabbages.

Lynda used every 'scare' device known to gardeners but nothing scared them. One day she confessed to a pleasurable sadistic feeling as she saw a large Bearded Dragon, Amphibolurus barbatus, spring out from behind a cabbage, pounce on an unlucky Goldfinch, and proceed to devour it.

Initially drought may have drawn the birds to the succulent

3ept. 1976 ] LOWE, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in captivity 251

vegetables, though they had acres of lucerne only 250 m away, but, as Lynda said, pithily, "Perhaps they don't like lucerne". Be that as it may, after causing trouble for 10 to 15 years, they now have lucerne quite close to the garden and there is a major decline in both the damage and the number of birds. Lynda cannot account for fewer birds though she mentions stray cats, and suspects hawks, and says conditions are now normal.

Middleton, though listing a number of plants on which his Goldfinches were observed feeding, appears to suggest that the taking of green vegetable matter is merely incidental to the search for seed. He makes no mention of domestic vegetables -indeed the nearest to them would be apricot buds included in a list of food items.

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in captivity. In The Bird Observer, of February, 1975, 519:10, Mrs. Tess Kloot gave us some fascin­ating historical facts of the experiences of Kerang solicitor, Mr. R. E. Trebilcock, who, in the year 1903 was actually in the Siberian tundra amongst breeding Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, Cali­dris acuminata.

It is surprising that more of Mr. Trebilcock's experiences were not brought to light on the return of the Hall-Trebilcock expedi­tion.

It will be of interest to many to Jearn that Mr. Trebilcock is also a notable entomologist and is keenly interested still to help as new insects are found for the Kerang district.

Some years ago I was talking to a meeting of members of the Kerang Cage-Bird Club when 'out of the blue' a local journalist, Graham Horsfall, presented me with a box in which was a wader with an injured wing.

I made a fortunate stab at identification with a few remarks about the species, 'fortunate' for in the front row of the audience sat Mr. R. E. Trebilcock who later rose to thank the speaker. With customary humour, he continued ' ... . I was very interested in Mr. Lowe's facts on the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, indeed I must admit they roused me from a slight doze.'

He then went on to tell us a few anecdotes relating to his Siberian trip with Hall.

The real object of these notes however is to tell of the life of the wounded bird. Graham tended it and introduced it to his mixed aviary population, first at Kerang and later at Bendigo, and enjoyed an apparently mutually happy association with it for three years. One wonders how many Sharp-tailed Sandpipers had, up to that time, lived in aviaries.

The main food taken by the bird was minced meat from the butcher - presumably beef and mutton - and a tortoise com­peted for its share. Graham says that feed-time was both animated and amusing to watch.