Hi All
I was reminded by the email from Chris that over Xmas in Yea, Victoria, I
noted two cases of Wagtail nesting behaviour which were unusual - to me
anyway.
Firstly, in a new shed constructed in about March 1999, was a Wagtail on
a nest in one of the 'V's of a steel roof truss. I'm not sure what it is
called but it is a common truss construction with horizontal upper and
lower bars with a zigzag metal bar welded between them. The interesting
thing to me was that there were 13 or so of these 'V's on this girder and
the birds had started nest construction in eight others before they
finally completed the one that they were using. Most of the abandonned
attempts had about 1 or 2 cm of 'nest' remaining but some had only a few
strands of material. I have seen Wagtails pull one nest to pieces to
provide material for the next and assume that that was probably done here
but have no evidence to that effect. I also think that (but did not
thoroughly check) it was also the only girder out of the four in the shed
that had any sign of nesting attempts. The owner said that the pair were
on their second brood for the season using that nest.
Barry
The second case was in a very old farm shed/garage and the pair there
were using a nest about 15cm tall (and leaning a little) that was clearly
a multi-story affair with each nest built in and on top of the one
before. At least three different nests were visible. The owners of that
shed said that 'they have been breeding there for years'.
Barry
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Barry McLean
PO Box 1540
Mildura Vic 3502
Phone (03) 5023 1047
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