Ruth and I made the journey from Melbourne to the Painted Finch site north
of Jerilderie this weekend. We drove up to Tocumwal on Saturday, stopping at
a couple of sites near Nagambie in Victoria. This morning (Sunday) we drove
from Tocumwal to the site, arriving around 7:30am.
On arrival we spent about 15 minutes looking for the Painted Finch nest (in
all the wrong places, as it turned out!) As we were walking along the road
back towards where we'd parked, the male Painted Finch flew over us from the
west, calling. In the roadside stop area the male flew around us from place
to place for about 15 minutes. Ultimately he flew off to the west side of
the road and we lost sight of him.
We continued looking around the site - both for the nest and for other
species present. We found the nest relatively easily, now that we had a
better idea of where to look. A walk around the site and onto the other side
of the road produced quite a number of species, including White-winged
Choughs (many of them - mostly on the verges of the road), Yellow Rosellas
and Eastern Rosellas, Crested Pigeons and Peaceful Doves, a couple of Brown
Treecreepers, several Restless Flycatchers calling, and a single
Olive-backed Oriole. Back in the roadside stop we encountered a family group
of Zebra Finches, with one adult and about six juveniles.
By now it was 9:15am and the male Painted Finch flew in again. It showed
itself quite well in the trees and scrub around the middle of the roadside
stop. It also flew to the nest hole (but didn't enter). After 15 minutes the
male disappeared again. This time we didn't see where it flew to. At about
9:45am the female Painted Finch made an appearance - flying to a bush
relatively close to where Ruth and I were looking at the Zebra Finch group.
She didn't call, but she stayed in the bush for around 10 minutes before
disappearing. By now we decided that we should leave them alone and headed
off.
As to whether the Painted Finches are escapees or not, I think I would have
to agree with Michael Ramsay's comments - there really is *nothing* around,
so unless someone brought the finches to this location, they would have had
to fly a long way - escapees or wild! I also agree with Steve Clark's
comments that the Zebra Finches were more approachable than the Painted
Finches - although the Zebra Finches didn't come too close to photograph for
us. A further observation is that I felt the male Painted Finch was much
flightier than the female. The female came within 2-3 metres of us, we
couldn't get closer than 5-6 metres (at best) of the male.
Paul Dodd
Docklands, Victoria
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
