Goldfinches in Toowoomba

Sightings of local rarities (those asterisked on the club's official Species List and any species not listed. That includes Paradise Parrots!!!) Post your non-local rare or unusual sightings here too.

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Mick Atzeni
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Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:08 pm

Goldfinches in Toowoomba

Post by Mick Atzeni »

Looks like there's at least one pair of Goldfinches in Toowoomba following a report to Rod Hobson at the EPA yesterday.

Apparently, this pair has bred the past three years in a backyard in Hoepper St, which is not far from West Creek Reserve, Kearney Springs.

Awaiting photographs. More details to come.

Goldfinches are not on the official TBO list. The only other record since the club's inception (Oct 1975) was around 1979 (?; will check) of a single bird. As the possibility of it being an aviary escapee could not be ruled out at the time, it was not added to the list.
Michael Atzeni
7 Woden St, Murphys Creek 4352
Mob: 0499 395 485
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Mick Atzeni
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Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:08 pm

Historical Goldfinch record

Post by Mick Atzeni »

Folks

I checked and can now confirm that the previous goldfinch record was just under 30 years ago on 18/3/1979 at Willowburn. The record appears in the Toowoomba Bird Club (our former name) Newsletter No. 39.

Just goes to show how a species can easily go undetected unless a member of the public has the presence of mind to report it. I have it on good authority the Burren Junction locals were aware there was a strange bird in town for about a month before the birding community fortuitously found out about it and identified it as a Grey-headed Lapwing. It could have just as easily disappeared without ever being reported.

Makes you wonder what species have been missed all together.

Cheers
Michael Atzeni
7 Woden St, Murphys Creek 4352
Mob: 0499 395 485
Rod Hobson
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Historical Goldfinch records from Toowoomba

Post by Rod Hobson »

Folks,

In the 1950's and 60's small charms of Goldfinches used to frequent the East and Gowrie Creek areas around Willowburn in Toowoomba, especially in the vicinity of the old government railway workshops. I used to see flocks of about 6-8 birds quite regularly there feeding on the seed heads of Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare). This is the common local thistle that is often mistakenly called Scotch Thistle. The true Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium) is not found in Queensland (and is not even very common in Scotland although it is supposed to be the origin of the Scottish heraldic thistle). When the Toowoomba City Council embarked on a weed eradication and parkland development programme along this creekline the finches dwindled and eventually disappeared along with their food staple of thistle seeds.

Similarly the Goldfinches on the Old Wallangarra Road also seem to have gone in the last decade. Thistles here, too, seem to have been controlled and are nowhere as prolofic as they once were.

Quite a few years ago I saw a pair of Goldfinches near the western end of Lawlers Road in Helidon but discounted them as escapees.

Whilst on exotic finches the small flock of Nutmeg Mannikins that used to frequent the Green Panicum near the railway bridge in Gatton seem to have gone. It's been several years since I've seen them now. Perhaps the drought, whickh killed off a lot of the roadside grasses has also done for these birds? In the early 1990's I recorded a pair of Nutties nesting in a Mango tree in Gatton township itself.

Regards,
Rod Hobson
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