- Nov 9, 2013
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Old Guy was getting late afternoon sun in a corner of the house-clearing. Heard Limpychick vocalizing – the ‘V-neck’ territorial booms – rather energetically. I wondered if she were sorta imagining, sorta practicing. But then I heard a male. Then a female – a female that wasn’t Limpychick. That’s not hard: you can usually tell one from another.
And for the next hour, I audited:
First, the two wild birds. Without a doubt, readers, they were a breeding-pair. And it’s just a month until first egg-laying, and autumn rains have been very very poor. So my guess is that these guys were looking for pasture to take over, so they could fatten up before mating.
Limpychick was unimpressed.
And for an hour, I quietly moved and listened as L. slowly drove the interlopers away.
And this morning I will be in the garden at first first light, to prove a theory: I have wondered about why my tame-wild birds are sometimes absent at dawn, but turn up a half hour later. (If they are present, you can hear them – the females, anyway, happily foomphing in their roosts.) I think Limpychick chose to keep driving the interlopers away right until dark. Then she roosted where she was, perhaps a half mile from home. And during the night, she would have vocalized. And at dawn, nip back to the clearing here for breakfast.
And this is an example of ‘operating’: sometimes, I’ve noticed, the foreigners arrive soundlessly – although the home team usually seems to know (??). But sometimes the foreigners announce their presence – but we have a very very great deal to learn here because it is extremely difficult to monitor the conversations of groups on the move. Usually, we are only able to get ‘slices’ of conversations as the emus move past (sometimes even flocks of twenty or more) or while we are both static.
That is, it’s impossible to know when the male and the female of the breeding-pair are talking to each other, and when they are talking to the members of the home team.
But I think that yesterday we heard the interlopers talking to each other – a little bit. The foreign female making half-hearted threats against Limpychick. And Limpychick both vocalizing more aggressively, and physically driving the foreigners away.
And this is the 'operating' of which I have spoken. Standard Operating Procedure: the foreigners arrive, and start 'operating' against the home team: exploratory vocalisations, threatening vocalisations, 'crabbing' around the bush on the perimeter of the house-clearing, making incursions onto the house-clearing. At the same time, the home team vocalises in return, moves around the edge of the house-clearing, keeps itself between the bad guys and the grass. Then conflict does or does not happen.
SE
And for the next hour, I audited:
First, the two wild birds. Without a doubt, readers, they were a breeding-pair. And it’s just a month until first egg-laying, and autumn rains have been very very poor. So my guess is that these guys were looking for pasture to take over, so they could fatten up before mating.
Limpychick was unimpressed.
And for an hour, I quietly moved and listened as L. slowly drove the interlopers away.
And this morning I will be in the garden at first first light, to prove a theory: I have wondered about why my tame-wild birds are sometimes absent at dawn, but turn up a half hour later. (If they are present, you can hear them – the females, anyway, happily foomphing in their roosts.) I think Limpychick chose to keep driving the interlopers away right until dark. Then she roosted where she was, perhaps a half mile from home. And during the night, she would have vocalized. And at dawn, nip back to the clearing here for breakfast.
And this is an example of ‘operating’: sometimes, I’ve noticed, the foreigners arrive soundlessly – although the home team usually seems to know (??). But sometimes the foreigners announce their presence – but we have a very very great deal to learn here because it is extremely difficult to monitor the conversations of groups on the move. Usually, we are only able to get ‘slices’ of conversations as the emus move past (sometimes even flocks of twenty or more) or while we are both static.
That is, it’s impossible to know when the male and the female of the breeding-pair are talking to each other, and when they are talking to the members of the home team.
But I think that yesterday we heard the interlopers talking to each other – a little bit. The foreign female making half-hearted threats against Limpychick. And Limpychick both vocalizing more aggressively, and physically driving the foreigners away.
And this is the 'operating' of which I have spoken. Standard Operating Procedure: the foreigners arrive, and start 'operating' against the home team: exploratory vocalisations, threatening vocalisations, 'crabbing' around the bush on the perimeter of the house-clearing, making incursions onto the house-clearing. At the same time, the home team vocalises in return, moves around the edge of the house-clearing, keeps itself between the bad guys and the grass. Then conflict does or does not happen.
SE
