Emu pictures and stories.... post them here

[Raptor65]

Gerry is such a laid back Emu, gotta love him.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Goodness, Raptor, these photos are a treat. I would never never never see a wild chick so relaxed.

Supreme Emu

 

[ThePendragon]

He's grown alot since I last saw him.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Here is Speckles, Greedy's new consort. He's enjoying a breakfast of yummy scotch thistles in the old sheep yards.

Supreme Emu

 

[elsfieldchickens]

Gerry is such a laid back Emu, gotta love him.

so cute!

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Morning, all! These photos are of a very ordinary quality, but they are a peek into Other Stuff:

First is Felicity. Because my birds just come and go, even I have trouble identifying them sometimes – for example, if they come back drenched from swimming in the dam. This is Felicity Emu, the so-far spinster. She is my favourite: tamest of my birds. Her clearest identifying mark is the blue on her beak (I have no idea).




Next: two recent ones of Eric Plus. The chicks are growing amazingly fast. If you look carefully, you can see a little of the scar on Eric’s neck. The two best ‘identifiers’ of birds like mine are such marks and their behaviours – how close they’ll come, etc.





Next: here’s a photo of Greedy. In case you haven’t heard me say it a million time elsewhere, Greedy is an alpha alpha bird (or was – long story) I tamed her as a chick; and I love to interact with her – but her eyes tell the story. She’s a bad-*** bird, her father’s daughter. By far the most serious fights I’ve seen between emus have been those between Greedy and Eric.


Here is Greedy again, taken during The Big Kerfuffle, with Supreme Emu running about trying to photograph the birds as they fought – nuh! Too much movement. (If you look super-carefully, you see that the inner digit on the left foot sits in a little close. G. had an accident as a chick, and that's the mark.)

Okay, these two are of Felicity, taken as research. In the posts of the Thread, we discussed the fact that females stake out territory by exchanging calls over distance. One photo is Felicity booming, a long slow deep ‘optimal’ boom. The second is of her with her ruff partially raised. The females don’t ever seem to boom without raising their ruffs at least somewhat.





Next: the research for this ‘staking out of territories thing’ took me months. I wish you’d been here the day I first heard a distant female reply. So, this is a photo of Greedy, taken on a different day. Now look closely, guys: check out the post and bush in the background. Two different females on two different days faced the same direction on the same spot to exchange calls with a distant female.



Here is the final photo. I yearn to communicate to all the readers how amazing this Whole Emu Thing is. So, here’s a picture of two emus – big deal. But one bird is facing me: she’s tame. It’s Greedy. Do I have Yummies? The other bird, cautious, is her consort. The photo was taken four years to the month after I arrived. Greedy grew up under the fig tree in the background. It’s her turf, even if I do feed her. Her dad is here as I type, with two chicks. I have observed literally hundreds of birds on this patch of ground. You can’t tell from the photos, but plenty of the shots posted elsewhere on BYC, particularly of wild birds, are taken on this spot. The fig tree is the best Yummies of all, and it is ten feet from gums that stand between the house-clearing and the area in which the wild birds live. (There are divisions between the territories, but ‘my place’ is about 1,600 acres.)
I have seen a flock of eighteen birds pass at walking-pace through the blue gums visible in the left corner of the photo. It was one of the best dozen observations ever. The reason that they never noticed me because I was already hiding under a tree nearby, watching a couple of wild birds ‘stealing’ figs, when I first heard them coming.






Supreme Emu

 

[Raptor65]

Wish I had gotten a picture of Gerry earlier, he had a Kerfuffle to beat Greedy's over a hole saw I was carrying. He picks the weirdest things to get all puffed up about.

Working on an Emu palace for him and the two others I plan on hatching this season, he's been supervising the entire time making sure everything is up to code. He called in Mr. Boo the black cat as a consultant and they both inspected the posts to ensure they were level and in the proper location. Normally Boo isn't keen on sharing space with Birdzilla but when there's work to be done...

 

[1muttsfan]

Thanks to you Aussies for providing us with such great pictures and insightful observations of emus in their natural space, it is fascinating.

 

[Calla]

Can't wait to see them lol is this your 1st time ?

Good luck !

Calla

 

[Raptor65]

Nothing quite like a spazzy dance in the snow.

​