Mating-Season in Australia

[Tame Emu Guy]

Greedy is definitely getting better.

The wonderful ‘space-game’ that I mentioned has been going on throughout. When Greedy was really sick, Felicity ruled The Whole House-Clearing, every square yard of it; but her kingdom has now shrunk to about a half a tennis court. I just fed them. Felicity happily plonked herself down with Greedy not far away at all. G. isn’t capable yet of whupping Felicity – or she would have done so – but she’s getting close. Felicity pulls rank a couple of times a day, but Greedy now just trots ahead, then circles back again to that spot just half a tennis court away.

Supreme Emu

[Pardon my prose. I’ve been an unwell emu myself.]

 

[chickenzoo]

Glad Greedy is feeling better..... Hope you are on the mend as well.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

So, guys . . . if May, June, July, August is the mating season, does that mean that the mating and egg-laying is finished by about the beginning of July, and the last two months of the mating-season are spent hatching the eggs? Or are the four months the mating-and-egg-laying period, and the 'late layers' incubate in September and October?

That is, are the emus who are happily chattering to one another still mating and laying eggs?

Supreme Emu

 

[chickenzoo]

I know mine started displaying and breeding in Sept- Oct. Then started laying later....then they took a break then started up again. I've had chicks Dec into July but will have to go back through my posts to get a better timeline on what and when.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Kay, I had written what's in quoatation marks -- ahh!! There can be several rounds of mating and laying!!

'[Simple reports for a few days.]

Felicity didn’t turn up this morning. Greedy did, though, and I wonder if that’s the simple reason Felicity didn’t turn up: Greedy seems to be pretty much back to her pushy greedy self.

Now, I asked my question above, about whether matings are still going on, because four wild birds turned up to see Greedy this morning. Two were Funny Patches and Maybe Foxtrot. I think Greedy headed off with them.

So, is Greedy looking to mate and lay again? Is there still time this breeding-season for that?'

Boy Emu is okay. Definitely slowing down.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

[Brief reports still]

When my birds were still chicks, I thought they liked the music of David Bowie; but it transpired that they had figured out that if there was music playing at the farmhouse, I was home, and they might get fed by just standing around looking feathery and cute.

Greedy hasn’t ever forgotten. She is back in top form: brash and hungry. This morning, she stood and boomed right outside my bedroom window at dawn. I looked out, to see a couple of flying birds startle her by flying past close and fast. She did a little spazzy dance, and I went out and fed her.

Felicity was absent again this morning. 'Fled' is the word that comes to mind.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

I went to Oudman’s, but withdrew in the face of a no-nonsense storm front, which is now thrashing the gums, and dumping rain on the house-clearing; but emu life is going on:

who says emus all look the same? There are two wild birds here now. One has the oddest toosh, turned in neatly, as though it’s been in an emu-toosh curler all night; and it has a mohawk! You know how emus have odd little ridges of hair on top of their heads? Well, this bird has a perfect mohawk straight up the back of its neck, all the way to the front, and all jet black. Its body has oddly mottled patches, a bit like Funny Patches, but all over.

The other bird is just as funny. I saw it standing on the edge of the gums, and for whatever reason, it had its beak right up in the air. It has oddly short feathers on its neck, which make its neck look like a pipe cleaner. It looked like a sort of emu Eiffel Tower standing in the gums in the pouring rain.

There’s a window in the store room. It provides a view of only a narrow strip of ground, but that strip includes the far end of the lilly pilly tree. My old binos are 7by35, and I got to examine this bird at length from less than forty feet away. Wonderful!! The wind was scaring it in hilarious ways. It kept getting itself tangled up in its own fear and long legs as it bolted in silly circles.

These two birds – we’ll assume they are males – are batting strangely above their class. They are both rather small. Indeed, they may both be two-year-old chicks.

[I’m typing this with both birds and G. standing outside the window in front of my computer, and checking the details through the binos.]

Greedy is back in command of the house-clearing. I heard her vocalising, just a few calls, as I was coming back from Oudman’s. Has she started a whole now round of mating?

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

This wattle, whose blooming is a portent of spring, is a favourite of mine. S.E.

 

[mbmess2003]

Enjoying following this thread

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

The strangest thing!

Guys, both Felicity and Greedy are here, and Felicity is still in charge – just. Only just. Greedy will come to within feet of her.

Still, it’s the strangest thing. This goes back four years, to the original emu, Eric. When I got here, Eric was the alpha emu. Two years later, Greedy, his daughter, knocked him out of the ring.

Since then, that’s always been the order: Felicity Emu has always had a lower spot. So, not seeing her go ‘plop’ back into her spot is super interesting thing for me.

On the way home from my trip to Albany, saw a pair of emus grazing contentedly in the middle of a mob of about fifty sheep.

Hey ya know, it has only just occurred to me this second to ask: do any/many BYC persons have generations of birds in their environments?

A friend asked about the chicks – ‘you’ll have emus all over the place.’ My explanation was: ‘Nah. These two birds are the only ones I feed. Greedy’s chicks gotta fend for themselves.’ You see my point: Boy Emu’s chicks will already be the third generation that we can follow.