Planet Rothschildi

[Tame Emu Guy]

Felicity kneels down. Noddy makes a noise I’ve never heard: a low low rumble.

Nothing happens.

??

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

General Felicity’s Campaign

[Cold, raining; S.E. struggling.]

Morning, readers!!

Some days ago, a breeding-pair (A. and M.F.?) made an appearance. That’s no biggie.

Then we had the Mexican-Standoff pair here – we’ll call them Sooty and Sootina. Felicty had no problem holding them at bay that afternoon: Noddy was able to spend his time grazing behind her.

[F. and N. switched roosts that night: just by the apricot tree. They were quite vocal: at least a dozen brief conversations through the night. That was cool for S.E. Imagine, guys, having a pair of wild emus roosting just 200 feet from your own roost!]

But Sooty and Sootina returned yesterday. (I’m 80% sure it was them.) They didn’t make it to the lily pilly. There were no clashes. However, even with Noddy’s vigorous assistance, they kept the home team on the hop for well over a hour.

[S.E. was able to observe for a period from quite close. Couldn’t figure out which bird was the male, and which the female. One bird is small-ish and skinny! S.E. thinks it might be a yearling, which means at this point that it would be 22 months old – first mating-season.]

‘Kay, we’re live:

S.E. was gonna write that he thought Sooty and Sootina would be back today. Well, I think they’re already here. Noddy is still under the lily pilly tree, working on his winter-fat reservoir; but I just heard some kick-a@@ booms from Felicity, who is in the gums to the west, from where Sooty and Sootina are operating – it’s an added insult, guys, that Sooty and Sootina traipse into Felicity’s lounge room via her bed room.

[S.E. would like to know S. and S.’s general movements.]

Just had a look and a listen: can’t see or hear the intruders; but Felicity is back, and standing resolutely in the middle of the clearing, staring to the west.

So, ‘General Felicity’s Campaign’? The recent ‘nesting-behaviour’ continues. F. and N. drift in and out of the gums. They separate and re-unite.

But is it possible that this latest round of interactions might stymie Felicity? That she’ll feel she is not secure enough to mate?

She is, after all, still a pullet. (Is that the right word?) She’s almost five, but hasn’t ever laid.

If you have experience of young female emus mating, please offer insights.

‘Kay, S.E. will get to work, and perhaps report later.

S.E.

 

[yinepu]

my husband was trying to start a brand new post hole auger yesterday afternoon... I never thought that a small engine trying to start would resemble a female emu's boom (at least to my ears)... but it certainly got the attention of Rose.. she came running over.. booming and stalking the fence line!

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Morning, Yinepu.

If you can arrange it, play the sound of the female at 1:15 of Youtube Desert Emu, and see how Rose reacts.

Supreme Emu is easily and often fooled, Yinepu. When you walk in gumboots, the boot taps against the back of your calf at each step -- see the clever emologist standing stock still in the middle of nowhere, ear cocked, hoping for a fleeting glimpse of a wild gumboot.

[But one’s patience is often rewarded. I poked my beak into Oudman’s yesterday, while out walking after rain; heard a female; stopped and squatted. I didn’t get to see her, but she wasn’t more than a hundred feet away.]

There’s a spot down in the Secret World where the ground makes a strangely hollow sound as you walk. It fooled me a number of times before I figured it out.

Best of all though:

I used a little bread-maker here when I first moved in. It had a timer that kneaded the dough. The sound was ‘gurk, gurk, gurk.’ S.E. fell about laughing when he realised he was sidling along the wall of the house in the hope of getting a peek at . . . the bread-maker.

No birds sighted here yesterday.

[‘Kay, we’re live:

There’s a lone wild bird trying its luck right in front of the house. S.E. gonna watch:

F. and N. have ‘low-key’ skirmished with it in the gums. The light is really good this morning, and the air is clear. S.E. was actually bi-nocular for a moment.

There are a million varieties of interaction! F. and N. have drifted back to the lily pilly. The bird is skirting the gums. It hasn’t vocalised.]

As I was saying, no birds sighted or audited yesterday, but S.E. is sure that Felicity knew there was a bird . . . out there somewhere.

That’s four days in a row. It shouldn’t matter, guys. Indeed, there should be many more birds in orbit – but are these birds leaning on Felicity’s dream?


Back later.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Back of Oudman’s!!

[My Internet provider can’t repair my satellite, so I can't upload photos – apparently isolation is too big a challenge for a company that got Federal Government contracts to provide satellite Internet for Australians living in isolation. I will upload photos at the Internet café tomorrow.]


A Good Long Walk is fine thing, and it was so cold and clear today that S.E.’s eyes held up well. We made it all the way to the ridgeline at the back of Oudman's that overlooks the National Park fence.

It may have been that emu activity was sparse on the ground around the old house-clearing a couple of months ago, but all the way through, we found evidence aplenty that wild birds are grazing in the plantation. Heard a couple of birds, but didn’t see any. All blessings are pure grass mush. It really seems that no birds in this very considerable area are getting any other tucker. I welcome comments on this.

What made the walk really worthwhile, though, was the roosts (and two crawdad dams, but that's a secret . . . ):

firstly, S.E. found a roost in the open. Only the second one ever – not ‘open open,’ though. It was in a little row of short gums, but it is a first.

Then . . . we found an area that is to emoo poo as elephant tusks are to the elephants’ graveyard. It’s clearly an ‘active’ roost, a concentration of the biggest healthiest lookin’ blessings I’ve ever seen – I swear to God, I though one was horse exhaust. There's a lot to learn about emus' movements from these signs.

It's just gotta be the same birds roosting for some period in the same place.

At this time of year. So, would there be a nest nearby? How often do they shift the Pooh Place? Could we diagram a day's movements?

And the view?? Magnificent: the sunset over the Big Green was pink and grey and cream and white and gunmetal blue; and it was quiet enough to heal the soul.

S.E.

 

[kbgh]

Been absent of late do to yard work. I have been watching the posts though. Great stuff S.E. Keep us posted on the progress of F & N. K

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Reading and learning, you are just amazing on your descriptions, its like I was there.
Who needs pictures? you make it very easy to imagine. After all, that's how we all used to educate ourselves!
Granted, the internet has huge advantage over a library to find or share information.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Last post:

Overall though, my blindness is coming on faster than I thought.

I’m gonna bite the bullet now, and reduce my world to bedding and clothes and a saucepan. Then I may be able to ‘hold down’ the farmhouse, and not wind up in a twilight home in Cementville.

Ya know, it has always struck me that atheists like myself lack an expression with the force of ‘God bless.’

So, thank you from the bottom of my heart for years of company and advice, may the Great Pumpkin look over you and yours.’

Be unashamed to fight for the right.


Mark Blair,
Felicity and Noddy’s patch. Wa ha ha – oh look! She’s just outside the window, booming and staring to the south east – betcha there’s wild birds coming.

Transmission ends.

 

[Ashburnham]

Ahhhh Mark

From another atheist I offer all my best non-religious wishes for the future.

And have faith in modern medical science - soon there will be a cure for everything, even old age!

(also my greatest fear- when my predatory nieces try to put me in a home,
so they can get their hands on my farm!)


xxxxxx Michael

 

[yinepu]

Back of Oudman’s!!

[My Internet provider can’t repair my satellite, so I can't upload photos – apparently isolation is too big a challenge for a company that got Federal Government contracts to provide satellite Internet for Australians living in isolation. I will upload photos at the Internet café tomorrow.]


A Good Long Walk is fine thing, and it was so cold and clear today that S.E.’s eyes held up well. We made it all the way to the ridgeline at the back of Oudman's that overlooks the National Park fence.

It may have been that emu activity was sparse on the ground around the old house-clearing a couple of months ago, but all the way through, we found evidence aplenty that wild birds are grazing in the plantation. Heard a couple of birds, but didn’t see any. All blessings are pure grass mush. It really seems that no birds in this very considerable area are getting any other tucker. I welcome comments on this.

What made the walk really worthwhile, though, was the roosts (and two crawdad dams, but that's a secret . . . ):

firstly, S.E. found a roost in the open. Only the second one ever – not ‘open open,’ though. It was in a little row of short gums, but it is a first.

Then . . . we found an area that is to emoo poo as elephant tusks are to the elephants’ graveyard. It’s clearly an ‘active’ roost, a concentration of the biggest healthiest lookin’ blessings I’ve ever seen – I swear to God, I though one was horse exhaust. There's a lot to learn about emus' movements from these signs.

It's just gotta be the same birds roosting for some period in the same place.

At this time of year. So, would there be a nest nearby? How often do they shift the Pooh Place? Could we diagram a day's movements?

And the view?? Magnificent: the sunset over the Big Green was pink and grey and cream and white and gunmetal blue; and it was quiet enough to heal the soul.

S.E.

It's so funny watching Rose puff up and strut when she thinks she hears an "invader"!