Planet Rothschildi

[kbgh]

S.E. tell Eirc that his babies are growing up.

Great pictures. As usual good information.

Hope you are feeling better.

Kerry

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Why the fascination with the ‘datumses’? Does it seem crazy? Suppose:

an hour and a half after first light, you spot three birds crossing the track between my front fence and the highway. Heading east.
Hmmm . . . well, they are between A and Z. ‘A’ was probably their roost; but that roost would have been near the last pasture they grazed on yesterday afternoon. The 500? Oudman’s? (This is the point, guys – those are the only two pastures in the vicinity.)
Both seem unlikely because there are fences and roads to cross. Where then?

Where is ‘Z’? The one thing we can be sure enough of is that they are ‘transiting’ through the strip of bush between my front fence and the highway. It isn’t their goal – it’s starvation scrub.
They aren’t going to cross the highway to get into the National Park – why would you expend so much energy to gain so little food?
Well, they may be going down to the swamp paddock or the corridor – but again, it’s a long way to run the chance of getting flogged by the locals (unless these travelling birds have a big territory, and are the corridor birds!!).
Well, guys . . . I don’t know – but I have been thinking about it all day.

Here’s a simpler one: Speckles and Sarah snuck into the house-clearing.

[And I got my first really good look at Speckles, by the way. He’s a big bird – very ‘beamy.’ Some birds are remarkably tall and skinny. Some are much broader in the body. Sarah’s neck markings are most unusual. The sheen on the patch at the top of her neck is a wet-fish-silver colour.]

And why do they vocalise? Why don’t they just gobble and shut up? Eric Plus shunted them off. I then headed off with the Old Man Barrow (patent pending) to get some garden sand down near Meadow Two. Saw S. and S. ‘curving’ through the gums. Put the barrow down, and waited ten minutes. Snuck down to Meadow Two. Bingo, they were grazing there!

So, they leave the house-clearing heading south, travelling at walking-speed. We see them at another point. The best guess is that they are ‘arcing’ down to the next pasture.

Thinking about stuff like this helps figure out when and why birds cross fences; what the population density is; how far they travel in a day, at what speed, to how many pastures.

All questions are ultimately entwined: suppose a non-alpha bird hears birds close by at dawn. Can that first bird identify the other birds? and know their status? Would that mean that the first bird would head off to a pasture where he won’t encounter an alpha bird? Perhaps this goes on during the day? Perhaps birds are taking cues, about where they will try to graze, from the vocalisations of (known and unknown) birds around them. (Wow! Can you vocalise ‘alpha-ness’??)

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

My error: one day not two:

The use of ‘mingul’ by the Pitjatjantjara and Yangkuntjatjara peoples (of the Tanami Desert).

‘ . . . a party of huntsmen arrived, noted emu tracks among others around the water hole, and immediately took action to capture the birds. The water was “doped,” and the tribesmen retired to await the arrival of the unsuspecting birds.’
“They remained in camp for a full twenty four hours! . . . when two emus obviously very thirsty drew near to the water. The birds drank greedily, lifted their heads, drank and drank again. One of them then fell on its hocks, and seemed to be playing with the cooling fluid . . .
“The men were satisfied. Each armed himself with a stick or club and walked across to the birds, some going to the left, others to the right of them. The emus were quite dazed and took little notice of the approaching danger.
“ . . . . The men encircled them, but cautiously avoided coming within kicking range . . . “

THE PEOPLE IN BETWEEN: THE PITJANTJATJARA OF ERNABELLA, Hillard, W.

 

[Calla]

Are they in hosptal now ?? lol

I can just imagine a kick from them lol WERE THEY POACHERS ? ?
Mine always watch me like a Hawk, eyes only for me lol , if I bring some visitor in to them lol they are actually mostly scared and refuse to come in....just as well......and those who have more guts, I have to ensure them, that they are safe ha ha

Calla

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, Calla. My error: no, it’s an anthropological text. The difficulty with pre-historic cultures -- that is, with all a-literate cultures (no written language) -- is that . . . how can you ever find out what their societies were like? One ‘slender thread’ is interviews taken with these people when they first ‘come in.’ (The stories about this would probably astonish most westerners. Western Australia’s last ‘first contacts’ occurred later than you would believe!!)

Well, the guys in the text were pre-historic hunters in one of the most inhospitable terrains in the world – the Tanami Desert.

So, these snippets are, for us, a tiny tiny window into a reality – emu and human -- that has vanished forever.

Supreme Emu

 

[Calla]

Ahhh sorry Supreme Emu, I misunderstood, English is my 3rd language and had not digested enough, lol

Calla

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Felicity was here this afternoon in the company of three other birds. She didn’t stay to be fed – I identified her; got some food; she bolted when the others did -- ??

The chicks are developing personality – Alpha is even developing tail feathers!!

One ran at the other this morning, and the stationary chick did that stand-tall-and-bristle thing.

Their ‘orbit’ around their dad is getting steadily larger. Indeed, just this morning, I noticed that Eric had walked all the way to the other side of the house while the chicks were still grazing under the apricot tree. They have worked out who I am, and they charge ahead of Eric to get to the wheat.

The panels missing from the back fence around constitute a sort of I.Q. test for the chicks. They are fast learning where the gap is; but they need only be a few feet further into the backyard, and they get flustered.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Okay, an Important Note, readers: this Project has only gained a degree of coherency since we began the Mating-Season Thread. It’s relevant to mention this because emu-world stuff that I wasn’t paying attention to has always been going on . . . but I didn’t notice.

‘Kay . . . Mr. Net him say ‘December is forming-of-breeding-pairs time.’ This morning (I’m feeling just a little better), I was observing just after first light. I am sure that the number of birds vocalising is increasing – that is, not that I just haven’t noticed; but that the birds are beginning to call.

With coffee and binoculars, I drifted around ‘the back way’ to Meadow One, hoping to sight a female that was calling quietly down there. It’s surely the one I heard just a couple of days ago, and it seems to be (roosting) in the strip of scrub beyond Meadow One. While down there, I heard a second female calling on the north side of the house-clearing – definitely a different bird: different place, much stronger call.

So, apart from all other projects, let’s try to start a sketch of the ‘females’ territories map’ that we were working on last spring. It would be pretty interesting to be able to see an actually wild bird emerge from it roosting-spot.

Supreme Emu

 

[Ashburnham]

You started a new thread and didnt tell me! tsk tsk
I now have a lot of reading to do.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Ashburnham! I do apologise. I feel self-conscious enough about setting up my own Planet on the site. Good to see you back!!

One of the things now apparent to me – even though we love all readers equally – is that a core of readers has been helping me (I couldn’t/wouldn’t do it otherwise . . .) since May last year. It feels very comfortable to have everyone traipsing about with me in spirit.

My stated goal is a year of posts. The information-gathering is becoming cumulative: stuff that we identified late-ish last year is raising its head early this year, which will make for some great info. Indeed, I feel almost as though an avalanche of information is sweeping over me.

S.E.