Planet Rothschildi

[kbgh]

Absolutely beautiful.

You make me envious S.E.

So Byenup has water year round? For some reason I thought it was part of the Parks system, but from you statements it appears to be private owned. I do see that there appears to be a gums plantation to the south west side.

What predators do you have in W.A.? Dingo's? What else?

Second post, top photo. What is the tree in the center?

Kerry

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, K.B.

Yes, Byenup is perennial. Yes, it is on private property, but that private property is within a National Park. The environmental laws do make owning and farming it something of a tug of war. Such a situation is unusual.

Dingoes would have been the major predator in the past. They have been shot out down here. (What do you say about a nation that has a Government policy that apparently provides for the extinction of native animals?) There are three ‘DNA-certified-pure’ dingoes in the refuge that the chicks Aisle Five and Aisle Seven went to. (Ask me on p.m. about that one, K.B. We rescued three chicks last winter. It’s time we visited them, and photographed the dingoes.)



What other predators? Wedge-tailed eagle. Goanna (eggs). Snakes (really young chicks?). Humans (both modernly and prehistorically). Mainly foxes though.

Tee hee . . . I can’t identify that tree. We’d have to ask a real local!

Supreme Emu

 

[Ashburnham]

That tree looks like a paperbark. - Melaleuca Lanceolota, or Stypheloides?
I would need to see the seedpods.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

An occasional failure is good for the soul, and today I had my soul liberally engoodened. We aren’t even gonna bother with a narrative – but I will post some snippets:

Paths: we know that emus use the paths that run through the gums near the house. Why wouldn’t they?


We can guess the destinations of some of the paths that we see further afield. For example, kangaroos stream westward out of Coffey’s paddocks at dawn (You see them crossing the road.)

What I’d like to know is if emus are using certain paths. The path pictured below runs (across the highway) from Coffey’s into the bush:










Remember my reports of happy birds stuffing themselves on the greenery in the aisles of the Top Corner? Here it is today:




Quality of water!! Today’s . . . oddness . . . had something to do with whether the wild birds were or were not drinking the water pictured below. This lovely-looking pool in the creek had an emu footprint by it, but the water was awful, brackish. Here it is:



The dam below, though, has more emu tracks around it than I have ever seen. The water tastes fine (‘dammy,’ for you country people).



Today wasn’t all bad though. I found, at Stinky Creek, an outstanding observation point. One wild bird appeared, for about a minute.

The kookaburras – at least a half a dozen – hunted avidly while I waited. I don’t know what they were getting, readers; but they got plenty! Their eyesight is incredibly sharp. They glide as far as fifty metres to snatch . . . something too small to be visible in their beaks as they fly back to their bough.

(Reminder: we haven’t actually observed on this pasture since last autumn, with the French bird-watcher.)

I checked the dam by the pasture (we have everything to learn about water – distances between, and quality). It’s good (and deep enough to swim in, and cold!!) Here below is the pasture:





Finally, a quiz: what is this pictured below?




It’s a creek line (non-perennial – doesn’t flow all the time – in this case). The left-right line of mid-sized trees marks the creek banks. The trees can get their roots down deep enough to live well. The reeds in the foreground are on a tiny ‘flat,’ that holds water longer, hence the reeds being able to ‘hang in.’ The grass in the foreground is on higher ground, so it conks out for lack of water.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Supreme Emu must change tack. For a while, I shall focus on observations closer to home. (Doctor’s appointment in a month.)

Just when I was about to say that Eric’s interlopers had all drifted off (Felicity Plus has disappeared again), Speckles and Sarah turned up – though Eric Plus weren’t here. Sarah is a ‘moseyer’ emu: she really doesn’t like you to have her in sight, so she moseys just far enough to be . . . out of sight.

It amazes me just how comprehensible some snippets of emu talk are! Especially when breeding-pairs are communicating.

Supreme Emu

 

[chickenzoo]

Goodness.....what an interesting tree...it looks like paper.

 

[Ashburnham]

That's why we call them Paperbarks.

 

[kbgh]

As usual great pics S.E.

Your new camera has made a big differences. The pictures are remarkable.

The paperbark tree picture in cool.

I would expect the creek water to be brackish since the saline concentration would increase as the water evaporateds but what I don't understand is why the dams aren't. Are they are spring fed or only fed by rain water? If they are rainwater fed, then I would think that as they dwindle from evaporation they would become more saline.

Kerry

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hey, K.B. You'll laugh to know that these photos were actually taken with the sad old camera. They are just 'simple' ones (not too close, no movement, etc.), so they seem okay. I am practising with the new camera, then my Computer Guy will show me how to get the memory card out.

Your thoughts on water are on the right track. I shall consult with our Consultant. The run off from farmiing fertilisers is a major factor, I am told.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hot today. ‘Fig Season’ has begun, though it can’t be only a matter of figs. The birds are on the move looking for food in general – The Big Jump. They are also forming breeding pairs. (I wonder when we’ll see the first clutches of chicks pass through the clearing?)

At least five wild birds, including Speckles and Sarah, passed through.

The observations at this time of year are much my favourite. Sometimes I don’t put music on, so that I will hear the first calls, and be able to get in position. At times, the ‘jumping-off point,’ an area of gums perhaps a hundred yards square behind the fig tree, will have anything from two to twenty birds in it for six or eight hours a day.

Supreme Emu