Planet Rothschildi

[Tame Emu Guy]

Hi, K.B.

Felicity is away. That’s good.

I am reluctant to over-analyse yet, but there may be a strategy in her behaviour. She may be staking out just the backyard/south side (away from the figs).

Saw her in Full Mating-Season Mode yesterday. It’s one of my favourite things. There really is a very wide range of ‘depths of boom’ available to the females. Felicity was driving off some bird over in the south-west corner, and she was ‘max’: full ruff, neck right back in ‘swan position,’ deep deep boom, and walking seriously sideways.

At present – and still early early days – you see a wild emu perhaps four out of every five times you walk outside. Foreign female booming close again today.

[Haven't been able to upload photo for weeks -- ??]

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

It’s Audacious Emu!!

‘kay, guys:

we just got a good look at the emu that’s has been controlling the fig tree for some weeks. (Overcast and cool, so S.E. could use the binos for just a minute.) It’s Audacious!! whom you’ll remember has only one eye.

And . . . there’s definitely been ‘another female’ – not Felicity – vocalising just behind the fig tree (and I glimpsed it through the binos). It is fair to assume that it’s Mystery Female.

Why? Well, ‘forming-breeding-pairs’ season precedes ‘actual-mating’ season. A.E. and M.F. were absent from the clearing for some time. However, they’ve clearly formed a breeding-pair. Those with enough interest can go back to the observations I made of them ‘sneaking off’ together several months ago, when the presence of other powerful birds here in the house-clearing was leaning on their dream.

So, they courted; formed a pair; got driven off; resorted to other pastures on their ‘maps’; kept reconnoitring the fig tree (we didn’t observe this, but it’s a very good guess); came back when the odds were more in their favour; and staked out the fig tree. It’ll get interesting when more/more powerful birds arrive. Those other birds are already, I think, a little late in doing so. Greedy could turn up any time.

S.E. has been fairly sure for some time that it was Audacious: a bird’s behaviour can be a surprisingly good clue as to who it is. However, I was reluctant to just guess.

Overall, guys – it’s such a shame that the Project went belly up before the end of the year of observations – this is a great datum. If, for example A.E. and M.F. actually bred, and we observed the process, then we would have one of the longest ‘strings’ of data ever.

The fact that we know who the ‘stake-holders’ at the fig tree are tells us more about Felicity’s project: it hasn’t been Just Some Random Emus that she has been interacting/not interacting with in recent weeks. It’s been an ‘active unit,’ a breeding-pair that has an investment to defend.

I wonder if anyone noted the significance of F.’s ‘max’ behaviour over in the south west corner of the clearing the other day -- ?? Felicity has had plenty of chances to go head to head with Audacious, but she clearly doesn’t intend to. So, she’s exercising her reduced power by bullying ‘random’ emus passing through over behind the shed.


Finally, a note about Audacious: gee!! He’s doin’ okay for a half-blind player!! He’s not a heavyweight bird, and I sense that Mystery Female is not a major player either: her booms are a bit wimpy, and she’s very shy. So, for the first time ever, we have enough data to be able to peek into the ‘strategies’ of various players: Eric Plus, Felicity, Audacious and Mystery. Eric moved on at his convenience – and we wish we had more data on the chicks. Audacious and Mystery have managed their position well. You may recall that I commented, when Audacious first ever turned up, that he seemed to be good at ‘fitting in’ to gaps, at being where the food was when more powerful birds were absent.

Felicity seems (too little data) to be ‘managing’ her situation. She must be almost desperate to secure a consort. (Understand clearly, guys, the loss of Felix was an evolutionary blow to F., and so was the wound she sustained.)

We assume that that’s why she has been absent from the clearing. She can’t maintain control of the clearing while she’s away. She perhaps can’t displace the breeding-pair that has audaciously staked out the fig tree, a part of her turf. So, she’s fighting a rear-guard action. It’s noteworthy that S.E. hasn’t seen Audacious more than ten feet into the clearing since he turned up again. He’s clearly signalling that he isn’t making a play for the whole clearing, just for a share of the figs.

(I wonder if Mystery is sneaking up to get figs on the ‘blind’ side of the tree when S.E. is out of sight?)

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Portrait of a Passing Female

[It’s not poor vision. It’s heat and light. Sometimes, if it’s cool and overcast, I can use the binos.]

Oh, Wow!! I’ve been expecting this: the arrival of more players. I’d started the Portrait below, but a wild bird just streaked past the living-room window, so there are at least two, perhaps three, females in orbit at this second.

[Does anyone know why I can’t upload photos??]

Female audible. S.E. managed to get in place quite easily, and watch through the binos:

The stranger had come through the gums, and across the clearing, and taken a stance back in the gums, just by the fig tree. Had vocalised a little. Audacious Emu stood and watched. A stand-off occurred. Then he took a hundred-foot run-up to attack the stranger; bounced off like a bug off a windscreen; and kept going.

The stranger (she’s still audible as I type) ‘held station’ on the edge of the gums. Common behaviour. She yawned a number of times, so many in fact, that I thought it was something else – really, readers, about twenty times.
S.E. wonders if we’ve observed this bird before – the old S.E. would have checked old posts. Her neck ‘collar’ is ‘fragmented,’ which makes her quite distinguishable. She advanced towards me, sitting as large as life in the new garden.

[There is a cheekiness worth mentioning. When the wild birds are on the far side of the fig tree, they can’t see you; but you can often hear them wrassling about in the tree – they get right into it, readers. I’ve seen a wild bird so far into the tree that only six inches of toosh feathers are visible. So, you can walk quietly down to a little bench where the fence line used to be, and sit there, and when the wild bird moseys around to your side, scare the living daylights out of it with your presence.]

Then she wandered off to the track that leads off to the north; stood facing north; flared her feathers; and started booming – but while walking slowly, a thing I’ve never seen before.

So, ‘Kay, we’ve got more birds. This is just like the old days, guys. As fast as I can type. They are so close that I must move carefully here at the keyboard ‘cause they can see me through the window!!!

A pair of big dark self-assured birds has just come in from the south, crossed down past the house, and headed for the fig tree. This is what I’ve been waiting for, what I hoped to report for you. They look supremely confident, striding along in close formation.
[Late-afternoon sunlight is streaming across the clearing. There are robins and silvereyes at the bird bath, and parrots and shimmerinly-black-winged crows perched in the top of the fig tree.]
Wow!! One of the new pair looks so much like Eric!!

Felicity is here, and she may have a bird in tow.

There are now at least a half a dozen birds ‘in orbit.’

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

[Late dusk Sunday. Exquisitely still and quiet outside. Pumpkin soup and John Lee Hooker inside.]

Gee, I’m not sure if I should be sorry or not: pretty scrappy report, no real ‘context.’ Oh, well.

Audacious drove off the Dark Couple!! (One of the couple has remarkably light-coloured eyes, almost orange.) He must be ten percent lighter than either of them. So, personality has a lot to do with it.

Felicity didn’t come back for a feed. This says a lot about ‘her project,’ and makes me feel less silly about my conjectures:

somehow, Felicity Emu just happened to pass through her own front yard while interacting with wild birds (and I watched her scoff a couple of figs while skirmishing around the tree). Being with them is more important at this second than wheat and sultanas. Wheat and sultanas don’t pass on your genes.

Kay, enough for today.

If anyone is coming to watch the fun, jump on a plane tomorrow! Henceforth, we will have more and more ‘players’ steaming in formations through the clearing, and engaging in prolonged power-plays around the fig tree and in the block of gums behind it. If you had a telephoto lens, you could go home with a gallery of portraits. Over a month, you could certainly identify thirty or forty birds by their markings. Long-term readers remember that we identified about twenty last year, and that was only those that stayed long enough to be identified: Dark Emu, Funny Patches, Mohawk.

Why can’t I upload photos??

S.E.

 

[kbgh]

Great information S.E.

Sounds like Audacious is still "king of the Figs".

Hope the "Dark Couple" stick around for you to observe a lil more.

Please keep us posted on Felicity status and her "new consort". If they do mate .Will they nest in the gums near the clearing?

Wish I had the means to visit. This time of the year.

Hopefully, you can be our eyes and ears S.E.

Kerry

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Three days.

I checked the original thread, Mating-Season in Australia. If I can observe for three days, we have a year of observations. I did so much want to get to this point. Readers will remember that one of our main goals was to get a sense of the yearly cycle of emu life, and what began in earnest yesterday is the last phase of that cycle:

Does anyone know why I can’t upload photos?

‘Kay, it’s seven a.m., and we’re live. There are birds other than Audaciouis and Mystery here. I can hear them.
Nuh – got a wild bird in sight out the kitchen window. We shall proceed with real caution. Wait:

lone female. To the west. Standing still, grooming. It probably saw me, but it isn’t alarmed. We shall try to construct a ‘map’ of behaviour; but first, a note about yesterday:

The fact that Felicity came through with a schmooze of wild birds is a great datum. It means that this pasture is a minor pasture on some other emus’ ‘map.’ How do we know? Well, this pasture is not the home turf of those birds, or we’d know them by sight. Their home turf must be elsewhere; Felicity ‘took up’ with them somewhere locally while in search for a consort; as they travelled, they passed through her home-clearing.

And here, for the millionth time, S.E. will wonder aloud about Where Do All The Emus Go??!! This is a question that will remain unanswered.

Got a second bird in sight. On the east. Next to the other one. Nice dark bird. So, how many birds are here? At least four. How do we know that? Well, neither of the two visible birds was vocalising, but I heard a female on the north (fig tree). That bird is not talking to the two on the east. You can tell that by their demeanour. The fig-tree female is talking to another bird – thus at least four at this moment.

We have a couple of ‘stakes in the ground,’ readers. Unless all academics have collectively lost their minds, it is so that in some places during very bad seasons, emus migrate en masse in search of food. On the other end of the spectrum, we have enough observations to say that emus display territoriality. They certainly hold in their heads maps of substantial areas of bush and pastures.

Nope: no photos

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

It’s Dark Couple – the orange eyes are a no-brainer identifying mark. There’s a third bird visible.

Just got a great observation of a female puffing and booming and high-steppin’. Can’t quite see who is where at this second: we’ll move quietly and minimally. We have all day. (Let’s see how my eyes hold out.)

Territories: so, are there far more emus than S.E. thinks? If so, where were they all six weeks ago? when we couldn’t find a single fresh blessing? and had seen only a handful of wild birds in a month?

Answer: we don’t know. Insufficient data.

Is the annual gathering here a much larger one than on other local pastures? Such as Oudman’s?

Yeh, probably. The fig tree is a phenomenon.

But how far have these birds travelled to get here? Answer: we don’t know. Insufficient data.

What the project has achieved – I’ve seen no single mention of this sort of analysis in any text I’ve found on the Net – is to give a sketch of how far a bird might travel in a day, and how many pastures it would graze on, and how it would interact with other emus it might encounter. We have determined, for example, that emus roost close by pastures on which they feed. We have snippets of data to the effect of: ‘Emu A and chicks grazed on three pastures in a mile-square area in the space of four hours, and ended up back where they started. They drank together at a dam on the way’ or ‘a male with seven chicks grazed at length on a pasture, and when alarmed, withdrew to the east. The unit probably came from the scrub to which they withdrew, which is itself near a spot where emus cross the fence to access other pastures.’

That pattern is enlarged and speeded up at this time of year, as the birds switch from grazing-centric mode to breeding-season mode.


The birds seem to spend much less time grazing at this time. In spring, for example, the birds graze on flowers relentlessly for weeks, bulking up after the unsatisfying winter grass, I suppose.

Now and in recent weeks, though, while schmoozing, they seem to be doing a lot more standing around. It would be most instructive to be able to get the weights of a single wild bird at fortnightly intervals over a year, and chart them.

We now get to take a couple of hours break: all birds except Audacious seem to have moved off. No vocalisations for about a quarter of an hour. Now that The Big Jump is over, those birds can schmooze down at the corridor, or at The 400, or further afield. There is fresh pick to be found all over at present. It’s already two inches long under the apricot tree.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

K.B. asked me on the side about Felicity finding a consort. Here’s my reply:

‘finding’ a consort is not the thing, K. It’s ‘holding’ him. Felicity has had, to my knowledge, at least three birds follow her here. Felix stayed for some time. But the bird needs to ‘stick.’
Conversely, Greedy had a primary consort in tow for months before the beginning of last year’s mating-season, and a second consort flitting about on the fringes. She pinned Boy Emu down with a clutch of eggs, and turned up in spring, just weeks later, with another consort, Speckles.

Of Eric, we know that he had a ‘long-term consort’ in Mrs. Eric – or rather, she had him. There’s a lot to learn there, about who wears the pants in the emu household.

[Yes, I am repeating some things; but I’m trying to stick stuff together for the last time. These are almost the last notes of this project.]

The third snippet of data that we can use to analyse Felicity’s situation is the sightings of pairs of birds in general. We do not definitively know that any two birds that we see in, say, December, January, and February (that’s summer here, guys – the run-up to mating-season) are a pair. However, think of the two wild birds that I saw at the dam by the corridor a couple of weeks ago. Why would you not assume that they are a breeding-pair? Well, it’s gotta be S.E.’s call on this one, unless we had good footage of them moving about together. What I mean is that, if you watch two such birds at length, they sure do move as though they are a unit.

I think it's reasonable to assume that most of the 'pairs' of birds that we observe in late summer and now are indeed breeding-pairs. So, we have three indicators that a female who is still looking for a consort at this stage -- Eric and Mrs. Eric mated in March last season -- is behind the curve.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

There's a chick here!! It's just gotta be Alpha.

Got a good look at Dark Couple Orange-Eyes. Wow!! It's a really distinctive bird. It's feathers are quiet uniformly dark, not at all 'salt and pepper,' and the orange eyes are striking.

Back shortly.

Yup! Alpha chick dropped happily to its knees, to scoff up some wheat I put down by the carport.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

12:30 p.m.:

Alpha Chick is still here, drifting quietly about. He got run off the fig tree once by Audacious; but he won’t care too much about that because the fig tree is a big rip-off for Alpha: every single fig at the height of a six-month-old chick was eaten long ago.

[Now, we are short on data on Eric Plus. We had some concerns about how Alpha Chick would fare on his own. Well, I had a good look at it through the binos. Gee, readers, he seems to be thriving!! Doesn't look bedraggled. Has developed that handsome black-head-and-black-back-of-neck pattern to his feathers. He seems well able to move 'between the gaps,' so to speak, and the adult birds have largely ignored him.]

Audacious is ‘holding ground’ quietly. He intermittently eats figs; and, for the first time, he did a lap of the house – that is, he forayed well into the house-clearing.

The really interesting player is Extra Female: she arrived with a breeding pair – Dark Couple – some hours ago. She vocalised. Dark Couple left . . . and now she is sitting quietly at the edge of the gums, in just the same ‘station’ that I noted her in earlier.

What is the evolutionary value here? I don’t think she’s at all interested in Audacious (and, by the by, we don’t really know if Mystery Female is about the place. I haven’t heard a female vocalise down where she usually loiters). Is it perhaps that she knows she is in a good schmoozing spot; has chosen not to continue trailing Dark Couple; and is simply awaiting events?

[Whatever, she is no more than one-hundred-and-fifty feet from the bench in my garden. Wow! How cool is that! Got a wild female sitting practically in my backyard. Only in mating-season!]

S.E.