Planet Rothschildi

[Tame Emu Guy]

Yup, Yinepu. It seems so.

S.E.'s notion has been that of 'sticking': the females cruise about, over weeks, looking for a (primary) consort. In the case of my birds, that male then follows them back here; gets spun out by It All; gets a first meal of wheat; and then either stays or doesn't.

Greedy has had no trouble with consorts.

Our past Thread posts show that Felicity has turned up here with, I think, four different birds. One -- Foxtrot Charlie -- lasted some days, but didn't 'stick.'

So, that last bird that F. arrived with?? Haven't seen it since. Gotta assoom it didn't stick.

F. is now well behind the curve.

S.E.

[Blast!! Just blundered outside, and scared off a pair of wild birds!!]

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Deep breath, S.E., or you’re gonna blow a gasket!!

The roof of the farmhouse is a safe place: access ladder, and ‘flat spots’ at the edges almost all the way around. I have just got down from a half an hour sitting on the ridgecap.

Blast! Had some photos, but they’re poor. I’ll get more.

So, from the ridgecap – and only from the ridgecap – you get to look down into the gums behind the fig. I had just got into place . . .

[There was a New Holland Honey Eater singing its heart out from the top of a 25-foot tree. He was right in front of me, and by switching from long-focus to short-focus, I got to watch him. Absolutely splendid!!]

. . . when E.F. Plus began withdrawing quietly to the west. Then, I realised that Dark Couple (9:30 a.m.!!) were coming in from the east.

So, we have a good datum, thanks to the ridgecap-view: the power-relations between Dark Couple and E.F. Plus are established. S.E. doesn’t know if Dark Couple vocalised at all, or whether E.F. Plus saw Dark Couple. (S.E. heard nothing; but the wind is rising – especially on the ridgecap . . . )

The point is that they changed places without the least show of conflict.

‘Kay, I just checked outside. Somehow, E.F. and Audacious seem to have regained position at the whippy post. Perhaps Dark Couple stayed only briefly.

We note that only one of the Couple was in sight while S.E. was up there, and it wasn’t eating figs. It stood quietly in the gums about fifty feet away -- ???

Rankings at this second:

Felicity: no consort; makes plenty of noise; but flees when threatened (if not loitering in the backyard . . . )

The Odd Couple: Extra Female made a fine show of holding off New Players yesterday afternoon, but is clearly inferior to Dark Couple

Dark Couple: seem to be at the top of the present pile, but show no inclination to stay

New Players: only 10 a.m., guys!! Early days yet!! New Players and E.F. seem well matched. Outcome unsure.

Yet More Players: ??? well, who knows? It’s that time of year. We have yet to observe a phalanx or schmooze of eight or ten birds – that is, all turn up at once.


se

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Below: vegie monster!! S.E. has seen dino-head appear from the greenery with a brilliant yellow zucchini flower in its maw. Today it's a tamarillo:






For the first few minutes that I was lying under the fig tree, I thought that there must be dozens of silvereyes.

Then I realised that there must be hundreds.

Happy fat-breasted little green and silver birds competing darwinicially for their share of the fig tree’s largesse.

Then I fell asleep, flat out on my back, in the dirt under the canopy. Haven’t slept that well in years.

When I awoke, I just lay there, looking up.

The ground is cool and it smells . . . well . . . earthy. The canopy is green and brown and blue, and flashes of prismatic sunlight lance through as the canopy sways in the breeze.

The emus (didn’t this all have something to do with emus?) have all wandered off in the newly-returned autumn sunshine, and S.E. gets to have lunch.

[‘All my life/I bin doomed to the blues’]

Seriously, as per yesterday’s notion, they have travelled to another pasture to schmooze, and I’ll bet a bottle of Cooper’s that they turn up here again before dusk.

The farmhouse living-room looks like mum and dad went away for the weekend.



See him?




See her?

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Late afternoon: an odd notion has occurred to S.E. – what if the emus took me at face value when I came to the fig, and have simply decamped?

It’s getting close to emu beddy bye time, and they haven’t shown up! When I lay down under the tree, they walked around gurking and grunting for about ten minutes, then left in a huff, in a group, including Alpha.

S.E. went for a last ramble this afternoon – but before I write my report, here’s a thought:

Would it be wise to convert the ‘last day’s observations’ into some snippets? One would be a bench-in-the-garden-based account of a good big stoush. It seems to be getting late in the season for one to happen, but it would be a fine thing.

The other would be a couple of brief ‘closure reports,’ which might – your choice, readers – be more satisfying than simply, for example, not finding out if E.F. Plus comes back tomorrow.

[Tee hee – you all think I shall trickle along. Almost certainly no. Need a rest, and have scheduled some other projects – the New Garden if nothing else. I really really did want to finish the year.

I tell ya what but, I was a sad emu this afternoon as I walked back from The 500 via the corridor, thinking that I likely will not again be formally observing there, such familiar territory.]

The reports could answer some questions:

Does Felicity stay? And get a consort? And lay eggs???????
Will Greedy or any other major player turn up?
Will Audacious and E.F. become partners?
Who will control the clearing?


‘Kay, went walking in the mid-afternoon (and to know that the weather has come good, look at the sky in the photo at the top!)

Passed across Meadows One and Two first: no birds; both pastures without any skerrick of fresh pick – a little surprising. No blessings.

Went to The 500 – just across a few hundred metres of the near corner. The pasture there is ‘on line.’ No blessings. Here is the best bit we saw:



Walked across to the top of the corridor. No birds sighted.

Came home.

Coming up to the house, I spied a pair of wild birds leaving – they had spied me. It wasn’t E.F. Plus. It wasn’t Dark Couple. It could have been New Players.


We should try to figure out more about how and where breeding-pairs form, then how and where they stake out territory. Think of recent days: Dark Couple; Felicity arrived with a bird in tow; New Players (and the pair this afternoon if it wasn’t New Players). Extra Female was the only free-floating bird.

Gee, the ridgecap was fun!! The fact of being able to look down into the patch of gums behind the figs provides a great new perspective!!

On the way home, got this shot for E.H.:





Finally, here are two shots of the corridor, almost nostalgic for me. This was where we were on the first occasion that we ever successfully staked out a pasture, and birds came on to it while S.E. was there. Long-term readers remember just how much fun we all had – really, all of us – as S.E. began naively expanding the project. My birds had been long tame at that point, and I had spent plenty of time watching the birds here at the house; but no form of assertive data collection was underway then.

‘Kay, back to work. Have a good look at the two photos below, fellow emologists; and I’ll meet you on the far side:

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Now, I’m gonna give you a fairly extensive questioning in a second, so go back and have a further look at the photos if you like. Remember S.E.’s notion of ‘being the emu.’

What do you see?

We’ll work off the top photo (the second is to the right):

for a start, a track across the foreground and a block of commercial gums on the left. (You’re forgiven for not noticing the other block at the back.) So, this is a ‘human-shaped environment,’ as so much present good emu territory is. Sadly.

If you were an emu, you’d only be on this pasture if you knew how to get there, which would likely involve crossing fences; and it does: I have been watching birds cross the fences in this area for years now. The only emu corpse that I have ever had a chance to examine was a bird that died twenty feet from an established fence-crossing spot here. Poor critter almost certainly injured itself getting through.

Next, did you notice the ‘wetland’ in the foreground? All the trees in the right foreground, and the reeds, indicate that it’s swamp – and it is. In three months, it will be six inches deep. Wetlands are a pivot of emu life.

Next: who made estimations of the size of the open area down beyond the commercial gums on the left? that is, the pasture itself? It’s about four hundred yards deep, and about a hundred yards wide. That’s a big pasture, guys (though it’s not actually great pasture, but you can’t tell that from the photo.)

Next – bonus points – did anyone figure out that there is scrub in the middle at the back? Scrub is not a place for an emu to get fat.

Okay, there is feed, good feed sometimes, in the aisles of the blue gums at certain times of year; but mostly there is none. Zip. Nada.

The scrub, though, is likely to turn up a little sometimes.

The only big flock of birds I’ve ever seen on the run was exactly in that bit of scrub in the photo. It was early on, before I was paying attention.

One afternoon, I was blundering about down there, and startled a flock that I now know had come across from Coffey’s. (Guys, it’s Coffey’s farm down the back of the corridor, that is, the ‘back of this photo.’)

It was one of the first times I saw these birds negotiating scrub at high speed. They were at ‘Mach Two,’ which means not Mach One, with head and neck still upright, but ‘flamenco mode,’ head straight out, running absolutely flat strap.

I counted twenty four as they hurtled through the scrub, which is full of stones and tree trunks. I’m not a horse guy, but I doubt if you would or could gallop a horse through such scrub. Without breaking your neck.

Only on two occasions in five years have I seen a flock in that mode. It's awesome.

Okay, S.E. gotta roost.

 

[kbgh]

Quote: Brief snippet's will at the very least give all us readers two thin gs.

Short updates would keep us in the know.

They would also be a means to keep in touch with you S.E.

Kerry

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Morning, K.B. Oh, I'll still be here as a normal citizen. Checking the latest on chicks and hatching is a favourite part of my day.

The Delphi Oracle said, 'Know thyself.' I always like to do a thing as well as I can, and when I awoke to the sounds of gurking and booming early this morning, my first impulse was to get the binos and climb on the roof. It's an engrossing pastime -- that's the problem: it's engrossing. One datum every so often does not an analysis make.

S.E

[Had visitors this morning -- two vehicle movements. So, the birds have skeddadles. But there was a wild pair here early.]

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Goodness! I forgot to explain Why The Corridor Quiz?!!

The corridor, beloved readers, is prime emu territory. What S.E. knows about the corridor is that emus like it. Over five years, over an area ten miles long and two deep, it is one place where I have consistently seen wild birds at all times of the year.

Places like the Top Corner and The Nursery are ‘specialist’ spots: the wild birds are there sometimes, and sometimes not.

Think about S.E.'s repeated gentle proddings about having at least shrubs in an emu habitat. Well, if anyone set out to make their emu enclosure a miniature of the corridor, they’d surely be on the right track: water, ‘big cover’ [a tree], ‘small cover’ [a couple of shrubs], as big as possible an open space in the middle [where the birds can get as long and fast a run as possible, to exercise their legs], and a little enclosure for shelter [which we all know they’ll ignore. We’re still workin’ on this one. In the wild, it seems that emus almost always roost under trees, so it seems that they do choose shelter -- ??]

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

S.E. got some good data, so here is a report, from the bunker. [Cold; computer and Internet playing up.]

Sunday: E.F. fought off at least four birds. Several sharp clashes.

E.F. Plus has been making two-and-three-hour excursions away from the whippy post. Why? Where do they go?

Figs finished very soon. Winter is coming on fast.

Overall – one month into autumn – the birds seem to be on the move; but when we say ‘birds,’ we mean breeding-pairs. We haven’t seen a yearling or a chick pass through the clearing. Where are they?

Is it ‘nursery-like,’ that is, are there two sections of emu society, one fairly static (somewhere?), and the other, the pairs, roaming about? S.E. wonders if this is presently the time between the formation of the breeding-pairs, and the actual mating. The pairs are wandering about, trying to find territory to stake out.


S.E. has underestimated E.F. It may be that she arrived as a ‘tag-on’ with Dark Couple, who are a more powerful unit; but otherwise, this blow-in bird has held off every pair except D.C.

E.F. and Audacious are really beginning to look like a pair. S.E. thought that they just ‘co-habitated’ at the fig tree; but they have been travelling around together.

The Felicity Strategy​

Felicity is back in play!

Two days ago, while sitting in my roost, which is on the ‘off-side’ of the house from the fig tree, S.E. heard quiet calls. Felicity was outside. It was deep dusk, at least a half an hour after E.F. Plus had gone to roost. Unusual for a bird to be travelling at that time.

Now, Felicity may only be a bird; but I am pretty sure she knew what she was doing. On Second-Last Day, you’ll recall, she came early to the fig-tree-side of the clearing, and was sent packing by E.F. – wrong strategy!

As I went out to feed her, I was listening for calls from her that would indicate that she was communicating with a bird out of sight. Bingo! She made such calls (and they are sometimes answered, and sometimes not).
This type of emu talk is a favourite of mine. The female is able to produce such clear responses in the male.

Then two birds came in sight.

Felicity roosted hard by, but we didn’t hear her call during the night. I saw her briefly, with Boy in Tow, at the fig the next morning.

Is it co-incidence that E.F. wasn’t there? Is E.F. committed to holding the clearing? Does Boy in Tow make a difference?

Tuesday morning:

the Felicity Project is going well. She is here with a male. We’ll assume it is the same bird, Boy in Tow. S.E. is sure enough it’s not Felix; but I’ll check the description of Felix in the past posts.

B.i.T. has a good distinguishing feature: he seems to have a little ring of black feathers around his ear hole. So, we shan’t call him ‘Boy in Tow.’ We shall call him ‘Noddy’ [Big Ears].

Noddy is not a big bird, but seems to be in good condition (like having both eyes . . . ). Quite light eye-colour.

Felicity and Noddy slip down to the fig tree when E.F. is away, and it seems as though Felicity is trying to stake out the southern side of the clearing.

This is a good strategy. S.E. also notes that she has been arriving, as for months past, from the east, from somewhere down near Coffey’s. Don’t forget that E.F. is much much less comfortable with the south side of the clearing because it puts her closer to the human stuff. There is always a ‘home team advantage’ for the tame birds here.

This is the sixth time that S.E. has had the chance to see a new consort introduced to the house-clearing (and wheat): Mrs. Eric, Foxtrot Charlie, Boy Emu, Speckles, Sarah, and Noddy. What results, as right now, right outside the window of the bunker, is an opportunity to observe at length a truly wild bird – hence my decision to write a post.

Apart from one occasion only, S.E. has always been able to find a distinguishing feature of any given bird: pattern of body feathers; the pattern of ‘collar,’ neck feathers, and colour/shine of neck skin; other identifying features (scars); etc. (I saw a distinctive bird by the tree on Sunday. If the project were not almost finished, I'd have researched the Original Thread: I had a gut feeling that this odd-looking bird was here last year.)

The exception was a trio of birds last autumn that were absolutely mystifyingly identical.

And there’s a study project here: could one guess which chicks in a male’s clutch were genetically his? One of the things that S.E. noticed about Alpha and Omega as they grew was the difference in their colours. The first thing I noticed about the dad and chicks that I saw in the roadside paddock was that the chicks had the same colour as dad.

Alpha and Felicity have both provided the strangest blessings, of an absolutely sump-oil-black colour.

The photo at top of page is Noddy enjoying his very first meal of wheat ever. Unsurprisingly, he is super vigilant, turning his piercing gaze in all directions. This is the ‘off’ side of the clearing; and, if you can get the front window of this bedroom open without being noticed, you can get very very good observations simply because the wild birds can’t see you.

In closing, those of you who have come on the whole journey might find it of interest to pop back to the opening pages of Mating-Season in Australia. I did, and was amazed. 360-something days ago, we were headed together into last winter.


S.E.

 

[yinepu]

YAY Felicity!
hang on to this one you silly girl!