Planet Rothschildi

[yinepu]

it will be interesting to see what the owners of that farm have to say about their emus

in the meantime just be sure to take care of yourself

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Overlapping minor and major territories​

S.E.’s tasks this morning took him across a number of pastures. He noted three ‘groups’ of emus: first, an orange-eyed bird (have we sighted it before?) and perhaps another bird with it.

Second: S. and S.

Third: F. and N.

So, S.E. has seen F. and N. on four pastures today; and it’s not yet one o’clock; and he saw an almost-certainly-F.-or-N. blessing a bit further away. This couple is comfortably in control of its ‘major territory,' the house-clearing here,' so they don’t need to walk a half a mile or more to graze.

The orange-eyed bird came through early. (Got a good look at it. Orange-eyes!) It must have come from another pasture. It didn’t roost here last night. It cruised through here. It headed off to Meadow One. So, that’s three meadows for that bird(s) before nine o’clock. Again, that bird(s) has no reason to wander about. Grazing is plentiful on all pastures at present.

Sarah and Speckles also came through the house-clearing this morning. They didn’t roost here last night. (S.E. observed.) They were headed, when I first saw them, for Meadow One. When I next saw them, they were back at the clearing, and then they headed off in the opposite direction.

[Yinepu, I audited: the suite of vocalisations was crystal clear. Sarah was a little alarmed at my presence. She slipped into the gums, while Speckles continued grazing, and there emitted at least twenty ‘triples’: ‘kook, kook, kook; kook kook, kook; kook, kook, kook.’ Speckles said nothing until right at the end. Then he said, ‘Gurrk.’ (‘Kay, ‘kay – I’m coming already!’) Then he followed Sarah.

The ‘triples’ were quite new to S.E.]

So, guys, that gives us a nice ‘roll call’ of birds’ movements for a half a day. Each of the three groups has a major territory (we assume). Each of them visited a number of minor territories in a single morning – ‘overlapping minor and major territories.’

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Nest-Building?

S.E. is unsure, guys:

two days ago, S.E. saw Felicity and Noddy in the strip of gums between the house and the dam on the eastern side.

Now, long-term readers remember how bamboozled S.E. was last year by the proceedings. Steep learning curve!!

Last year we saw Greedy and Boy Emu doing what we later recognised as nest-choosing, fussing-about-together stuff. We weren’t sure.

Then we were fortunate enough to see Greedy lay. So then we were sure. Well, we just saw F. and N. doing the same sort of stuff in the same place they were doing it in two days ago.

It’s amazingly close to the house. Too close, I’d think; but, fabulously, it’s within sight of the bench in the garden!

S.E. shall resist the strong temptation to rush down there, and crash around, looking for evidence.

Bear in mind that it is entirely possible that the first coupling has happened.

What he will do is try to keep an eye on the spot in question, and on F. and N.

[We can’t upload pictures. My Internet is playing up. We have pictures of where F. and N. have been roosting, on the exact opposite of the house-clearing. We also have some pictures from down near Coffey’s swamp paddock. I promise a photo fest as soon as we are functional again.]

P.s.:

the orange-eyed bird passed through the clearing yesterday. S.E. was reading in the sun. It came past so close that I could see the colour of its eyes without the binos. It seems to be ‘free-floating.’ We’ll call it ‘Oscar Emu’ [orange eyes]. Sex unknown. S.E.

P.p.s.:

this is cold-blooded, readers: I think we need to post Greedy the Emu as missing. We haven't seen her since spring last year. She may have decided to start a new life elsewhere -- she lost control of the house-clearing to Felicity last winter, you remember -- or she may have got herself killed in the bush somewhere.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Breeding-Pair Defending Its Turf


‘Kay, as fast as I can type:

the front bedroom is special, citizens, because, being ‘set in under’ the front veranda, you can see without being seen; and that is the bottom line for us: they know you’re there, or they don’t know you’re there.

F. and N. just co-operated to ‘bounce’ a phalanx of at least four birds. Two of them may have been Speckles and Sarah. Sarah’s skinniness and shyness are a fair ‘marker.’

Notably, Noddy assisted.

Then again, it may not have been S. and S.: the dominant bird – the one up front – raised its ruff to Felicity.

Felicity replied, guys, with the best ruff-raising we’ve seen this year, and just a couple of vocalisations. No mistake about her body language this time:

‘You want a piece o’ me????!!!’

Could this uncharacteristic enthusiasm be related to the maybe nest-building?
S.E. has no ideas, and looks forward to hearing yours.

How ‘bout this, denizens:

S.E. goes into a ‘double mode’ whereby he puddles along with Stuff That Really Needs to Be Done, but undertakes to observe as best he can – in and around the house-clearing only – for a couple of days.

Please be patient with the lack of photos. If we get any, they will eventually be posted. It was a fine observation.

The ‘choreography’ was so clear, and it was cool to see Noddy with his ruff raised, manoeuvring with Felicity to defend their breeding-turf. It’s the first time that F. and N. have advanced on foreign birds in order to defend their turf.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Fifty Males Calls in a Minute!!

No idea!!

There may be a misidentification here.

‘Speckles’ – without Sarah – has punched a hole in F. and N.’s defences, and come down to the lilly pilly tree (passing about thirty feet from S.E.).

Felicity came in slow and stolid pursuit.

‘Speckles’ moved on, around the house, then emitted fifty calls in under a minute. About thirty were a string of long and spirited gurks. Never heard anything like it!

Then ‘Speckles’ dashed into the scrub.

The emus that were here earlier were sighted just up by the dam. So, they may well be in play.

[Identifications are always ‘composite’: rain (changes their appearance), poor light, birds only part seen, birds moving, distance, being/not being in company with an ‘expected’ bird (Speckles and Sarah, Eric Plus).]

se

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Dawn Sunday, readers. Warm. Light overcast. Fabulous pink and blue colours in the sunrise.

Firstly, a note about the ‘second-time-around thing’: S.E. is reporting things at present are probably not new in emu world. They’re just new to S.E. The amateur emologist here is awash with data.

Last night I heard both male and female vocalisations. It was certainly F. and N.

S.E. doesn’t recall hearing male calls at night at this time of year.

F. and N. are now in a tight ‘orbit.’ They spent almost the entire day yesterday (apart from repulsing intruders) within sight of the house. They seem also to ‘drift’ to the roosting-corner of the clearing as late afternoon comes on. By early dusk, they are within a hundred feet of the edge of the gums. Emus do, indeed, almost literally step from the last pasture of the day into their roosting-area, and from that roosting-area straight back onto that same pasture at first light the following morning.

S.E. checked on F. and N. at last last light yesterday evening, and was quite surprised to see how late the pair were grazing. Really deep dusk, guys.


It’s seven thirty a.m., aficionados. The fire is going ‘cause a guest is coming.

We saw the breeding-pair emerge from the s.w. corner at first light. That is, they continue to roost regularly in the s.w. corner, but the maybe-nesting activity is in the n.e. corner.

As an experiment, S.E. knocked down the daily quota of lilly pillies before he put the wheat down. Noddy didn’t even bother with the wheat. S.E. noted long ago that the wild birds generally tend to return to eating ‘native’ stuff sooner than the tame birds.


S.E. will hitch to town tomorrow morning. He doesn’t usually leave early early when he hitches in winter – it’s just hard work, guys. But . . . as we are observing at present . . . we’ll walk to the river before first light, and audit that stretch of bush. Towards the end of last winter, as the unattached males and the ‘second-time-around’ females seek to form alliances, there are spirited conversations between in the last two hours of darkness. However, S.E. has everything to learn about these ‘conversations’ in the first half of winter; and I really really enjoyed last year's audits on that stretch. That's when we first twigged to the fact of the vast network of staked-out territories each one of which is commanded (include by vocalisations) by the resident female.

‘Kay, visitor has been and gone. F. and N. drifted off. But . . . before my visitor arrived, I observed:

Felicity cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-ing in the gums just near the house, though in a different area. While she was cluck-clucking, she was picking up and dropping bits of bark and stick.

Is this nest-building behaviour, guys?

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Felicity and Noddy in tight tight orbit.
Just a couple of calls last night, including Noddy.
Off to town.
S.E.

 

[yinepu]

sounds like they feel comfortable enough with their "pet human" to build their nest close to your home

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Morning, Yinepu!

hmmm . . . there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on.

S.E. tries to attend to the difference between how cool it is to have the tame-wild birds hanging out here, and – on the other hand – providing the best possible info to readers.

Three times we’ve seen F. and N. doing this ‘nest-building??’ stuff. Each time was away from their far-corner-of-the-house-clearing roosting-spot. Each time it was, not so much close to the house, but rather in the open.

Guys, is Noddy a young bird? Does a young female often take a young male as consort?

Boy Emu incubated less than a hundred yards from the veranda here – but, ahh!! he tucked himself fifty yards into a solid block of gums. You saw the photo: he was all but invisible!

Felicity is a private person. She doesn’t like S.E. to know exactly where she roosts; and if you were observing with me from the block of wood by the house, guys, you’d have noticed that this ‘s.w. corner’ where F. and N. are roosting is behind the GP shed (that is, from where S.E. generally watches the pair). That is, it’s as private a spot here in the clearing as they can get.

Here’s a thought for us: could a young breeding-pair (whether captive or wild) simply fail, through inexperience, in its first attempt to breed?

Surely there’s a small genetic voice telling these birds that (regardless of how much they love their pet human) they need to build their nest in an optimal position.

S.E.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Audit down by the bridge

I have oversimplified a thing:

S.E. was sitting down by the river (on the side of the road) a half an hour after first light. There was a female quietly calling – short strings of double booms – about a hundred-and-something yards to the south. There was a male calling quietly and irregularly to the north.

Well, guys, that wild bird did not simply step into the scrub, to roost, from the last pasture it grazed on the evening before. From where it was when I heard it, it would have had to walk up to and cross the highway, then walk a bit further, to get to the fence that it needs to cross to get into the aisles of the blue gums on Coffey’s place.

[Surely it’s not grazing only in the scrub of the National Park??]

So, it retreated a fair distance to roost yesterday evening.

This was the first audit this season from a spot ‘off base,’ and S.E. was delighted to realise that we are now thinking of the bush around here as a vast-but-still-developing patchwork of breeding-pairs’ territories, each of which is vocally ‘marked’ by its primary defender, the female.

F. and N. are here for brekkie, and clearly enjoying the morning sunshine: it was cold here last night.

S.E.