Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/opkkdrA

Me from the same spot. Look carefully at the chick (and you can hear Dad again, still on the left).

The crappy photos yesterday was me trying to get a shot of each chick. They are a little different. One seems a little small.

But look at this chick in the last second of the clip. You can see that its plumage shows almost no 'black head stage' black pin feathers on the upper neck. This chick -- still cheeping -- is close to adulthood.

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/xN5XoXO

Light rain, early morning. Dad and The Cheeky Chicks entering the clearing. Big Boom Female doesn't dare this.

We put down some wheat, and the interlopers and LC shared it, with LC just hissing and foomphing a bit every twenty seconds for so.

 

[briefvisit]

I’m a happy camper, but it sure is getting quiet here on BYC! So I’ll sit quietly for a while. If you post here, I get an email, and shall check in.



Dad and The Cheeky Chicks have been here four days in a row, and we have managed outstanding observations. They are still cheeping. They have black pin feathers on the necks and head. They are still with their Dad. But it’s now mid-summer . . .



SE

 

[Finnie]

I’m a happy camper, but it sure is getting quiet here on BYC! So I’ll sit quietly for a while. If you post here, I get an email, and shall check in.

So how did your rental inspection go?

 

[briefvisit]

'So how did your rental inspection go?' Oh my goodness. Still several days to go. The older I get, the harder it gets -- it's actually a five-bedroom farmhouse.

But recuperating in the garden at dusk is just wonderful.

A kangaroo was eating the leaves of the grape vine. So we're getting close to The Ugly Time: critters are getting really hungry.

And tomorrow will be over 100 degrees on the old scale.

 

[AntiqueB]

Your yard must be full of animals looking for food.

 

[briefvisit]

'Your yard must be full of animals looking for food.'

The house-clearing is a way station, Antique. We don't follow the kangaroos: we don't know how territorial they are. But both the emus and the mustangs seek food across a range of pastures.

 

[briefvisit]

The chicks are here. And I shall write some notes about Offsider later today. He is an outstanding consort.

 

[AntiqueB]

Limpy Chick did well, then!

 

[briefvisit]

'Limpy Chick did well, then!'

Ah! It remains to be seen. Bear in mind, campers, that LC and Offsider are an 'early' breeding-pair. Pairs don't usually begin to form until late summer.

But they already seem well established. So there is very good reason to suppose that they will stick together. And as the male usually (?) incubates on the female's territory, there is some chance that this will happen in this case.