Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

PS Limpy Chick is winning at the moment; and the house-clearing is rapidly shifting into summer mode. 98% of the nice yellow flowers, for example, have been 'burned off' by late spring sun.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

'So do emus roost at night?'

Whereas I understand that flying birds roost on a limb -- as a kid, I recall the 'roosts,' just off the ground, that our chickens had in their little chicken house -- emus roost on the ground.

Watch emus. You'll see them drop to their knees. Then they drop further to the sitting position, with legs tucked up under. (I think they look like ducks on water . . . except on grass.)

But if you watch closely, you'll see a third thing: they may sorta push their chests down and their tooshes in the air just a little.* This is how a Dad makes a little room under his vent for his chicks. Chicks in the first weeks roost under Dad.

Now, all of the above, Antique, is a thing that almost no one knows anything about because emus, tame or otherwise, really really really don't like to be followed to where they roost.

So much of what we know is 'reconstructed' from watching emus sit in daylight, and observing roosts that you find in the bush. (It's actually not hard to find roosts adjacent a pasture that is being grazed by emus.)

But in closing: at dusk, emus pop into the trees opposite where they were grazing; and plop down to spend the night. They poop during the night where they roost, which is how you find the roosts. (A roost poop is different from a daytime poop.)

And the coolest thing in the world is to find a roost; and get down on your hands and knees; and put your nose right down near the ground; and find a feather that fell out where the emu's chest rested on the ground. Thus, chest feather on one side of the roost, night-time poops on the other side.



*Females do something like this during copulation. They go seriously chest down into the dirt, and lift their tails up.

 

[briefvisit]

GB and Consort have not turned up for days. Let's wait a little longer.

SE

 

[AntiqueB]

GB and Consort have not turned up for days. Let's wait a little longer.

SE

If they do not return, does that indicate they found a better place, or that the partnership dissolved?

 

[briefvisit]

‘If they do not return, does that indicate they found a better place, or that the partnership dissolved?’
The answer to your question, Antique, is: welcome to the observation project!

They may turn back up in a week. We may never see them again – many many many emus have passed through over 5.500 days. They may or may not remain a breeding-pair whether we know it or not.

But the plums are coming on, and those are a major attraction. So there aren’t really any better places.

PS Limpy chick has been here. She and an adult female have formed an alliance. They are foraging under the pear tree.

 

[briefvisit]

Let’s ask two questions?

Where are GB and Consort?

Does the male of a breeding-pair sometimes assist the female to defend their territory?



Yes. He does. And how do we know? From plentiful direct observations.



Now bear with me for a minute:

over on the old Oudman place – across the road from me – there is a tiny pasture just next to a gap in the fence; and if you check it at certain times, you’ll find an amazing density of fresh emu poops.



Why? Because the gateway is between the hard scrabble area of the south-east corner of that block and the yummy grass in the house-clearing of that block. (The emus go into the old sheep yards there because even after twenty years the sheep poop is still producing lush grass.)



So emus crossing from that barren area to the house-clearing and nearby pastures stop just inside that gateway – the whole ‘pasture’ is only half the size of a tennis court – and graze. And poop.



We’re not muckin’ about here, readers. That hard-scrabble area is 250-300 acres (but has permanent water and good tracks).



If you swing east from that area, it’s 1,000 acres down to the river crossing, which takes you to Spring Valley, which is 2,000 acres.



If you swing west, its maybe 4,000 acres to the edge of the Lake Muir wetlands. (and south? It’s fifty miles to the coast).



So, where are GB and Consort?



We don’t know because we have limited data.



And the plentiful poops on the tiny gateway pasture are a good example of this sort of data. Critters don’t (usually) wander aimlessly. They have mind maps of where they’ve been and what was there (and at what time of year it was there).



Suppose that you were that pair standing at that gateway. Has either of you been beyond it? Very likely. Is this a good time of year to cross this stretch? Yes. There’s still plenty of grass.



Where are we headed? What destinations do we have to choose from? Well, Spring Valley has great water and pastures. (Gotta cross the river first but.) And it abuts the National Park.



What about west? Well, you need to skirt a property that has sound fences -- the old Masters place. The next permanent water from Oudman's is probably the Lake Muir wetland. So, when you get to Pindicup – the place west of the Masters’ – you are on the edge of the wetland.

[So it's Spring Valley, the river, a block of National Park, Oudman's, Master's, Pindicup, the wetland.]



Here’s a tiny slice of it the Lake Muir wetland:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Lakemuir.JPG/426px-Lakemuir.JPG



So, as I noted, welcome to the project! We have quality data, on some things, from plentiful observations. And we have ‘fuzzy equations,’ about other things, that we construct from various data.



And we have wild unproven theories that either do or do not get proven over time.



SE

 

[briefvisit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Muir#/map/0

 

[briefvisit]

If you big up the map just a little, you can see Noobijup Rd. north east of the Lake Muir group of lakes. That corner where Noobijup and Muir Hwy meet (it's not really a highway!) is the bottom left corner of my block.

You can see the river. But the farms -- Oudman's, etc. -- are not marked. So you can't see the permanent dams on those old farms.

Further south? In the National Park? Towards the coast? We're not sure how much permanent water is in there, if any in summer -- apart from the Frankland River itself.

Thus, campers, you begin to see the sort of ' emu map' I am trying to explain.

For example, a Dad with a clutch might spend months on my block -- we have in the past observed a 'nursery' -- because of the abundant grass and water. But you see that Dad would not be taking his vulnerable clutch beyond Oudman's, which would be seriously inhospitable territory for emus with little legs.



SE

 

[briefvisit]

Au revoir, GB and Consort! Haven't seen them for days at this point.

Limpy Chick and a female (who looks exactly like her) have been taxing the apricot, pear, and plum trees.

One other random wild emu.

SE

 

[AntiqueB]

I'm guessing Limpy Chick and her friend will dissolve the friendship if either takes a mate.