Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

Well, yeh!

You are beginning to get the hang of it, Antique. We sit quietly and observe (or walk about the bush and observe – we used to do a lot of that). Emu stuff happens.



But here’s a pop quiz for you: would we see the chicks raised here?



No. We may see the ‘seizure of territory’ and mating and incubation here; but if the male does incubate, he will leave with his chicks in tow the minute the hatch is complete.

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/3a4Wmh8

Here is the seventh clutch of the project. It's Toosh Toosh's second clutch. Now, his first clutch spent months and months here; but this clutch we only every saw twice.

Two occasions, about a week apart. Toosh Toosh turned up with the clutch. Got a triple ration of wheat and sultanas. And we haven't seen him since.

It'll be two years next spring.

SE

 

[AntiqueB]

Do we know what makes a good incubation place, then? I would think the emus would look for a place where food will be available, but if the Dad just leaves with the chicks. . .

 

[briefvisit]

I am typing right now, but I boast that the following innocuous clip is the rarest footage of emus in existence:

https://imgur.com/jBhQf8u

 

[briefvisit]

This is Greedy Emu and Boy Emu having a tryst in the gum trees as they decide on a place to have the nest.

We were extremely fortunate to witness two of these. This is the first. The second was dumb: just about ten feet in from the corner of a block of gums, so the male would have been visible to the world.

The third was where the nest eventually was, about 40 yards into a block of gums (half way up the drive way).

We cordoned off the drive way for eight weeks.

['Mating Season in Australia']

 

[briefvisit]

'Do we know what makes a good incubation place, then?'

We do.

The second incubation we observed – Felicity Emu and Noddy Big Ears – was ‘textbook’ for us, and it went like this:



the pair first spends weeks thrashing the feathers off any other emus that encroach on the section of pasture that the pair has chosen. Then, in the month short of mid-winter, they gradually move in a smaller and smaller area of this turf, which will abutt the trees.



Now, about the first of July – two weeks short of mid-winter – we assume that the mating begins. Recall that a female can store viable semen in her body for days as she lays eggs.



And about this time, Mr. and Mrs. Emu have twee little meetings, in the trees, just off the clearing, as they think about a nest.



The ‘nest’, we note, is not very nest-ey at all! I once found an empty bird’s nest in the plum tree. It was a ball with an opening at the bottom. When I put my hand in, it was like a feather glove, a very nice place to hatch.



But an emu ‘nest’ is just a spot where the twigs and branches are pushed a bit to one side. It is nothing like the birds’ nests you see in documentaries.



Now, at this point – in the fortnight after egg-laying has presumably begun – you are gettin’ down to the wire. The pair still comes for their bit of wheat each day, until one day only the female comes.



Then you assume that the male has begun incubating, and you start quietly scouting the gums just off where the ‘world getting smaller’ behaviour has been going on.



Final Note: it’s of interest that, once you get the hang of it, you can find roosts off any pasture on which emus are grazing. If there are fresh poops on a pasture, you can walk about 30 yards into the trees, and patiently walk along, parallel to the pasture, and you’ll find night-time poops. And if you get down on your hands and knees, and put your nose down near the ground, you’ll find a chest feather, where the emus breast was pressed into the earth as it slept.



In other words, a roost and a nesting-spot are, as best we understand, both going to be just off a section of nice pasture.

 

[briefvisit]

Yesterday evening – deep deep dusk – we were walking about a half mile from the house-clearing.



Dad and The Cheeky Chicks! It was them. I sat and talked to them, and they came quite close. My guess is that I chanced upon them at the moment they’d turned off the big track I was on, and were about to find a roost.



So: Dad and The Chicks remain a unit at this time.



SE

 

[briefvisit]

Also: this morning at first first light, Undersized Emu took sultanas from my hand. It's a mystery. Yesterday it walked almost half way into the car port. These are the behaviours of chicks who've actually been tamed.

So -- ??

 

[AntiqueB]

Do people ever take a cute chick they find in a nest, and then let it go later on?

 

[briefvisit]

People don't find nests, Antique! You can be within forty feet of an incubating male, and not see him.

Western Australia is splendidly large. There's a lot of bush mixed up with those males sitting quietly in the pouring rain, waiting for their eggs to wiggle.

SE