Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[AntiqueB]

I'm betting on (3). They paired up early, as I recall, and have been mating. Do you think any chicks hatched could survive in the winter?

 

[briefvisit]

Two data:

One: at dusk yesterday, Offsider turned up for wheat. We didn't see her enter the house-clearing: but we saw her leave, to the north.

Two: Old guy sat (all rugged up) from ten minutes after first light this morning until forty-five minutes after first light. Finally heard vocalisations to the north, but a little to the east, behind the fig tree.

[Wonderful to watch the birds: kookaburras, magpies, corellas, cockatoos, rosellas, wrens, parrots, and others.]

Offsider stepped out of the bush; went and had her bit of wheat, and vocalised a few times.

She is still here at this second.

 

[briefvisit]

'Do you think any chicks hatched could survive in the winter?'

This was my very very very first thought, Antique. So:

we observed Alpha and Omega for several months. Here they are:

https://imgur.com/1Cdw0QV

They are much bigger here than when they arrived.

We've observed them gleefully breasting their way through chest-high wet grass at dawn on cold mornings -- still plenty of cold mornings in the first month of spring. And, of course, chicks can still literally get under Dad at night when they are still small small.

Next: the first high-quality 'spring food,' things like tiny ground flowers, actually appears well before the first of spring -- by the calendar. So perhaps what we're looking at here is a 'gap' of about a month during which the weather is a little colder than chicks usually experience, and the food is a little less nutritious than chicks usually experience.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

There is one note to add. Years ago -- there's a thread about this somewhere -- we observed on a 'nursery' to the west. It was pretty early in spring. (The dates on the posts would tell us.)

One morning, we sighted two clutches of chicks within about three minutes; and noted at that time that they were significantly different in size. Could the chicks have hatched a month apart? From memory, yes -- and I don't recall if I noted this in the post; but I remember doing the mental arithmetic at the time: "How 'far back' into winter might those bigger chicks have hatched?"

 

[briefvisit]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/planet-rothschildi.714603/

Post 6:
'I went out this morning to look for chicks in the same place as last time. When I reached the fence that separates my place from The 500, I sat down to rest and scan the open spaces on either side. When I looked up . . . there was a bird watching me. This time I recognised the pattern: the chicks were beside him – but there were two clutches, I think. I saw only one adult, but I saw chicks of two sizes. So I guess that the two clutches were together, but that I didn’t see the second male.'

 

[briefvisit]

'I moved quietly across to the next aisle, and saw another male with another five chicks. They were different clutches. The chicks in the first were twice the size of the chicks in the second.'

 

[briefvisit]

Datum this morning:

Supreme Emu was observing when Offsider hove out of the gums to get her morning wheat.

We aren't gonna win this one, readers!

We went out yesterday afternoon, and began 'blocking out' the area that our almost-nil data suggests might be where Limpy Chick is. But if Offsider is wily, she need only approach the house-clearing (where she suspects she's being observed) from a slightly different angle, and the area to be searched becomes massively larger.

Let's finish up with what we know:

the female of the breeding pair has turned up alone, morning and evening, for three days. Three times we've been able to observe her actually emerge from the gums at dawn.


*You say, 'There's a male emu "in there" somewhere.' You choose north, south, east, and west boundaries to the area. You mentally divide it into blocks. You begin systematically walking up and down and back and forth on each block.

 

[AntiqueB]

You will wear out at least one pair of shoes!

 

[briefvisit]

Deep Breath

It's a gorgeous morning. There's a female emu vocalising just to the north.

To read some of the earlier posts is to understand how very much we've learned.

If we are very lucky, Limpy Chick may choose to bring the chicks here. Don't forget that in the case of Greedy Emu and Felicity, it was a home-team female bringing a male consort to breed here. This time is a first: Limpy Chick is a 'home-team' male who has brought a wild female here. So the rule that the male breeds on the female's turf, then goes bush with the newly-hatched chicks, may not be in play this time.

Otherwise, Supreme Emu is headed into his 18th winter in this old farmhouse. Lilly pillies are coming on.

SE

 

[AntiqueB]

Sounds like Supreme Emus tend to stay put.