Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

Ok. Finnie is here. How nice.

I have held off posting photos until . . . the site came to life. Photos tomorrow.

Two breeding-pairs under observation.

Undersized Emu and her consort haven't been here for several days. So, watching and waiting.

Bush and Haystack have been here every morning, and most evenings. We are several days into the theoretical laying period. And it's about a week until we expect Bush to not appear.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

U.E. and consort? No sighting
Bush and Haystack? Here at dusk yesterday and dawn this morning. Quiet close vocalisations in the a.m. Surely Haystack.

https://vimeo.com/1100473263?ts=0&share=copy

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/76BEPyU

Still learning Vimeo and Imgur.

This 'Harry Potter tree' is near the house-clearing. I went to look at it to see if emus are grazing there. (Seems no).

 

[briefvisit]

https://vimeo.com/1097699627/eb54d2b80d?ts=0&share=copy

This clip was taken a week ago. It's Bush and Haystack doing territorial stuff -- 'operating' -- against U.E.

 

[Finchbreeder]

Sounds promising for a good breeding season.

 

[briefvisit]

'Sounds promising for a good breeding season.'

Words like 'flimsy' and 'ethereal' are appropriate here, Finchbreeder.

This morning, for instance, The Old Guy Here ran out into the ran; threw down wheat for Bush and Haystack; and ran back into The One Warm Room in The Farmhouse. Not what you'd call solid scholarship. We have uniquely excellent data on some things, and flimsy data on other things.

The behaviour of Limpy Chick and Offsider is a mystery, out of the ordinary.

Neither breeding-pair now under observation -- Bush and Haystack, and Undersized Emu and her consort -- are actually based here in the house-clearing. So we are flying on a wing and a prayer.

However, our knowledge/the literature has given us our chronology: something then something then something. It's a week to mid-winter's day. We wait and watch.

 

[Finchbreeder]

Fully record kept show budgies do not do what is expected of them in mums specially set up breeding rooms - so you are doing very well in a "freerange" situation.

 

[briefvisit]

' . . . you are doing very well in a "freerange" situation.'

Thank you.

 

[briefvisit]

Difficult first first light observation for Supreme Emu this morning: it’s just so cold.



Bush and Haystack were vocalizing (outside my bedroom window, really) no later than a tiny strip on non-black on the eastern horizon. Clear. Still. Big moon.



Bush continues his delightful habit of ‘chortling’ as the eats.



S.E. spent ten minutes auditing: three females audible. One to the east, and two to the south west. The birds to the south west took some differentiating. It was two different females: different ‘signatures’ to their booms.



No matings observed.



Bush and Haystack must have roosted close -- ?? Surely they don’t leave a further-away roost to be here at first light?



We keep observing: tomorrow is Big Green Eggs Day.



SE

 

[briefvisit]

So, somewhere in the wind and rain, fertile emu eggs are lying on the ground, prolly hidden under a bit of leaves and sticks. We had extensive discussions about this when Greedy and Boy Emu incubated here.



A female emu needs days to lay a nest full of eggs. Simple as that. But we understand that the male doesn’t sit until the laying is finished. If I were an emu egg, I’d be unenthusiastic about lying in the wind and cold for ??? three or four days? A week?



This is a hazy hazy area of our ‘knowledge’!!