Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/jQOMJVh

Here is Bush. I got this shot with the turn-the-picture-around function on my camera: he is standing behind me, perhaps why he came so close.

 

[briefvisit]

So, breeding-pairs?



The thing here, readers, is methodology. Some observations are rock solid. Some are flimsy. We practice clipping them together, like Lego, in different shapes, in order to better understand what we are seeing – that is, the big picture of what we are seeing.



Our understanding of ‘breeding-pair’ is basically sound: there’s no doubt that emus form pairs, and mate. But are there . . . ummm . . . uncertainties? Yes.



For example, Supreme Emu likes to say, ‘The first day of spring is emu birthday.’ Clutches of chicks don’t appear mid-summer. They don’t appear mid-autumn.



If you go out observing in spring (and you know where to look), you will see Dads with clutches of chicks.



Their plumage tells you their age to within a month or so. So, do emu chicks hatch in spring? Yes. Do all emu chicks hatch exactly on the first day of spring? No – we have, over the years, seen clutches of somewhat different sizes. Therefore, some difference in the hatch dates.

 

[briefvisit]

So, the breeding-pairs of this year’s observations?

Limpy Chick and Offsider were here for months. We saw them stalwartly defending their territory. We saw several (much too early) matings. Then Limpy Chick disappeared.

Presumption? He was incubating. But we don’t know.



Undersized Emu and her consort. We haven’t observed U.E. and her male doing much breeding-pair stuff. We’ve been more interested in her – she’s been around for months and months – for her tameness/intelligence. (And she’s funny).



Her policy has always been a canny one of non-confrontation. So we haven’t seen her and her consort ‘doing territoriality.’



And Bush and Haystack? They are latecomers. They haven’t tried to ‘command’ the house-clearing – indeed, they don’t even spend much time here each day.



So, where do they spend their time? We don’t know. Any mating observed? No. Territorial behaviour? A bit yesterday!



Let’s keep watching.

 

[Finchbreeder]

Wild Emus are obviously different to caged birds.
But caged birds will form pair bonds, and happily accept a different mate without quarms.
Ditto, forming the bonds and not filling or not laying eggs.
So the forming of bonds does not guarantee the rest at all times, sometimes it is not till the 2nd year you put a pair of caged birds together or change their mate that you get a result.
Maybe Emu's also - sometimes - need a "just hanging out" year.

 

[briefvisit]

'Ditto, forming the bonds and not filling or not laying eggs.'

Ah! Now this is interesting!

One term I've picked up from the evolutionary biologists is 'shmooze.' We use it as a noun, to describe the loose groups of emus that get about together in autumn. We've also heard the term 'flocking up.'


Now, if there's an error here, I accept responsibility. As 'we' -- I -- tried to perceive some 'framework' to All This, we assumed that breeding-pairs were not a form of shmoozing -- just hangin' out, gettin' about together -- but, given the length of the process, purty durn tightly focussed on Big Green Eggs.

 

[briefvisit]

Back a little later

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/6fOOPdK

Random. Practising with Imgur. The Dad here is Toosh Toosh

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/6fOOPdK

 

[briefvisit]

https://vimeo.com/1103967909?ts=0&share=copy

Oh! You can hear a little of the calls. That’s a change.



So, Bush and Haystack do not, it seems, seek to command the house-clearing; but they have begun a little territorial behaviour.



And of note is that although when Supreme Emu is around, it’s Bush that is far and away the more curious/tame; when interlopers turn up, Bush continues pecking up the wheat, and Haystack ‘operates’ against the enemy.



In this clip, though, Bush has come to join her. Haystack is the one in front.

 

[Finnie]

https://vimeo.com/1103967909?ts=0&share=copy

Oh! You can hear a little of the calls. That’s a change.



So, Bush and Haystack do not, it seems, seek to command the house-clearing; but they have begun a little territorial behaviour.



And of note is that although when Supreme Emu is around, it’s Bush that is far and away the more curious/tame; when interlopers turn up, Bush continues pecking up the wheat, and Haystack ‘operates’ against the enemy.



In this clip, though, Bush has come to join her. Haystack is the one in front.

The link doesn’t appear to work…