Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

'I remember you talking about the circuits before!'

It's really only patient observations of wild emus that answers the question here, Antique -- but it's a thing about which some data is lacking.

We once observed sixty somethings wild emus pass through the house-clearing in a single afternoon. And in the good old days, when the figs were bearing better, there were two dozen or more wild emus doin' the circuit thing around the figs.

They are almost always on the move. They are almost always jockeying for position.

 

[briefvisit]

Limpy Chick and Co. may have gone bush: no sighting for four days.



This is good. The chicks are half grown, and a part of their childhood education is to learn all the places – water sources, food sources – that Limpy Chick himself knows.



And it’s groovy that Limpy Chick himself learned the same things from his Dad, Eric the Emu.



It might also be that they’ve only gone for a temporary jaunt, and will turn up today or tomorrow. But this is the first time since the chicks hatched that they’ve been away for more than a day.



There is also the possibility that we’ll never see them again. This is the essence of ‘Planet Rothschildi’: a small number of ‘home team’ birds – who grew up here – are identifiable. Sometimes we have emus here whom we guess are ‘home team’ because they are so tame – but we can’t identify them.



Only two birds are certainly identifiable (and probably Limpy Chick also). They are Felicity Emu and Toosh Toosh.



Limpy Chick’s clutch is the eighth observed over 18 years. Let’s wait and see.



SE



PS It’s fun to conjecture about where they are. My bet would be to the south west, that is, they’ve crossed south into the National Park, and more likely to be over nearer the permanent waters sources of the Lake Muir Wetland (where the wild horses likewise base themselves.)

 

[AntiqueB]

Has UE been around?

 

[briefvisit]

Oh, she has been a happy emu! No one chasing her off -- indeed, she's driven off two groups: the Dad with the five chicks, and a group of wild birds who snuck in behind the fig tree.

[Just a minute ago I saw a chick down by the fig tree. It is like Wild Dad and his five.]

SE