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.

 

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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?

 

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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

 

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We've lost a chick. Limpy Chick and Co. were here at dawn -- four-day absence -- but there are only six chicks.

I felt stupid, as though counting and re-counting would reveal the seventh chick.

And the cold-hearted business of observing wild emus? Toosh Toosh lost one of his five at about this age, that is, when a chick is knee-high and fast, and we presume, pretty safe.

We have no idea what happened to the missing chick. Did it get separated from the clutch, but is alive and well? We don't know.

SE

 

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https://imgur.com/a00vnU3

So, U.E. has no leverage whatsoever with Limpy Chick. But otherwise, she struts about foomphing as though she owns the world.

 

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We’ve seen The Other Dad – the wild one with five chicks – both yesterday and this morning. No photo yet.



So, here is ‘circuits’! (and below: How Observations Are Undertaken). Wild Dad and Co. have been sighted four times – albeit briefly. And each time by the fig tree, which is a food source at present – albeit not a good one.



This means that at this time, Limpy Chick and his clutch dominate the house-clearing; but they usually only come just through twice a day (to get their handful of wheat). So they are usually off elsewhere, perhaps to the south west.



Meanwhile, we know nothing about Wild Dad and his clutch except that all four sightings have been brief and in the north east corner.



Both Dads are likely ‘working’ some circuit of dwindling patches of dry grass and permanent water (dams in this case – and my bird bath). And sometimes those circuits briefly overlap.

 

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https://imgur.com/iqm4tmi

Notice that U.E. has a distinctive neck plumage. She has no 'ruff' at all, with instead a sort of nice black 'V'.

 

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https://imgur.com/qolsGGy

Finally: perhaps the moments I enjoy most are like this one. All the tame emus here somehow understand that the non-emu gives them wheat. They aren't afraid of him -- heck, some I've known since they were tiny.

The fun to me is that they have no idea that this is 'my place' or 'the house-clearing.' Undersized Emu has grazed, perhaps had a drink; and now she's just sitting quietly in the middle of nowhere in the bush -- except it's under the plum tree in my garden.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

So, if you were committed to serious observations, what might you do at this point?



You would ‘gear up’ for observations – in winter, for example, a cushion, jumper and jacket, binoculars, and a handful of dried fruit – and set up an observation point away from the house-clearing. If the project is a big one, it may involve weeks of observations, and involve walking a hundred miles or more.



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



You move to the area of the observation post. You must be careful to get into position without being seen – without setting of the ‘bush alarm.’ This can be really hard work, especially in winter.



What do you hope to see? Well, anything related to the territorial movements of emus! including checking dams and fences for feathers and footprints on the way home.





First up, though, you’d hope to see what you came to look for. One time, we staked out a ‘nursery’ where Dads raised young chicks. Excellent results. On another occasion, we mapped the arrivals and departures of groups of emus from a particular pasture adjacent to the National Park.



Over time, the observer is able to piece together pieces of the puzzle. For example, in a number of places, because the fences and roads create a ‘mosaic’ of travel, you can quite accurately map the major movement patterns of the wild emus. It’s good data, not conjecture.



So, in the present case, you’d observe somewhere to the south west, in the hope of seeing Limpy Chick and Co. passing through, and somewhere to the north east, in the hope of seeing Wild Dad and Co. pass through.