Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/om3Yakr

This is ‘Girl Boy Emu,’ whom I thought was male for months until she started booming. She’s the only emu ever to just walk up to the wheat, and stay – so, she’s not a member of Eric’s family.


She’s been away. Two other very shy wild birds, one female, have been spending long hours under the lilly pilly tree each day. The lilly pilly tree is well known to local emus.


So, yesterday, Girl Boy Emu returned from her travels, and I gave her some wheat. It’s a break from protocol: she’s not a ‘here emu.’ But okay. Change is the only constant.



GBE is vocalizing aggressively, at the wild female bird behind her, as she scoffs her wheat. The lilly-pilly-seeking wild female is clearly not up to tackling her. She stood for a while, trying to figure it all out, then began sidling around GBE to get to the lilly pillies.

And here --

https://imgur.com/mNiGvyY

-- are the currawongs shouting at each other in the gums by the house. (They like the lilly pillies also.)

Y'all can visit. I heat a pillow on the heater while I make coffee. And take the pillow and coffee into the clearing, and watch. Brisk easterly wind at dawn today. Quite cold.

Mustangs were here all day yesterday, including a baby. You can watch the emus, the other birds -- including sometimes eagles cruising overhead -- and the mustangs.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

 

[Evadig]

I like hearing about the wild emus at your place. I can imagine sitting there watching them! What do they like about the lilly pilly tree as opposed to other trees?

 

[briefvisit]

https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/81/60/39/240_F_381603965_VRO3orqYk9tGbeFtbwGds0Cv0jKIDu1Z.jpg

 

[briefvisit]

Whether it’s the starvation months at the end of summer, Evadig, or emus ‘shmoozing’ about the countryside in flocks in autumn, or Dads and their clutches, or breeding-pairs, wild emu life is about traveling around to reach food sources (and access to water), and fighting other emus for access to those.



Lilly pillies bear a big purple berry. You can use the lilly-pilly-knocker-downer stick here to flog the tree, and bring down literally hundreds at a time; and the emus will eat them hundreds at a time.



At different times of year, it’s different food sources; and here in the house-clearing, it’s the powerful players who get the lion’s share.



But way way back in the posts, you’ll find reports on ‘National Park emus.’ I once counted 122 apricot stones in a single poop of Eric’s. But the National Park birds’ poops indicate very clearly that the range of foods those birds can access is much much smaller than the dominant birds – I mean ‘starvation’ much much less!



Over time, as you gain experience observing the wild emus, you become well attuned to this reality of food sources and more/less dominant birds: grass, lilly pillies, plums, figs, wheat (from me!), a range of wild flowers, and some other stuff.



You find feathers on a fence, showing the passage of birds to and from . . . somewhere. You find tracks on the edges of dams. You find poops on pastures that are ‘active.’ You find roosts. You find poops on tracks leading through the bush. You find old poops that provide data about what that emu had been eating. (You can often tell what season the poop comes from.) And of course, actual sightings and observations.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

This is Felicity. The flowers are Cape Weed -- a pest.

But for years, if Felicity's travels hadn't taken her too far from here, she'd turn up, and spend a fortnight eating yellow flowers.

https://imgur.com/NalgxI5

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/IZ5SDtT

Watch carefully. See the patch of light just right of centre? See the emu legs? That's a wild emu foraging for lilly pillies just forty feet from the house . . . but hiding on the 'off side'!

SE

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/2ejNM6c

We start with this clip, above.

There were five emus present when I walked out. You can just see one pair retreating before the closer emu.

The 'closer' emu is one of a pair.

Now:

https://imgur.com/b4avxOB

GB Emu, the tame-wild female, was out of sight. She approaches me. And you can now see the emu that's to the right of the 'closer emu.'

And GB Emu has lost her crown! The two newest emus skeddadled into the bush when I appeared.

But the other pair -- 'closer emu' and offsider' -- are driving GB Emu off her breakfast wheat. GB is making a lot of fuss, but she clearly can't drive them off.

The lilly-pilly season will last only a few more days.

SE

 

[The Coop Crew]

Just found this thread! Following along! So amazing.

 

[briefvisit]

The last lilly pilly has been eaten. We are now in the ‘zone’ between the finish of the lilly pillies and spring:

https://imgur.com/65a5Ibj

These flowers are tiny, but after sixty or eighty days of mostly grass – except for yummy lilly pillies! -- the wild emus delight to get down on their knees and scoff these.



Folks may be forgiven for thinking, ‘Emus eat grass.’ They do, but they also work hard to find berries and flowers and fruits – think of any part of a plant where nutritious elements are present.



Scotch Thistle, for example, is a pretty thistle-y thistle; but the emus scoff them down.



This is Number One:

https://imgur.com/rmrSc8f

She is ignoring The Rule About Eating My Garden, and is scoffing down the capsicum flowers. The speed and thoroughness with which they do this – denude a plant of flowers – is astonishing.



Finally, here are Alpha and Omega:

https://imgur.com/ZGrGTWm

This clutch (of Eric’s) was here for some months, and we spent about ten weeks of cold spring time following them around, watching what they ate. It’s some of the best data we’ve ever obtained. The chicks live in a sort of Giant Food World – as they are no higher than the flowers – and they eat enormous amounts of non-grass stuff.



SE

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/9eLRsLS

There is wild-emu poop in the house-clearing, and spring blossom in the old orchard.

GB Emu was here two evenings ago. You recall she is tame but not a member of Eric's family. Has a distinctive call. She got some wheat.

So, let's see if my health is up to keeping some notes as the weather improves.

Let's see who is paying attention:

why is the Double-Wattled Cassowary found in both Australia and New Guinea?

The photo below is a hint (albeit a difficult hint):

SE