emus | jmgoyder

Cabbage wisdom

by jmgoyder

I am very tempted to rename Son ‘Commander’ in this blog (because he is so bloody bossy!) but will refrain from doing so at the moment – well at least until he and I settle our power ratio arrangement. As you can see, for me this presents a bit of a challenge as he has a habit of standing in the sky!

There is another character here who is somewhat commander-ish: the tallest emu. His resemblance to Son is uncanny in so many ways. I admire them both for their courage and skill in not quite conforming. You see, not quite conforming is a clever way of not conforming at all, but still belonging.

This tallest of our emus, for example, doesn’t like cabbage (and, according to all of my research, there is no such thing as an emu who doesn’t like cabbage). I finally tried lettuce with him and he looked at me, condescendingly, as if to say, ‘about time you figured it out.’

Come to think of it, Son doesn’t like cabbage either, but I think that might be quite normal for non-emus!

Animal

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Birdplay

by jmgoyder

I love watching the birds at play. Even though they spend most of their time pecking around for food – grass, grubs and so on, each breed has its own version of fun:

The guinnea fowl love to dig themselves into any grassless patches and roll around in the dirt. They have also formed a choir and their performances are frequent (about once every hour or so). Their music is a bit of an acquired taste which visitors often refer to as ‘noise’ but we are used to its strange echoes.

The peacocks, of course, love to dance the ‘fantail’. Now, even though it’s only the males who do this, the females find it enormously entertaining (occasionally!) They also play a game called ‘scare-the-hell-out-of-Julie’ which consists of blood-curdling screams which never fail to stop me in my tracks, as they are so piercing.

The chooks love to play hide and seek in amongst the bits and pieces of farm debris. The hens are particularly good at hiding which is probably because they don’t like the roosters’ idea of play which I think is better left undescribed here.

The turkeys love a game called ‘peck-the-duck-until-it-wakes-up’. Even though the following picture is of one of the Bubbles (turkey) and Tapper (duck) when they were young, they still play this game with varying degrees of success.

The golden pheasants used to play a war game that turned out to be not a game at all but a war, with the loser banished to an adjacent property and the winner remaining here, victorious and splendid. And lonely. War games are no longer encouraged here.

The Indian runner ducks love to run around, pretending to be fast and, yes, before they met the emus, they thought they were fast. Unfortunately for the Indian runners, most of the timed races have been won by the Emerys, but the ducks are very dignified losers. The Emerys do concede, however, that they have the distinct advantage of loooooooooooooonger legs!

The best game of all here is waterplay and, since the following photo was taken, we have added a pond so that it isn’t just Godfrey who gets to play.

Oh, I nearly forgot – Buttons, the weiro, likes to boogie on my shoulder. He seems to be able to turn his head all the way around, then does this nodding thing really fast, then he shakes himself, then the whole dance move repeats itself. Since he is on my shoulder more than he is off my shoulder lately, this means that I am constantly covered in a sprinkling of tiny feathers that look like dandruff, as well as, you know, weiro waste (the excitement of the boogie seems to affect his little bowel – oh well!)

The following youtube of a crow snowboarding is accompanied by a rather serious little article about whether birds like to play in the same way humans do. I don’t think it matters.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/2012/01/16/snowboarding-crows-the-plot-thickens/

Wings

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Waste not, want not

by jmgoyder

The other day, when I was taking the emus for a walk around and around and around the garden (a previous post describes this marathon!) one of them spied a bottle cap in the grass and promptly gulped it down before I could stop him.

Let me explain: usually our lawn is not strewn with bottle caps, however, having cleaned up after Son’s 18th birthday party, I had missed several of these, some of which had been thrown into bushes or potplants.

Anyway, I was alarmed as, one by one, all of the emus found and swallowed a bottle cap each as if they were on a treasure hunt. They kept hunting for more as if bottle caps were some sort of rare delicacy. I wrestled a couple of these sharp metal caps out of sharp beaks and then got down on my hands and knees and quickly picked up the remainder. When I did this, the Emerys all stood back and watched me as if they thought I was trying to be one of them. The cheekiest one kept trying to grab the caps out of my hand!

There is a lesson here: birds like shiny objects and are attracted to aluminium, plastic, glass, jewelry and anything reflective, so you have to be very careful. Since the bottle cap incident I have been terribly worried that one or all of the Emerys might get sick, but so far so good. I have been giving them plenty of cabbage to make sure! Hopefully the cabbage will provide the roughage required to eradicate the bottle caps (I will not go into detail here about my search for digested bottle caps!)

This has made me realize, too, how the littering around the countryside is probably killing some of the wild birds. We live on a very short road and yet, last week, Son and I collected a garbage bagful of cans, bottles and plastic bags (some empty, some full) that had been dumped here and there on the sides of this road. This probably happens in every country’s countryside – awful.

Other recent realizations:

Weiros like cardboard. Buttons has now chewed through nearly a whole pizza box. Yeah, he wasn’t interested in the leftover pizza at all, only the boxes. He is getting fat! Don’t worry, we have now taken the rest of the pizza boxes to the local dump.

Red-tailed black cockatoos like anything and everything chewable. Wantok particularly enjoyed power cords, furniture, Abs exercise machines and, before we set her free, human fingers and especially thumbs! I imagine that, by now, she will have eaten a good part of the forest in the hills! Any cockatoo who can eat a wooden chair in one sitting, can eat a tree or two easily! I don’t miss the furniture, which was old anyway, but I do miss Wantok!

I miss a lot of things….

Wings

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“I’m just walking the emus – be back soon!”

by jmgoyder

Ha! ‘Back soon’? Sure. Try nearly two hours later – argh!

Now, I should have known I might have to do several laps of the house, the farm, the district, the state, the whole of Australia, because the other day I let the Emerys out and they wandered farther than usual. In fact, I only turned my back for five minutes and they’d gone – phut!

Son and I searched the whole farm – he on his motorbike and me on foot, then in the car – and eventually we found them in one of our front paddocks, right next to the actual road! In order to get that far they’d have had to get over a water channel and through a few fences. We eventually herded them onto our driveway and all the way back to their yard, by which time Son was furious with me but I will spare you our little tiff, except that I was commanded NOT to let them out again.

Well you know me; I want all the birds to be able to free range. So yesterday afternoon while Son was sleeping off his party, I let them out again. This time I followed them everywhere and that’s exactly where they went – everywhere!

I became terribly thirsty but I didn’t dare go inside and get some water because I thought they might disappear again. And I couldn’t even go to the box of cabbage near their yard, so I didn’t have anything to lure them back there. Days later (well, that’s what it felt like), Son woke up and came outside to find me exhausted and bedraggled. “Help me!” I gasped wearily.

Son, his mouth set grimly, took over the herding while I staggered on wobbly legs (I haven’t walked that far in years!) to fetch cabbage and, in no time, they were in their yard. I then received a stern lecture from Son to which I nodded compliantly and made several false promises.

Today, I will let the emus out again but this time I will take enough water and supplies for several days. If you don’t see a post from me for awhile it just means the Emerys and I have ventured into the hills. I will leave Son in charge of Godfrey and the gang. He’ll love that!

Wings

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The waterbabies!

by jmgoyder

Emu 1: So this is her idea of a pond is it?

Emu 2: Stop complaining – apparently we need to talk to that Godfrey guy, you know, the big gander. Oh, this chopped cabbage is like heaven; she really does that well.

Pearl: Mr God, sir, those emus want to talk to you.

Godfrey: What now? Can’t you see I’m busy? This water is filthy!

Seli: Sorry, sir, but I think they want to form a working party to sort out the pond situation.

Godfrey: This is getting ridiculous. Since when do emus like to swim? Woody, go and tell them that they may use the kiddy pool for the time being, but no splashing, no pooping and one at a time only.

Woodroffe: Yes sir.

Godfrey: Stop swanning about, gang! This is serious.

Emu 1 to other emus: C’mon, Emerys – this is lovely!

Emu 2: The Godfather said only one at a time.

Emu 1: Okay, just give me a moment. Oh, wow!

Godfrey (honking from a slight distance): Tomorrow’s meeting will commence at 6am sharp. We will form a working party consisting of three geese, one duck, one turkey and one – I repeat, one – emu. In the meantime the emus may continue to use the kiddy pool but not the pond. Agenda items:

bigger ponds
more ponds
cleaner ponds
separate ponds for different species

Phoenix 2: Have you guys heard about this meeting?

Peacock: Don’t worry about it, Goldilocks, it’s just a poultry thing.

Phoenix 2: Oh.

Whitey: You know little Tapper, the duck? He told me that the Godfather wants to have regular meetings from now on. Can you believe it?

Phoenix 2: But why?

Whitey: Well, Tapper thinks it might be all Zaruma’s fault because he keeps secretly pooping in the pond.

Bubble: Godfrey said he only wants one turkey in the working party, so do you want to do it? It would be a good experience for you.

New turkey: I would be honoured.

Bubble: Good boy.

New turkey: I’ve only been here a little while but I really love it.

Bubble: Mmmm.

New turkey: There’s never a dull moment!

Pearl: Woody, would you mind representing me at the meeting today? I have a headache.

Woodroffe: Of course, Pearly, you’re my favourite sister in the world.

Pearl: You do have Diamond.

Woodroffe: Diamond’s a boy – remember? So she’s my brother.

Pearl: Oh, my head is pounding.

Ola: Woody, where’s the meeting?

Woodroffe: The greenhouse.

Ola: Is the woman coming?

Woodroffe: Hell, no – Godfrey would never allow that!

Ola: Well, I think she should be involved.

Woodroffe: I agree but I’m not going to bring it up.

Ola: In that case, I will. I adore her.

Woodroffe: I do too, but please don’t tell Godfrey.

Zaruma: Will you guys shut up. Let’s get this over with.

Ola (whispering to Woody): Little does Zaruma know he’s in big trouble.

Woodroffe: Well it’s his fault for pooping in the pond all the time.

Emu 1: So much fuss about nothing!

Emu 2: I dare you to get into the kiddy pool while they’re in the meeting.

Emu 1: You are on!

Emu 2: No, no – I was just joking. It’s too risky!

Emu 1: I’ll show you how I dunk my head in the water – it’s amazing!

Wings

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The ‘new’ emus

by jmgoyder

We have now had the new Emerys (the name I call our emus) for nearly a month, so three days ago, I let them out of their yard for the first time. They were hesitant that day and just hung around outside their yard, but on the second day, they ventured further into the paddocks they are looking longingly at in the above picture. I was hoping they would stick to the five acres around our house but, as Son pointed out rather sternly, they are wild birds at heart.

Each day it has been a challenge to round them back into their yard. They do come when I call out “Emerys” but they take their time and I have to have a lot of cabbage to tempt them. They love frolicking in water so now what I do is to turn the hose on into their yard and create a big puddle and this also lures them in but it takes a lot of patience.

Unfortunately we have had two casualties. The first was on the day of arrival (I couldn’t write about it at the time); one of the six emus, once released into the yard, could not stand up. It kept trying and falling over and this went on for a couple of hours while the emu farmer was still here. We tried everything but eventually the farmer said that once this happened there was no hope, so he had to put the emu out of its misery. This was done very quickly and humanely, but I was devastated. Then, a week ago, the same thing happened to one of the others and Son had to do the deed as the emu was extremely distressed and seemed to be in terrible pain and kept cheeping. This was the same day Wantok flew away so it was a pretty dreadful day. The picture below shows one of the emus sitting down (this one is perfectly well) but this is what the two deceased emus did when they got sick; each of them would get to a sitting position, then flop to one side or the other, legs flailing, then get to a sitting position again and so on. There doesn’t appear to be any explanation.

On a more positive note, the remaining four emus are thriving and loving their hours of freedom. They are much bigger than our first Emerys so I think they might be safe from that fox, but I can’t be sure, so I spend a lot of time following them around which I thoroughly enjoy. It’s hilarious to watch them run in their zig-zagging way. They often bump into the peacocks and geese which frightens the hell out of both parties. Strangely, the only one they don’t seem afraid of is Godfrey, the gander, who hisses and honks at them to which they reply with a surprisingly deep grunt, almost like a bark and this shuts him up!

Ha!

Wings

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Emu update

by jmgoyder

I just wrote this exhilaratingly, amazingly fascinating post about our emus and it’s disappeared! Not only have the brilliant words disappeared but so have the incredible photos! I will try again tomorrow – sorry.

(For new readers, I am being tongue-in-cheek!)

Animal Uncategorized

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Do birds smile?

by jmgoyder

Do birds have facial expressions? I’m not sure, although many bird photographers (some of whom are my favourite bloggers), capture pictures of birds looking scared or angry or surprised – even happy – but I think might be skilled photography, not the bird actually shifting its features around to express any emotion.

Again, I’m not sure.

For me, it’s this lack of facial expression that makes it difficult to ‘read’ birds. Here are some examples:

Godfrey (the gander who likes to bite me) has the same arrogant expression on his face, regardless of whether he is defending his ‘brood’, tripping over his big feet or chasing me.

The Bubbles (our turkeys) have permanently ferocious expressions even when they are giving me their equivalent of a hug, which is sort of like wing-in-your-face+beak-in-your-neck gesture.

Zaruma and Tapper (the Muscovy ducks) always look innocent and befuddled, despite their canniness.

All of the geese look sweet and needy, even when they are fighting over food.

The emus look inquisitive and intellectual, even though one of them can’t tell the difference between a camera and a cabbage.

King and the rest of the peacocks always look a tiny bit disgruntled even though they are obviously ecstatically happy here.

Okay, so many of these bird expressions seem to contradict the reality of the situation, and I have started to take a better ‘look’ at their eyes because I think this may be the key to ‘reading’ them better.

Husband’s Parkinson’s has affected the muscles in his face, so much so that he is unable to smile properly, even when he’s happy, like now – happy to be home. I never realised, until today, how much, how much, how much I miss his huge, boisterous smile.

But the birds have taught me this: smiling isn’t everything!

Wings

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Baby emus by ‘dou dou’ and the new Emerys

by jmgoyder

‘Dou dou’ had made me some baby emus! Check them out at:

http://doudoubirds.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/baby-emus/

Anyone would think ‘dou dou’ had real emus right there in front of her because these look so much like our first Emerys it’s uncanny! Our second Emerys are much bigger of course, so I am thrilled to be getting these little ones because they will remind me – not in a sad way, but a happy way – of Emerys 1, 2 and 3.

Our new Emerys are becoming restless in their enclosure. They are so tame now that they run up to me when I arrive with cabbage so I am hoping to be able to let them out soon so that they can run more freely (emus love to run). My dilemma is that they might run into the back paddock where the fox lurks.

My plan is to let them out, two by two, in a Noah’s Arkish way, in the hope that they will do their sprinting within the five acres of our house block. I think that, if I stay outside and watch out for them, and have a lot of cabbage on hand, they will adjust to this new freedom and come to me if I call but it’s still going to be risky and I’m quite nervous, so wish me luck!

Wings

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Mr Photogenic

by jmgoyder

In case you haven’t noticed (ha!) I am very much a ‘beginner’ when it comes to photography, but I now have a new camera and I am trying to do a better job.

So I was sitting with the emus this evening, doing the cabbage-taming thing and trying to take some incredible photos. I was thrilled because, not only were they all taking the cabbage out of my hand and letting me pat their furry backs, but they didn’t seem to mind being photographed.

I was quite surprised that the same emu who was scared of my voice just the other day seemed to love having his photo taken. He got closer and closer to me, and I was just beginning to think, ‘wow, he really loves me now’ when he bit the camera, as you can see below.

It’s okay – I mean, I fell off the tractor tyre I usually sit on, dropped the camera, and scared all of the emus, but when the cabbage in my lap went everywhere, they soon came back. ‘Mr Photogenic’, however, wasn’t the least bit interested in the cabbage and kept looking for the camera which I had to quickly hide in my pocket.