RE: Emus in th high country

[Dennis Ayliffe <>]

About three years ago I disturbed an adult bird in the forest near Pierces Creek above the Cotter. I assumed it was an escapee from Tidbinbilla.

Dennis Ayliffe

On 22 Oct 2014, at 1:53 pm, Denis Wilson <> wrote:

I can confirm that Emu Farming ended up, like Deer Farming (as Con suggests) with Emus being released, or simply escaping. For example, at Sassafras, (high on the southern end of the Illawarra range). There are some Emus "free ranging" there amongst the paddocks - surrounded by cool temperate rainforest. Hardly their natural habitat. 

Anyone driving from Nerriga to Nowra, might see them in cleared farm lands around Sassafras. I have also seen some, further east and much lower down, on Turpentine Road, between the Nowra Rd and Princes Highway. But this last group were properly fenced in, as if they are being "farmed". 

But I am fully confident that the birds Martin saw (and my friend photographed last year) are likely to be naturally occurring Emus. After all, there is still connectivity of habitat in the far south-east of NSW between the "high country" population and the south-east heathland populations.

Regards

Denis

Denis Wilson

Stop the hatred!

"The Nature of Robertson"
www.peonyden.blogspot.com.au

On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Con Boekel <> wrote:

I believe that once the Great Emu Farming Tax Avoidance Scam fell upon hard times, farmed Emus which were excess to commercial requirements - which was most of them - , were released in unwonted, possibly even unwanted, spots.

The farmed Emu DNA source material was, literally, from all over the place.

Some Australian feral deer populations are courtesy of much  the same set of dynamics.

On 22/10/2014 9:42 AM, Baird, Ian wrote:

I recall seeing an emu from the Alpine Way below Thredbo sometime in the mid to late 1970s. A quick check of the Atlas of Living Australia shows there are a more recent records of emu sightings from thereabouts ie. in 2006.

Rgds,

Ian Baird

 

From: Peter Ormay
Sent: Tuesday, 21 October 2014 7:25 PM
To: 'Mark Clayton'
Cc: 'Martin Butterfield'; 'COG List'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] An out of area report

 

G’day Mark,

In the late 1950s early 1960s I remember seeing Emu feathers in the Pretty Plains area KNP on a Canberra Bushwalking Club walk. Are they still known from KNP?

 

From: Mark Clayton
Sent: Monday, 20 October 2014 4:51 PM
To: 'Martin Butterfield'; 'COG List'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] An out of area report

 

G’day Martin,

 

Many years ago while working with CSIRO Wildlife my boss Wayne Braithwaite and I were “banished” to the Eden area by Harry Frith following a dispute on who was Australia’s duck expert at the time. We all knew it was Wayne but Harry disagreed. We ended up working in one of five  hydrology catchments set up by the then Forestry Commission of NSW where we learnt our new trade in coastal forests. From there we progressed to working in the whole of the Eden woodchip concession area where we went around all the logging crews checking to see what arboreal mammals that were dislodged living in the trees destined for Japan as they were cut down. We became well know by both forestry staff and logging crews and they took an interest in what we were doing – many were actually sympathetic to the plight of anything that came down with a tree!!. On one occasion we were taken to an unfished forestry road well south of Eden near the Victorian border, and well west of the Princes Highway, that had been halted because there was a male Emu sitting  on a nest, obviously with eggs! I don’t know what happened to the nest. There is a population of Emus along part of the NSW/Vic coastline and these could also be augmented from the population in the southern ”High Country”.

 

This later population is one of the reasons I am not too keen on seeing Emus wandering around Tidbinbilla NR and beyond as I don’t know where this introduced population has come from. It could quite easily be interfering with the genetics of this coastal/high country population.

 

Mark

 

From: Martin Butterfield
Sent: Monday, 20 October 2014 4:27 PM
To: COG List
Subject: [canberrabirds] An out of area report

 

We have just spent a few days at beautiful Mallacoota.  My blog-post about yesterday's activities starts with a few observations that may be of interest to members.  It was also exciting to see a pair of Australasian Figbirds on the Casuarina walk: while eBird has a few records from the area there is usually only one or two a year.

 

On the way back today I was astonished to see a male Emu princes Highway about 25km South of Eden.  This area  is reasonably well covered with forest.  Continuing on our way we called in at Black Lake near Bibbenluke (in turn a few kms North of Bombala).  26 Black-winged Stilts were good to see but the surprise was an adult White-bellied Sea Eagle (which terrified a raft of about 300 Eurasian Coot).

 

 

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

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