Emu

Dromaius novaehollandiae novaehollandiae

April 26, 2005: Scottie’s Billabong, Victoria, Australia

This was one of the birds I’d most hoped to see in Australia, but on the first half of our Murray River trip, they eluded me. The previous day, we’d found this small lake slightly offset from the river: Scottie’s Billabong. I thought that the lake might have a different variety of birds than we’d seen along the river, so we stopped for a look. Almost immediately, I found some footprints in the mud. HUGE footprints, and since dinosaurs are generally accepted as being extinct, I knew they had to belong to emus. A walk around the billabong didn’t reveal these birds, however, but we decided to spend the night here, so I could look for them again in the morning.

April 27, 2005: Scottie’s Billabong, Victoria, Australia

WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EMUS!!!!!!!  I was up early and took a walk all around the lake with no luck. Still it had been a gorgeous morning walk and I was feeling satisfied, and decided that it really didn’t matter whether or not I’d seen them. I was planning to count the footprints, but I thought I’d just wander outside for the heck of it to have a look around. I scanned the far shore of the lake, as I’d been doing over and over again since we arrived, but this time I saw shapes which looked different from what I’d seen there before. Was it possible? Could those really be emus? When the shapes moved, I knew that’s what they were. Nothing else could possibly be that BIG! OMG! They are SO COOL! Okay, so this time I didn’t have a very good look – they were about 600 meters away from me, but it was good enough for me. After snapping a photo, I called to Kevin so he could come out and see them, but by the time he came out; they’d wandered away. Still, SO AWESOME!

April 27, 2005: Higgins Cutting, New South Wales, Australia

Not long after we left Scottie’s Billabong, I was driving the boat when I spotted a few emus near the bank of the river. I put the boat in neutral and shouted for back-up, and Mark came and positioned the boat so everyone could see the birds. SO COOL! They didn’t stay long, but headed into the bush when they noticed us, so Mark pulled the boat up to the bank, and Eclipse and I hopped out for an Emu Walk. We were able to follow them for a little while, getting a couple of good looks before we decided to go back. YAY! More Emus, and Eclipse got to see them this time.

April 28, 2005: Chowilla Game Reserve, South Australia

Seen along the Murray River.

April 29, 2005: Murray River, Paringa, South Australia

First thing in the morning, we saw this emu on the bank very near where we’d docked the boat for the night. It was a great view of a magnificent bird! (Although my photos leave something to be desired, as the lighting wasn’t the best).

April 30, 2005: Banrock Station, South Australia

This was a fantastic sighting – we watched a group of them forage in the park. They were not alarmed by our presence, and we were able to watch them at a reasonably close distance for as long as we wanted. They’re so magnificent.

May 6, 2005: Belair National Park, South Australia

These birds were a lovely surprise. On our last day in Adelaide, Eclipse and I decided to visit Belair National Park again. We parked near the children’s playground, so Eclipse could run around a bit before we went on a short hike. Right next to the playground, two emus were calmly foraging. I was able to watch them for several minutes before they wandered off. I will never stop being amused by how difficult it was to find emus in the first place, but then they popped up all over the place.

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