As all my friends and family know, I’ve suddenly (and by suddenly, I mean over the last few years) become obsessed with emus. I see videos like this and I have second thoughts:
Holy crap this is wonderful pic.twitter.com/kSUiQd0XQP
— David (@p4ndr_) July 15, 2022
But then I see this….and well, someone get me some acreage!
@knucklebumpfarms When he closes his eyes #emmanueltheemu #emusnuggles #bigbird #farmlife #dinosaur ♬ original sound – Knuckle Bump Farms
(here’s the link in case you can’t play the video as embedded)
I harvested a bunch of tomatoes this morning and they are FAR away from Trixie (in case you missed her antics, here). Looking forward to having one for lunch today.
ETA: And then there is Karen, who, well, should put anyone off of emus (to be fair, she was rescued and came this way, but I live for the videos of their crazy interactions)
@useless_farm Reply to @lancebass ♬ original sound – Useless Farm
Open thread
Jeffro
LOL
When we lived in Delaware, there was an emu farm west of town, and as local legend goes, that’s what caused one local drinker to sober up.
The guy was stumbling out of his house to get the newspaper one weekend morning, head hanging down from his latest bender and the early morning sun. He goes to reach for his paper…then sees two very large emu feet just behind it…slowly looks up…and finds himself staring straight into the face of a very large and cranky emu!
(several of them had escaped their pen the night before =)
The guy turned and ran for his house, and swore that if alcohol was going to do THAT to him, hallucinating enormous angry birds and what not, he was going to dry out for good this time.
(cue Paul Harvey voice: and now you know…the rest of the story ;)
TaMara
@Jeffro: OMG, I love it!
sab
Should we nominate “Emmanuel, don’t do it!” as a rotating tag? Then years later everyone will wonder what it means.
jeffreyw
vagrant jay bird
Houston lurker
The emus are getting feisty
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Escaped-emu-stops-traffic-in-Houston-gets-chased-17307877.php
ExpatDanBKK
Emus and black swans…I sense an Aussie critter theme!
Benw
I love the expressions of the OTHER animals in the first video: “Man, that emu is an asshole!”
Ken
They look like they rank high on the “his last words were ‘what a funny–‘” scale.
sab
Frosty in the comments a few threads back was right. The rotating tags have really upped their game lately.
kalakal
That’s wonderful. Thanks I really needed those videos.
There’s a peacock farm near us behind a park. As well as the peacocks there are a couple of Emus. I am so glad they have an 8 ft fence*. Those things are scary, they’re taller than me (I’m 6 ft ) , look you straight in the eye with FOFO expression and those legs and claws show you exactly where dinosaurs went.
*Which the peacocks can easily get over
trollhattan
Two sides of the emu coin, right there. Holy moly they’re amusing.
When the kid did zoo camp one summer and was helping feed various critters, the emus were perhaps her favorite and she learned some of their vocalizations, which she’d use with them when we later went to visit. They did respond, I guess making her a kind of emu whisperer.
She’s never expressed an interest in pet emus, for which I’m very thankful.
Scout211
Our neighbors across the road have a rescue emu. The other animals (several horses and a rescue donkey) seem to keep in line. My grandkids were introduced to the emu but they were told to keep their distance, so I guess the emu does have its moments of mischief, LOL. They loved seeing the emu close-up though. They are adorable creatures.
frosty
@sab:
Thank you for noticing! Confirmation from the lurker thread that it doesn’t matter if you get a reply to your comment, someone is reading it.
Note: You’re getting a reply to your comment.
Mnemosyne
There’s a video out there somewhere of a rescue emu incubating some eggs. He (yes, male emus are the incubators after the female lays the eggs) was sitting on his eggs and the other birds, like geese and chickens, were just nonchalantly laying their eggs under him and walking away. The owner had to rescue the viable eggs and put them in an incubator because emus don’t have a high enough body temperature to incubate smaller birds’ eggs.
The owner’s dogs got a little too close a few times and that was some Jurassic Park-sounding shit when the emu hissed to warn them off.
sab
@frosty: Before you commented I hadn’t been paying attention to the rotating tags. Shame on me. Thank you.
ETA This blog is so full service it is hard to keep up on everything it does.
Argiope
I’m now Team Emu all the way and think Cole should get one.
TaMara
@Mnemosyne: Oh, I had forgotten about that one! Here’s the first tweet. Now I have to go find the one with the cool sounds, LOL Thanks for the reminder!
sab
@Argiope: Mighten it eat the willow tree? Or kick a dog?
trollhattan
In the open thread spirit, my new monitor was so close, now is touring northern California.
Amazon:
Friday, July 15
10:39 PM
Tracy, California US
2:20 PM
Sacramento, CA US
2:04 PM
Sacramento, CALIFORNIA US
11:35 AM
Sacramento, CALIFORNIA US
8:27 AM
Rockford, IL US
6:46 AM
Rockford, IL US
2:16 AM
Rockford, IL US
Post Amazon:
Saturday, July 16
5:56 AM
San Anselmo, CA US
3:49 AM
Tracy, CA US
3:29 AM
Tracy, California US
For the record, it seemed the thing landed in My Fair City yesterday and is now on a tour, a tour that has the latest sighting in Marin County? I’m getting a bad feeling about its chances of being delivered and this is not how I wanted to spend the day.
TaMara
@TaMara: And here he is protecting them. (also, click on it and you can see all the photos of the
goslingsbaby emus – I thought they were emus, but she never mentions he’s also sitting on emu eggs)Argiope
‘@sab: I was probably thinking of the mopping possibilities, but YMMV.
trollhattan
@TaMara: That’s nuttyballs. Did birds sign some kind of compact re. incubating one another’s eggs?
I know about starlings, cuckoos and that lot, who simply can’t be bothered.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Emus! At the top of the dirt road I used to live on, the farmer had a male rescue emu in a field right next to the road. It looked fierce and everyone else was afraid of it, but I tried feeding it dandelions and other growth from my side of the fence and we made friends. I could scratch his head and pet his neck.
He made booming noises that I would imitate by making a low noise in my chest and then lightly hitting my chest and he seemed to approve.
Boy they look like dinosaurs! And their eyes are so beady. But he never really tried to bite – just got careless sometimes taking food from my hand. And it didn’t really hurt. We were friends.
TaMara
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): And you know I’m a little jealous now,
trollhattan
Today’s Letters of Note include this bird-themed offering.
Watch out for skonks.
O. Felix Culpa
@trollhattan:
I love that. Ms. Dickinson already had a keen wit as an 11-year-old.
Eunicecycle
@trollhattan: I had a package that did that once. Was so close to me (Akron I think) then decided to take a tour of Upstate NY.
Josie
@trollhattan: So close and yet so far away……
Kathleen
I love Limu Emu on the Liberty Mutual commercials. He (and his SO) are hysterical. But I do wonder how hard it is to clothe an emu. They have some complicated costumes.
mrmoshpotato
Was never an emu fan, but a creepy fucker (who we totally know is fucking that emu!) and a beastiality-condoning insurance company have forever wrecked my attitude towards emus.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Aren’t you in California?
mrmoshpotato
@Argiope:
How would the crows react?
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato: Yep. Sacramento, where the thing was for a few hours yesterday before launching its north state tour. Each subsequent location is farther away.
I don’t want to hear complaints from shippers about their cost of fuel.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: My phone battery went from south of Chicago to just over the IL-WI border on its tour, but CA to IL and back is insane.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@TaMara: yeah, he was fun. But we’re sort of even, since I have been jealous of your ducks for a few years now (condolences for Maddie and Mabel sigh)
Ken
@TaMara: I’m not sure about this updated version of “The Ugly Duckling”.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I had assumed the emu was male because I assumed the booming noises were male type noises, but google informs me that it is the female who makes the booming sounds. Also the male incubates the eggs and is gentler than the female. Who knew?
debbie
No emus, but just as cute:
Rob
I spent 15 minutes watching the Knuckle Bump Farms TikToks on Twitter. Very delightful.
Emmanuel, get away from my laptop!!
Rob
@mrmoshpotato: I had a coffee mug I purchased go from New Jersey to Florida, no doubt passing just a few miles from my house in Maryland. It spent a couple of days in Floriday, before finally coming back north to be delivered to me in the Takoma Park-Silver Spring area.
trollhattan
@Rob:
Emmanuel is now my standard response to folks who advise, “Don’t waste your money on a protective filter for your lens.”
PIGL
I am a bug fan of Useless Farm. My theory is that it’s somewhere off the 401 a few hours east of Toronto, between Kingston and Belleville.