Julie Goyder – Guest

Julie Goyder is a retired lecturer in English and Creative Writing at her local university in Western Australia. She has been extremely kind to accept my invitation to be my guest at Avian101. Her contribution is a real life account of events concerning her three lovely Emus at her farm. Thank you Julie! 🙂

I am so worried. Son went to put him in the yard with the gang late this afternoon and he wasn’t around which is unusual.

Emery is Missing!

It’s dark now so all we can do is wait and hope that he comes back later tonight or tomorrow morning for the breakfast lettuce treat.

Please come back Emery…

A few weeks ago I spotted an advertisement for two emu chicks and, thinking Emery might like a bit of emu company, I didn’t hesitate.

Emerytwo & Emerytwo

Well, Emery was intrigued and delighted. Apart from being a little bigger than the other two, they were all identical so I called the new chicks Emerytwo and Emerytoo; it seemed easier that way.

I didn’t mention them yesterday when I was so worried about Emery because, for some reason I thought if I put their disappearance into words, I would lose hope.

So, before losing hope, I will describe the delight of watching the three emus do laps around the garden. They are very fast, and sprint in a zig-zag fashion with their knees turned in, often bumping quite hard into things, including Godfrey, which doesn’t go down too well (but I think Emery does this on purpose!) If they lose each other even for a moment, they make this soft, whistling noise until they find each other again. After the sprinting they then plop down on the ground abruptly, legs stretched out the front, grab a bit of lettuce from my hand then they’re up and off again.

Maybe they’ve just decided to perfect their sprinting in a bigger area than our garden and have ventured into one of the paddocks surrounding us to practice for the Emu Olympics?

We have searched everywhere….

I realize that to many people grieving over the death of a bird may seem ridiculous or trivial and that, compared to losing a human companion – a child, friend, spouse, sibling, partner – it may even seem a little ‘wrong’.

That, being said, the discovery of Emery’s corpse (fox attack) at the side of a lane-way in the back paddock today has been a terrible blow and the fact that Emerytwo and Emerytoo are still missing probably means that they are dead too. You see, unlike most of our other birds, emus can’t fly – they can’t fly to safety.

I will only post about the Emerys again if the latter two turn up, but I know they won’t because they would have by now. So, another lesson in loss.

One of the most beautiful gestures I have ever seen at a relative’s funeral was when the two adult sons, having delivered the eulogy, said goodbye to their father by leaving the podium and simulating flight; they raised their arms up and down, like wings, until they got back to their seats.

You can fly now, my three Emerys.

Tags: birds, photography, photos of birds

One thought on “Julie Goyder – Guest”

Julia Avery on March 22, 2012 at 5:41 am said:

Yes, my neighbour who has a huge gang, no, gang of HUGE sheep, became very attached to a stray duckling. She called him Gregory. Bad move. I think when you name an animal, that’s it – you are bound by the “human-ness” of the creature. (Also, it seems when animals are very small, humans embrace them with more feeling).

Sadly little Gregory passed away after less than a week (see, I’m doing it! Emotion, euphenism, tingeing the sentence with poignancy…) My friend was quite grief-stricken. I was surprised because she is so bombastic and down to earth. Even now when I mention him, she has a nostalgic laugh!

A duckling died.

Aren’t words powerful?

Reply ↓

H.J. Ruiz – Avian101