Monocultures aren't usually good for birding, so I wasn't paying a great deal of attention to the road side as I headed south from Dartmoor. But even I couldn't miss this gathering among the seedlings.
Dad and the chicks* were cautious at first, then became increasingly curious about me, the camera and the car. I kept clicking, they kept peering, until a passing truck surprised them and they jogged away.
I saw four more emus on the trip — two adults in another pine plantation and two chicks at Tower Hill. (Possibly a couple of those I saw on the previous visit in January.) That put emus as the fourth most abundant native species on the trip (after Australasian gannets, magpies and long-billed corellas). Something I didn't expect!
_____
* I counted twenty seven in that second photo. Imagine having to keep your eye on that many kids
