Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Our Fiordland Fantail Friend

Wednesday 20th March






When we first arrived at our special spot amongst the pine trees, a fantail came and flew all around us.  
It was flitting for branch to branch and at times would fly very close to us.  It was beautiful to watch it and we sat watching it in wonderment and awe.  We thought that it was dancing for us. 


Grace said, “The fantail we saw, it singed some songs for me and Chloe.  It opened its tail and closed its tail.  It keep flying to two branches, down low.  I liked it when they opened their tails, it looked like a fan.”






Grace and Chloe pretended that they were fantails dancing.  The held some pin needles in the hands for their wings, darting around like the fantail did earlier. 



Their game continued and they built nests to lay their eggs.  Cody and Xavier joined in by pretending to chop up worms for their dinner.




Chloe said, “I used trees for the wings, I was being a fantail.  I was laying eggs, I had one egg.  Cody and Xavier got chopped up worms but we didn’t like them.”


Grace said, “The pine needles were our wings and I flapthem like birds - fantails. I sat on the nest with Chloe to keep the babies warm.  Cody got worms for me and Chloe. He got long worms and chopped them up so we could eat them.”

The beauty of Nature Discovery is being able to get up close and observe the birds and bugs that live in our Ivon Wilson Park.  

We often have fantails follow us  around the park and they flit and dance around us, sometimes getting quite close. We wonder if we will see the fantail next week?