Finding a Tui

It's always a sad surprise when we discover a dead native bird.  Today we found a dead Tui, the children took turns at sharing their thoughts about how it died.  What made this discovery a wee bit different was this Tui was wearing a tag on it's leg.  We decided that we should take the Tui to the DOC staff at the bird park so they could investigate a bit more about the tag for us.  While at the bird park we got to feed some ducks they came right up to us and took the grass from our hands.  We also saw the Takehe and John showed us the special part of the plant they eat.  We stripped the hard outer layer of the tussock off and inside was a nice white middle, this is the part the Takehe like, John said that we could eat it too so we all had a taste some liked it and some of us didn't.  Another exciting event to happen was Jasper's pet duck Wilson came to see us.  He has grown into a nice big Paradise duck, Wilson was very friendly and let us touch him, I think he remembered us.  Paris our visiting College student managed to catch a mallard duck and the children were very excited to be able to see the different colours, the nice soft feathers under it's wing and touch it's webbed feet.  All in all a very exciting day at Nature Discovery, no wonder we are all a wee bit tired this afternoon.  

There was a hive of activity at Nature Discovery today.  We found a small rotten log that when we touch it, it fell into two pieces.  Inside there were 6 huhu grubs in various stages of metamorphosing  into huhu beetles.  It was the first time that we had witness this so after everyone had a good look we covered them back up.  The children wanted to make sure they were extra protected and put other logs and pine leaves around them to keep them safe.  What an amazing discovery and one we will never forget.  Some of the children got really creative with nature and made wreaths, broom flower arrangements and colourful pictures.

Fun in the Sun in Fiordland

Wednesday 7th November 2012

It was a beautiful sunny Fiordland day at Nature Discovery.
We decided to go to the 'Rotten Log' to see if the water had gone.
When we got there, we discovered that there was even more water than last time.
We all had fun exploring and discovering different ways to get up the grassy hill.  Some of us went through the water and others skirted around the edges to find tracks through the scrub.

We had fun playing in the water, you could see the grass floating near the top of the water.  It made the puddle look green.  Kaira loved being in the water, feeling the grass and finding logs hidden under the water.

 There was a log stretching across the water and going up above the bank on the other side.  We all enjoyed the challenge of balancing as we crossed it. One branch looked like the antlers on a deer so we called it a 'Stag Tree.  

 Kaira said, "I like climbing to the top and then I sat on the top.  It is a Stag tree because it has antlers ears like a real deer.  It feeled lumpy and I can see far away places."

 Greer said, "I'm jumping in the puddle.  It was cold and I got wet.  I balanced on the tree, it was a bit tricky.  I climbed the tree and I saw a birdie."

 Nina said, "I had lots of fun playing on the tree and in the puddle.  I got really messy and I fell in. We didn't take out the tools, that was really good, we didn't have to tidy up. The water was really gooey."

 Grace and Tom found tracks to get up the hill and found a nice place in the sun in the grass where they could see what everyone was doing.
Grace said, " I played in the mud and sit on the big hill.  I saw all the people down in the mud, playing in the mud and having morning tea too.   I liked it up on the hill cos it was comfy."

 Tom said, " I crashed through the bushes cos I had to get through straight ahead in the middle of the bushes. I got to the top of the hill.  I saw people and grass and I pulled the grass.  It was a bit comfy.  I saw stuff that I couldn't see when I was on the ground."