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?

Down in the Pines

There was so much to learn and discover today at Nature Discovery.  The children enjoyed looking at all the nursery spider web nests, we even got to see a little baby spider crawl out the tiny holes.  We have lots of questions about these nests and hope do more investigations on them.  Malachey's Dad was kept busy helping children make bows and arrows and then he showed us how to make a flax dart fly it was amazing.  Reid learned that it is okay to crawl on your hands and knees up a steep hill and was very proud of himself when he made it to the top.  Down in the pines there was a range of insects for us to look at, millipedes, black beetles and huhu grubs to name a few.  No one was keen to eat a tasty huhu grub...maybe next time. 

Rock Jumping in Fiordland

Students from Fiordland College were at Ivon Wilson Park clearing and cleaning up the park as well as using the mountain bike track.  While we were at the Gnuff's house, Matiu and Jacob from Fiordland College stopped to give us something they had found in the park. They had found Charlie's photo and whistle that had come off his jacket the week before.  Charlie was so happy to get it back as he thought that it was lost forever. He kept blowing the whistle to make sure that it still worked.

 While at the Gnuff's house, Grace and Chloe thought that the branches were poking out and could poke our eyes.  Chloe said, " We used the clippers to cut the branches because they might poke me in the eye." Grace and Chloe assessed the risk to others and themselves and found a solution to minimize the risk or danger to others.

 After morning tea we decided to go to the "Roly- poly hill" where we have fun running up and down the hill and rolling down it. Greer said, "I am running down the hill. I liked I cos it was sunny. Grace, Chloe and me run down and Ella stayed up there."

 "We found the pinecones that were sharp and green.Then they were brown and they were at the top of the branch.  The green ones were at the bottom at the end of the branch." said Cody.  It is always amazing to find different things in nature and the children are very observant, noticing any little thing had is different or new.

 We decide to go to the large platform to feed any ducks but instead of ducks we found college kids learning to fish and not a duck in sight. Instead we tried jumping from one rock to another.  It was a bit scary to make that first leap but everyone took up the challenge, being encouraged by their friends. Charlie was very determined to make it to the other rock, he finally had success after the third try.
Charlie said, "We were trying to jump to the rocks. I jumped on the ground by the rock and then I jumped on to the big rock. It was fun cos it was so much fun. It's cool cos it's fun. My friends did the same as me."

Grace said, "We were jumping at the jumping rocks.  It was fun cos I liked it, it was easy, I've done it before. Charlie and Chloe landed on the floor when they did it the first time."

On our travels we collected pinecones, leaves and gum nuts for Children's Day on Sunday 3rd March. We put them in a pile under some trees to use on Sunday.  When we got back to the shed, the College students had dropped of 2 bags of pinecones for us.  Some we will keep for our fire and some for Children's Day.  Another great sunny day in Fiordland.

We found a hedgehog

John helped us reset our stoat trap.  He showed us how it worked and we learned why we don't put our fingers near a set trap when it chopped a piece of wood in half.  We hope that it will catch stoats and rats that kill our beautiful native birds, and eat their food.










As we were walking along the new track we call "pine cone track"  we found a tiny baby hedgehog that had died.

We looked at it very carefully, it's spines were still a little soft so we decided it wasn't very old.  It's tummy was furry like a cat.  It had a very long snuffly nose to find insects, and little claws for scraping insects out.  When we looked closely we could see some eggs, and some tiny maggots.  We moved it carefully off the middle of the track and made a place for it to rest.  Next week we will visit it again to see how it has decayed.

Leaf Angels in Fiordland

Tree climbing and making leaf angels were on the agenda at Nature Discovery today.  We had to lie very still so that the children and parents could put the leaves around our body.  Stefan said "We look like stars."  Then we had turns at covering each other with leaves.  John had something special in his pocket today to show us.  It was two peanut butter wax moulds that you nail to a tree and any animal that likes the smell will bite into it and an impression of there teeth marks will be left.  The children had turns at guessing what type of animal would bite into it, we had guesses of birds, rats and even dinosaurs and dragons!!  We can't wait to go back next Monday and see what marks are left in it.

A rainy day in Fiordland

Today was the first rain we have had in nearly two weeks.  It was VERY HEAVY rain and we all got very wet, but we still had lots of fun.  We found some old logs by the Gnuff house to saw.  

 We all warmed up with a nice warm drink of Milo.  We warmed our hands by the thermette and on our cups.

Sophie found a toadstool that looked just like a flower.

John and the children made a really long snake with fir cones. some of us wrote our names with cones.

Nearby the weta’s we discovered a foamy patch at the bottom of a fir tree, and the same thing on another fir tree nearby.  It was where the water was dripping down the tree.  We thought it might be the rain and the sap mixing together.

Then it was back to the shed to warm up by the fire and have lunch - then the sun came out!

Spiders in Fiordland

 Monday 3rd December

Sophie discovered a family of spiders on a piece of bark on one of the gum trees near the car park.

It was an exciting find as next to the spider was a small round white spider’s nest.  Also on the same piece of bark there was a clear sac with 2 baby spiders inside it.  We could see them moving around under the sac cover. 

Ollie said, “ We found the spider on a tree.  Sophie found it.”

Sophie said, “I found a spider and a nest, just a wee one.  It was on the tree.  There was a spider who was growing.”

When asked where they were growing, Sophie  explained her theory on why they were inside the sac.

Sophie: “It was a thing that protects it and it doesn’t fall out cos its not old enough.”

Ollie said, “It was crazy cos it couldn’t find its home.”

Morgan said, “Sophie found a spider on a piece of bark.  There was baby spiders and there was a cover over them to keep them safe in case there was danger. There were just two.  They were just moving and then they were still cos they were frightened of all the people around them. We put them back where they were cos they’ve got nature.

On the same tree where we found the spider and her babies, we discovered an even bigger spider. The children decided that it must be the Daddy spider. We also found another spider nest that had many babies inside it.

Morgan said, “The big Daddy spider on the tree, it was the other spider we found.”

John caught the spider so that the children could get a closer look at it.

Ollie and Morgan were very courageous and let the spider crawl on their hands.

 Morgan said, “He was hanging off me with his web.  It feeled like (the web) like the soft thing on the baby spiders that we found.  The cover around the baby spiders. We dropped it a bit but John put it back on the tree cos he was scared of us.”

Ollie said, “I shake it off when it landed on my hand.”

John opened up a nest so the children could see the baby spiders on Ollie’s hand.  They were very tiny.

Ollie said,”The babies were in there, in a sac. They were racing around.  Lots and lots of baby spiders.  They were tickly.”

Sophie said, “Ollie had a lot of little spiders on Ollie’s hand.  They were in the tree as well.”

Morgan said, “These tiny ones were in the nest and Ollie put them in his pocket to put them in his spider cage at home.”

Everyone was fascinated by the spiders and we were able to see how the babies remained protected until they were big enough and old enough to venture out and explore the world and make their own homes.

Who needs video, DVD or TV when you can experience it in the flesh.  You can  see, hear, feel/touch and smell what is around you.  There isn't a better way to explore, experience and learn.  

The photos say it all!!!!