One hawk has fledged into our environment.
January 8th, 2012
Birding/ twitching with Driftwood on our wetland and river, Marlborough, NZ
December 31st, 2011
Australasian harriers/hawk nesting, wetland, Marlborough, NZ
December 31st, 2011
While out in the wetland in early November I stumbled upon a hawks nest. I was clearing around the trees we had planted prior to our trip to Italy and was most surprised when a adult hawk burst out of the grass leaving a nest of 3 eggs. I took a few quick shots and carried on with my work. Shortly afterwards the adult returned. This was on the 11/11/11 and on the 3/12/11 I found 2 chicks and one egg. Since then I’ve monitored them every few days watching them slowly grow. The adults have been surprisingly receptive and always returned after each visit. I was very concerned for there well being today as we have had so much rain and thought they might be flooded out but was pleasantly surprised that they were high and dry.
Fantails have left their nest and all have survived.
December 3rd, 2011-
- 4 young fantails about to leave home
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- 3 of the newly fledged chicks showing a unique bonding.
We were so relieved when we spotted our freshly fledged fantails in the garden this morning. What was more remarkable was that they had all survived considering the strong winds during the week. This fantail blog has taught us much about the life of these little birds in our environment here at Driftwood Ecotours. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have.
Fantails feeding chicks
November 23rd, 2011-
- Black fantail feeding chicks
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- Contentment
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- down the throat
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- watching
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- relaxing
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- note chick on left side
Yesterday I arrived home to find our fantails had hatched their chicks. I spent some time watching them take turns in feeding and then resting on the nest. At times the nest would be vacant for up to 30 seconds and then one bird would arrive with bugs to feed chicks. I felt very privileged to watch this so close and yet they were quite accepting of my presence. Birding can be so much fun and been able to photograph them is a added bonus. I shall keep you posted as they grow and hopefully fledge as conditions have been extremely windy and so challenging for them.
