Fantail fun and Games

My friendly little fantail joined me on the deck this morning while I was putting a bit of washing on the rack. He sat on the end of the washing trolley for a bit, chattering away, and then on the rack where I cautioned him about leaving any little deposits on the clothes before I popped inside for my camera

Next, he did something that I have never seen one do before. He hopped down onto the deck, picked up a small round seed ( can be seen in his beak) and proceeded to play with it. He would toss it with a flick of the beak and then scuttle after the seed, picking it up and tossing it again and again.

Fantails are not seed eaters - they eat insects. He was not thinking of this seed as food. When I moved away, the fantail left the little seed lying on the deck and flew off.

Later in the day the fantail came back and spent a bit of time in the shallow bird bath. That answered a question for me as to which bird was using it. I had seen a lot of water splashed around but hadn't caught any of the action.

The light was poor at both times. In the main blip it was early in the day and in the extra it was a shady corner of the deck. In the extra the tail can be seen and water flying and somewhere in the midst of it all there was the fantail.