Here she is having just brought in a big beakful of green moss.
Fantail has been bringing in moss and taking it out again all day!
As usual, she swirls round clockwise and drops it all over the floor.
Here she is picking the moss up again in order to move it around the nest. All these habits seem to be preparations for the big nest building event that starts in about a month's time.
Fantail appears obsessed with a mark on the nest box wall at this point. She keeps coming back to it and pecking it or pulling at it. Nice fan tail display too!
More moss! Quite a lot this time. "What shall I do with this?"
Although this is only a minute later, she is back again with still more moss. It's almost as though she thinks it's time to start for real!
Now it's dried grass.
Neptune comes in to inspect progress. They make a fine pair - he with his three pronged tail and she with her fan shaped one!
He's caught at it of course.
"I hope you're not going to interfere?"
As usual, Fantail's entrance sends Neptune packing.
After a short tea break, Fantail is back at work.
More moss!
We think she must have taken it out again; it didn't appear to increase the total amount of moss as far as we could see.
Back to peck at that damned spot!
It's exactly the same spot each time. There must be something there that she can see. In fact you can see a mark there in the image above - but we don't intend lifting the top off the box to find out what it is.
Caught in the act - she's taking quite a wodge of moss out this time.
She must be taking out as much as she's bringing in since the total amount in the nest doesn't seem to change.
Back to that spot again - still what else is there for her to do? There's plenty of food around and you've got to pass the time somehow or other!
"Let's get rid of this lot then."
Oh yes! Look at that tail!
Another visit from Neptune - both our birds have attentive partners this year. Let's keep our fingers crossed that all goes well.