Fantail frolics

Spotting a tui in the tree, I grabbed the camera, turning it on as I raced to the sliding glass doors. I shot through but came to a hasty stop when I saw right in front of me a fantail having a bath in the shallow bowl on the deck table. I froze, expecting to have frightened it half to death, but it just sat there in the water staring at me.  I slowly raised the camera to my eyes and I am sure the wee bird shrugged its shoulders before carrying on with its bath.

I have struggled for a long time to capture the fantail with its fan fully spread. Today I got 12 photos with the tail fan fully extended and from so close, that I didn't have to crop to get it big enough to see the detail. The bird was having fun in the water and I forgot all about the tui.

In the extras there is a rather wet bird and the rear view as it hopped out the other side to ready itself to jump in again. I could have blipped any of the 12 pics, it was really hard to choose.