An early morning breakfast in the winter cold.

Nature's residents know how to wait for the sun before they come to eat.

I will show you how the squirrels and the sunbirds warm up in the cold mornings.

It is winter now in South Africa, and it is great to step outside to watch how the animals and the birds manage to warm up before they come for breakfast. Amazingly, the animals know that a full stomach is essential to not only beat the cold, but also to gather energy. So, I presume that the health gurus learned the trick of an essential breakfast, to boost our human energy. I for one have never eaten breakfast, until I got married, as the wife insisted and to keep her happy, I succumbed to her wishes.
Most of my younger days were spent on long working hours, as I had a wife (ex) and 3 children to feed, and so there was no time for breakfast.
So, come and watch what Mother nature teaches us.

No sun yet and the squirrel picked an interesting spot to wait. The little one is very clever, as it knows that if it sits on the top of the high house roof, then it will become a target for the big birds of prey.

So, after warning up in the sun, the squirrel decided to pop down to my wife's feeding restaurant for breakfast.

The sunbirds however have a different way to beat the morning cold.

They simply sit up high on a treetop to get the sun warming their bodies.

After warming up, they also pop down for a drink in our shady front garden.
This is a female Southern Double-collared sunbird, and only the male has the blue and red double-collar colors on his chest.

Finally she also inspected our lighter orange flowers, but they have not opened yet, and then she flew away.

Then the male sunbird that you saw on the treetop arrived to also have a nectar drink for breakfast.

He didn't look impressed by the dark orange flower as the flower hasn't opened up yet.

And so he popped over to take a drink from the lighter orange flower bush.

A last inspection and then he also took off.

We bought and planted the Cape Honeysuckle bushes when they were tiny in small pots, and we planted them in the trestle planter boxes. They are quick growers and now we have the first flowering of the bushes. We still want to get a red flower bush to plant next to the current two, but we haven't found one yet. The sunbirds also love the nectar of the paradise flower (Strelitzia), but sadly they will not grow in our front garden, as it has too much shade. Our house is west facing, and so the sun that rises in the east, first has to clear the mountains, and then our house roof. So, we only have full sun at the front at about midday.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the story and the pictures.

Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge Camera.

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