They Force Us To Appreciate Their Smallness

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They are part of the smaller birds in the area. They are as big as a fist, sometimes smaller. They have the most beautiful call, and every afternoon when I water the garden, they love to play in the water. Sometimes I stand for 15 minutes watering the same spot just to see them play in the fine mist of water. I am sure they know what areas watering happens, as they always return, either to my garden or to the neighbour's.

This time, I ran to get my camera, to maybe snap a couple of photographs of these small friends. But as soon as they arrived in the garden, they left. They are incredibly active, flying from branch to branch in childlike manners.

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In their smallness, they force us to appreciate their beauty. I always look at them, for way too long. Their beauty always mesmerises me. The small little white eye, hence their name: the Cape white-eye (Zosterops virens).

At coffee shops and places where they are used to humans, they will fly onto your table and eat the sugary morsels right in front of you. But in the garden, where they are still essentially "wild", they are so shy.

They never like me being near them, and this is a shame because I love to see them up close. But this is only a shame for me, as their wild status is important to them. They do not know what I want to do with my camera! If they only knew this.

But from afar, I can still appreciate their beauty, their quick and responsive movements as they jump and fly from branch to branch, and then gone! In search for new sanctuaries where they can either play in water or eat seeds.

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It is never long before another call also emerges from the thicket. Always on the heels of the Cape white eyes, the southern double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus) calls after the water running through my hosepipe. It is funny how they always appear just after the white eyes.

It is almost like the little sunbirds are attracted to the calls of the white eyes! They know when the group of Cape white eyes show up that there must be something good, so they should also investigate.

Just like the Cape white eye, the sunbird is so small, even smaller, and much quicker. It is not easy to snap some photographs of them, as they like to zoom and fly past you even quicker and more agile than the Cape white eyes.

This time around, I only managed to see a small glimpse of him, as soon as I took the first photograph, it was gone!

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I am always surprised how they always return. It is like they know I will be watering the garden.

And every time that they visit the garden, I make the extra effort to appreciate them and their beauty in their smallness.

It is almost as if they force me to appreciate them!

I hope that you enjoyed these photographs with me.

For now, happy birding and keep well.

All of the writings in this post are my own, albeit inspired by the beauty and smallness of these birds. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens.