dawn chorus

This is the best time of the year to listen to the dawn chorus, in fact Sunday was International Dawn Chorus Day.

We are lucky to live near woodland, there are many birds and I hear the dawn chorus from my bed most days. On Saturday when I woke just after five, I dressed warmly including a woolly hat(!) and went out into the garden. I stayed for about half an hour, drinking tea, listening to the birdsong and watching the sky turn from dark blue to pale blue with pink tinged clouds as sunrise approached.

I would have had to get up at 4:30am to hear the start of the dawn chorus but between five and six it was still worth getting up for and a lovely way to start the day.

Unfortunately many british birds are declining in numbers. When I was little we always seemed to have starlings and sparrows in our garden, this year I have noticed just one pair of sparrows but we haven't had starlings for a while. I hope we can stop numbers of our wild birds decreasing further so that we can all enjoy the dawn chorus for many years to come.

Of course, if you don't want to get up early to hear the birds sing there is always the "dusk chorus" just as the light is fading. It isn't as loud as the morning version but still worth stopping to listen for a while.