Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Early Bird


The past few days I've woken up (involuntarily!) at 5:00 and noticed that the birds are really going to town with their chirping.  I go back to sleep, and an hour later when the alarm goes off and I roll out of bed, I only hear sporadic bird noises. 

I always assumed I didn't hear the birds because I was too distracted, but I've recently learned it's not me; the birds really do sing more energetically, louder and more frequently in the early morning hours.  There's an actual name for the phenomenon -- Dawn Chorus, which has been scientifically studied.

Now I know.

Five years ago today: Evaluation

10 comments:

  1. Our dawn chorus has a drummer! The red-bellied woodpecker loves to drum on the corner gutter. UGH!!

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    1. Oh, that's the worst! Fortunately the woodpeckers around here tend to drum only during mating season.

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  2. We live in a fly-way with a number of ponding basins for migrating birds so we get all kinds of birds at different times of the year. For awhile, in March, we had a group of birds who flew in every morning around 5:30 to just sing and sing. Then they flew on and we got a different group of birds who sang a bit later. Sometime during the summer we will get a bird that calls around 1 - 2 am. It's a very unique sound so I always distinguish it when it arrives.

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    1. Our subdivision is approximately 25 years old, so we're just getting mature trees and a significant bird population. Last year for the first time I noticed a nighttime singer. Wonder if it will be back this year?

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  3. I ma sorry to her you woke up so early but it must have been amazing to hear the birds singing. I guess they are early risers.

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    1. Yes, it's nice to hear the birds--I love having the windows open so I can really hear them! They've been soothing me back to sleep.

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  4. Yep, they really are loudest just before dawn!

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    1. You take so many pictures of birds, I bet you're an expert in all things avian :-)

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  5. Gosh! I didn't know that either. I'll have to pay attention.

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    1. Let us know if it's the same in Hawaii, too

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