Apparently the first Sunday in May is designated International Dawn Chorus day (another spurious attempt by humans to 'own' nature - at least the greeting card industry hasn't got in on the act...yet). 

Well it was being promoted by the Wildlife Trusts as a way to encourage people to take note, so since I've never made a extra special effort before I thought I would and set an alarm for 5:00am (the official guidance suggested a quarter to five). 

Sunrise today was about 05:45, but it was already pretty light by 5 and the birds were in full throat.

Down to Gwel Dulas where there was far more bird noise than usual, and lots of different sorts, so I recorded some as I moved gently from the shed down to the stream under the oaks.

This was about 05:30, just before the sun would have appeared had it not been grey and mizzly. The amazing thing was that by 6pm the whole thing had died down to a more normal level of birdsong. I hadn't realised it did that so quickly as the sun came up, an hour of chorus and then back to background chatter.