It’s 5:22 A.M. Time to wake up! sings a bird loudly from its perch in the chestnut tree outside my window. I sleep with the windows cracked open all night, so the early morning lights and sounds tend to wake me early. As spring arrived, I noticed the arrival of a new bird, one with an incredibly complex, non-repeating song, one I’d never heard before. It was mesmerizing to listen to it chatter away in complete paragraphs, then pause and listen for a response from a distant colleague on a tree down the street. I’m used to the early-morning birdsong back in New Hampshire – where it seems hundreds of birds start their mornings at 4:30am every June – but never before have I heard a song quite this entrancing. Read on, and listen.
Nightingales
The nightingales sing us awake every morning.
David Kotz 