The sound of a dog barking in the early hours of the morning is pretty disturbing, especially if you're having a good nights sleep. But when you recognise it as being your own dog, it's even more annoying especially if the neighbours know it's yours. So it was out of bed and downstairs as quick as I could to find out what all the fuss was about. Imagine my surprise then when there on the other side of the dog flap was Benji. Somehow the in / out switch on the flap was in the out only position, and Benj had been out for most of the night. Boy was he happy to see me and was next seen bouncing off the walls in the kitchen and living room.
So it was a couple of treats and back to bed. However getting back to sleep wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, as all I could hear was the dawn chorus coming through the wide-open windows at 4:00am. Now don't get me wrong it's an amazing experience, but this was just one sound multiplied hundreds of times. All I could hear were dozens and dozens of Blackbirds, I can't explain what it sounds like other than just confusion.
By 4:10am a few other birds could be heard, with the local Carrion Crows beginning to wake up and then right out of the blue a Common Whitethroat began singing. So it was out of bed and a quick scan from the front bedroom revealing a male on top of a Whitebeam on the other side of the road. The song was quite subdued and was definitely in subsong. After 10 minutes it flew off over the house.
By 4:30am the Blackbirds had quietened down quite considerably, with just one or two heard locally. Other species were now joining in with Blue Tits, Magpies, Robins, Starlings and House Sparrows chirping away.
By 5:00am I was back in the land of slumber...................................