braver notes; some early morning winter birdsong

Christmas morning began with a bright pass from the International Space Station just before 0700. The sky was clear and starry, and the valley was still as it ever gets, with only the sound of the weir at Avoncliff half a mile away. By 0715 the birds' day shift was beginning to clock on. In the first video there you can hear the robin, woodpigeon, crows and a moorhen. You can also hear the tawny owls, both early in the recording with a 'tuwhoo...... tut tuwhoo' and towards the end a 'keewick'.

Fifteen minutes later the song thrushes were singing, as they have been on most mornings here lately, unless it's really cold.

...which reminds me, here's Thomas Hardy' poem The Darkling Thrush, read by Deborah Harvey.