Nature | Why Birds Sing at Dawn

Photo by Alamy

In the UK, it’s almost exclusively the males that sing, though recent studies reveal that females of many species also sing to their mates and nestlings, especially in the tropics.

But why sing at dawn? In fact, most songsters perform throughout the day, but they save their most forceful, committed singing for the early morning. This may be because there’s less human and other sound at that time and, being cooler, there are fewer insects and other food to find, too. Singing takes a lot of energy, so the male may as well do it when food is less available and his voice travels further in the still morning air. The end result is a torrent of glorious song cascading over park, garden and meadow in the early hours. By April, resident birds are joined by migrant singers such as the warblers who, as their name suggests, add their own melodies to the mix. By early May, the full choir of breeding songbirds is in voice.

Read more about the dawn chorus in our feature ‘The Early Bird’ from our May issue.

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Wellbeing | How to Get Up Early

Mornings are special in summer. Experiencing the dawn, or simply making the most of the quiet at this time to stretch or catch up on a book, starts your day on a positive note.

There’s something quite exciting about creeping out of bed and padding quietly about the house, guarding your precious time before anyone or anything can disturb you. Kerry Sutton is co-founder of Into the Wilds (intothewilds.co.uk) which organises group microadventures in the early morning and evening around the Bath area. “There’s something about being in the outside world when it’s waking up that’s really special,” she says. “All your senses are heightened because you haven’t yet been exposed to noise and stimulation – the grass and trees looks greener in the dew, the birdsong sounds louder and clearer, and you notice animals that you might not see at other times of the day.” Of course, you don’t need to go outside to enjoy the stillness and opportunity of the early morning. You could curl up in a chair and read a few chapters of a book by an open window, do some yoga or writing as the day slowly awakens. “By getting up early and having this time for yourself, you’re coming into the world and starting the day calmly and on your terms rather than launching straight into the demands of the day,” says Kerry.

How to get out of bed earlier

• Gradually bring your waking up time and going to bed time back by 15 minutes a day.

• Plan to do something you really enjoy and that you’ll want to wake up for.

• Sleep with your curtains open and allow the daylight to wake you naturally.

• Spend a night under canvas or in a hammock and wake up with the sunrise and dawn chorus.

• If you’re really tired, go back to sleep – no pressure!

These ideas are part of our feature ‘The Joy of the 5-9’ by Rebecca Frank, in our June issue. It’s all about making more of the daylight hours at the beginning and end of the day (5-9am and 5-9pm).

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Go gökotta | (wake up with the birds)

Summer means long evenings spent outdoors but don’t go to bed so late you miss out on the joy of an early summer’s morning. Make like the Swedes and go gökotta… 

The Scandinavians seem to have single-handedly cornered the wellbeing market in recent years, thanks in part to their knack for coining words for some fairly random activities. First there was hygge, then there was lykke and lagom and now there’s gökotta, a Swedish word that literally translates to “rising at dawn to listen to bird song.” 

But getting up early doesn’t have to <just> be about the dawn chorus. Here are a few more ways to go gökotta and make the most of early rising this summer.

1. Have a breakfast picnic somewhere beautiful. The beach, a nearby hill, someone’s garden… If you need any more inspiration, read our feature Morning Has Broken in the July issue of The Simple Things. 

2. Have a quiet chat with your garden. While there’s still dew on the grass, get out and enjoy your garden in a different light. It will thank you for watering it nice and early too, before the sun can scorch the leaves. 

3. Write morning pages. If you’ve not heard of this, it’s the practice of writing three sides of A4 (long hand not typed) each morning before you do anything else. The idea is that you catch yourself before you are fully conscious so you write without any filter, about what really matters to you. Give it a go - you could have a novel by next year!

4. Make overnight oats. A hearty and wholesome breakfast that is all ready for you in the fridge always makes us smile. Prepare the night before (the internet is full of recipe ideas or turn to page 9 of our July issue for our recipe for banoffee overnight oats) and then grab them from the fridge at 6am and eat them in your pyjamas in the garden. 

5. Read. With more of us working from home these days, many of us have lost the time we spent reading on a commute. And finding time in a busy day to sit down with a book is always hard. Set your alarm just half an hour earlier than you usually would and ringfence that time for reading. 

6. Exercise like nobody’s watching (because they’re all still in bed). If you’re just starting out as a runner or cyclist and feel a little self conscious, try going at 6am when the streets are quiet. Heck, why not go the whole hog and go rollerskating or Nordic walking? In the early morning, you have no one to answer to (and no one to laugh if you fall over). 

7. Be the first in the bakery queue. There’s nothing like the pleasure of a loaf, warm out of the oven. And is that an almond croissant you’re just getting out too? Yes, two of those please!

8. Start a secret hobby. When you’re up before everyone else, you can do all sorts of things no one knows about… spend an hour in the early hours learning a new language, taking an online art class or getting really good at yoga. In a few months you’ll have the pleasure of leaving friends and family open-mouthed as you order your dinner in Catalan/hang a painting on the wall you created/do an impressive headstand. 

9. Get serious about coffee. We never said early rising was easy, but caffeine always makes it a bit less of a wrench, and a fancy aeropress or cafetiere and a bag of really good coffee will make hearing your alarm go off a joy. Or you could try making your own tea blends with dried herbs and flowers from your garden. Whatever your morning tipple, you can make it a bit of a special event, and spend a while savouring it alone. 

10. Indulge in a bit of water therapy. Go for a swim as soon as the pool opens, have a long soak in the bath or take a cold shower and feel your skin zing. Immersing yourself in water is a wonderful ritual that benefits both body in mind as you wash away the day and the night before and begin the day feeling cleansed and new. 

If you’re feeling inspired to make the most of your early mornings, you might like to buy a copy of our new Everyday Anthology. Featuring good food, forgotten wisdom, mindfulness and microadventures, projects and pastimes, it’s a dip-in guide to dawn, day, dusk and dark.

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