Birding Before Breakfast:Birding Before Sunrise

  I find that getting up extra early in the morning to go birdwatching is a special experience.

There's something soothing about starting the day with a brightly lit moon set against a dark sky. The night air has scrubbed away the noise and air pollution. I can sense the start of a new day not yet spoiled by the frantic pace of a world at work. 

Just before sunrise twilight casts its golden glow across a lake.The  energy which surrounds me feels different. It seems we are constantly aware of time; the places we need to be and things we need to do but for that short period just before sunrise, time seems to stop. There's no place I need to be and nothing I need to do. 

 I usually have a big breakfast at a diner before I go birding but I decided to do it the other way around this weekend. I stopped for coffee at a little country store. It still has some of that antique charm from 1905 when it first opened. I was there just as hot blueberry scones were coming out of the oven. The perfect choice to go with my coffee.

There's a distinct clarity to the sound of a birds song and movements when set against a background of silence. It leads me to think that the sounds we don't hear can be as important as the sounds that we do hear. All that seems to matter is the air we breathe, the sounds we hear, and the birds we see.

Then all to soon, the spell is broken. Once again, there are places to be and things to do. It leaves me with one lingering question-Why?