Eric Simms' account of the dawn chorus in oak woodland.

The dawn chorus in an oak wood - surely the best reason to get out of bed before sunrise. Illustration by J.A Shepherd, from Songs of the Birds by Walter Garstang 1922.

Eric Simms. Woodland Birds. Collins 1971 p110

I remember one such chorus from a Midland oakwood. The morning was still and cold with white patches of mist clinging to the stream-sides that fringed the great expanse of oaks. In the far darkness a skylark began to rise in song and then at four o’clock a whitethroat sang a rapid little phrase and fell silent once more. A few minutes later a mob of carrion crows in the wood woke up in a frenzy of raucous caws and wild gobbled notes. This set off the rooks which with softer, conversational notes began to stir nearby. A cuckoo called in the distance and a plaintive ‘tic-tic’ from a robin brought a full song phrase from its neighbour. At eight minutes past four two redstarts started singing almost simultaneously and were followed by blackbird song, wood pigeon coos and the ‘ki-wik’ of a still-active tawny owl. As the dawn gradually rose the chorus reached its magnificent peak of song. The songs of song thrush, a garden warbler and a blackcap from a tree above could all be distinguished. By five o’clock wrens, chiffchaffs, chaffinches, tree pipits, nuthatches, marsh, blue and great tits could be heard, and their songs echoed through the wood. Gradually their chorus began to die away, leaving only a treecreeper and a stock dove in song, with the drumming of a great spotted woodpecker. With the dawn the colours of the bluebell glades brightened, and I saw a grizzled dog fox pick his way through the wet bracken and a mud-spattered boar badger trundled back to his sett on a slope in the wood. The sun was beginning to rise and as the birds began to feed and set about the affairs of the day the chorus died away.