Wake up! Wake up!

Tess was awake before dawn — at the marginal minute of the dark when the grove is still mute, save for one prophetic bird who sings with a clear-voiced conviction that he at least knows the correct time of day, the rest preserving silence as if equally convinced that he is mistaken.

Thomas Hardy

Though I haven’t always been a morning person, I am now, at least in the spring and summer.  I like to be up when the sky is brightening so that I can be ready for the day and get out and about while all is still cool and fresh. Yet I still prefer to be asleep when it’s well before dawn. 

 This spring, I finally decided to investigate which bird wakes me up in the dark early morning hours, well before the sun is up, from March to mid-summer. The bird’s call, easily identified, is often said to sound like “cheerily” or “cheer-up”, but I think it sounds like a rather loud shout of “wake up, wake up”…repeatedly…in the dark…when I should still be sleeping!   The hazard of having a water feature and tall trees in my yard is that it creates a perfect little territory for ROBINS. My neighbors also have tall inviting trees. These lovely trees are ideal for the male robins to perch in while singing loud and long to proclaim territory and attract mates. The birds like to be up and about before other sounds compete with their calls. So there it is, robins are my spring early morning alarm.

 Yet if I have gone to bed early, slept well, and awake refreshed, I appreciate the robin’s incessantly cheerful song starting my morning. It’s then that I like looking out the window and seeing a spunky robin perched in the tree singing its heart out.

The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off - and they are nearly always doing it.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Do you have an early morning alarm that you sometimes appreciate, and you sometimes wish it would let you sleep longer?  Perhaps a cat who leaps on you with a loud purr signaling it’s time to get up. Or maybe a pup who makes it clear that the day has begun! Maybe you are a parent of a young child who is a natural morning person!  Whatever your morning alarm is, may you (usually) feel joy at the morning greeting!