Great morning experience

I had a wonderful experience this morning. I had woken up early (5:00 - 5:30 am), and was having trouble getting back to sleep. I got up and walked around a bit, and saw in the kitchen that a moth had been left trapped between the bug screen and the window when we closed it last evening. I opened the window to let him out. The sky was still dark, with just a hint of light in the east. I heard the frogs down the road, still chirping away. And I heard just one note of the robin's cry. I stood there for a few minutes, listening, then snuck back into the bedroom and got my big bed blanket, put on my ducky boots* and went outside on the deck to hear and see the rising of the dawn. The robin gradually drew out its cry more and more, and then I could hear other birds joining in - the song sparrow was most notable. And slowly the sky got brighter. I could hear a large group of crows cawing in the distance, and I heard a duck quack not far off, sounding like it had just woken up (QUAAAACCK quack-quack-quack-quack). Soon there was so much birdsong, I couldn't hear the frogs anymore! (only if there was a temporary lull in all the bird conversation). I did notice that once the sky was light, but the sun still hadn't broken the horizon, that they had stopped chirping altogether and gone back to sleep, hiding from the spring sunshine. It was like Nature's version of the night shift being relieved by the day shift. And it was beautiful! I was really glad to be able to experience that! :)

* ducky boots are little dark green rubber shoes that are meant to muck about outside in, and are easy to slip on and off at the door so you don't track dirt indoors. I call them ducky boots, but I don't know if anyone else does. :)