How Do the Birds Know When to Wake Up?

7/23 AM So Many Birds
Finally some sunshine. And many more birds. I don’t know if there are more birds because of the sun or if there are simply more birds out front than in back. Do some birds sleep in when it’s foggy?

7/24 AM Fog Gets in Their Eyes
Yesterday there were so many birds out front. I wasn’t sure if it was because it was a clear morning for a change or if it was because I was in the front of the house instead of the back. So when I went out the front door this gray morning, I didn’t know what to expect. It seems that when it’s foggy (audio), there are less birds out at sunrise. Period. Front or back. It doesn’t seem to matter. The next test is to see if there are as many of birds in the backyard on a sunny morning as there were yesterday out front. Since this is the summer, I may have to wait a while for the sun to shine again. If the birds sleep in, do they stay up later at night?

7/25 AM The Jury is Still Out
It was not very foggy. Nor was it so clear this morning. Not a good day to advance the experiment. So I recorded (audio) that one bird who is always out back, and except for one little buddy, he seemed to be alone. So who knows? Maybe that little bird, along with the occasional visiting crow is King of the back yard. After recording the sunrise, I went inside to listen and couldn’t find the recording on the disc, so I ran back outside to see if I could re-record. And the soundscape had completely changed. The bird was gone, it was noticeably brighter and the world was a different place. Only minutes later. I did eventually find the recording. I had accidentally recorded over one of the June mornings.