The alarm went off just after 5 o'clock this morning. Time to get up and do my first breeding bird survey of 2010, and what a brilliant morning to start the new season.
Mist was hanging over the lakes, hardly any higher than the reed tops, but not for long. A huge red sun soon popped up over the eastern horizon and cleared away the mist, and encouraged birds to sing. Many migrants are still on their way here, but blackcaps were belting out their songs from the scrubby patches, with willow warblers, chiffchaffs and song thrushes singing too, and the recently arrived sedge warblers were tuning up.
Out on the water, tufted ducks and goldeneyes were courting, and great crested grebes were doing their thing - mirroring the partner's actions, braying and presenting beakfuls of water plants. Mute swans have paired up, but none seem to be sitting on eggs yet.
Not all birds were vocal - a barn owl sat silently on a fence post, watching for smaller mammals than me.
By 9am, the heat was on, the coat was off, the coffee drained from the flask and the first survey was done. I'm looking forward to many more mornings like this one.