Radio 4 is doing this as part of International Dawn Chorus day - a unique Broadcast event in which radio stations across Europe join together to track the rising sun across the continent from Moscow to Dublin and listen in on the birds. You’ll hear Capercaillies from Normandy, Bitterns in Somerset, Blue throats in Holland - it’s like the Eurovision Song contest, but with much better singing.
In our increasingly digital world Dawn Chorus provides a genuine encounter with the natural world on unmediated terms. There’s a lovely sense of anticipation as you hunt and you wait and you feel the sense of being really there – of the sudden excitement of a Tawny Owl at midnight, the cheeky joy of a cuckoo at 4am. And as we wait and we listen we take the opportunity to have a series of really interesting conversations about wildlife, literature, evolution and conservation.
Tune in to BBC Radio 4 on 7 May from midnight to 7am
Main image: Robin singing in spring/Credit: Getty