The Dawn Chorus and the Morning of Light

The morning chorus of the birds awakens the Earth and sets in motion a series of vibrations to ignite or trigger the life forces and energies of the soil, the plants, the microbes and the inner forces of life that create our planetary daily cycles.  

If there were no birds singing the dawn chorus in the early morning air, what would you do? Would you notice it? Maybe it wouldn’t bother you one bit as you live in the central city in a high-rise. Or you live in the Australian bush and the first thing you hear each day is the Kookaburra, the Magpie or the fruit-eating Parrot in rainforest trees.

In 1962 a book appeared on USA bookshelves titled ‘The Silent Spring’. The premise of the book was that pesticides and chemicals were killing local wildlife in the USA and that one day we would wake up to a spring season with no more birdsong. All the birds would be dead, poisoned by the widespread use of chemicals and pesticides.    Rachel Carson was the author, and the book is now widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement. It documented the harmful effects of pesticides in the environment, particularly on birds. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and government officials of uncritically accepting industry claims.

‘Silent Spring’ is now considered one of the best non-fiction books of the twentieth century. In the Modern Library List of Best 20th Century Nonfiction books, it was rated at number 5, and was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine (USA).

With all that in mind, it may surprise you to find that there is a subtle but very powerful role the sound of those early morning bird calls plays in the planet’s life cycles. What would you say if I posited that the Dawn Chorus of birds is actually necessary in the very early morning, to ignite or trigger the life forces and energies of the soil, the plants, the microbes and the inner forces of life that create our planetary daily cycles? Without that early song, the life force inside the earth would not continue each day. How is this so?

Some people find the morning bird song as the most beautiful event in all of creation – the Dawn chorus of the birds. In the spring especially, just before the Sun’s morning rays ignite the sky, the birds begin their song.  First one, then another, and then all together in their heartfelt expression.  Each country has different species of birds and the Dawn chorus in the tropical forests of northern Queensland, the rice paddies of Bali, or the broad forests of the Taiga in northern Russia is always different (the Taiga is called ‘boreal forest’ or ‘swamp forest’ and is the largest expanse of forests in the world).

In a book titled “A Pilgrimage with the Animals” on the teachings of Dr Lascelles (Seekers Trust, 1982) he introduces us to the subtle energy nature of all animals and tells us of our failure to understand them as spiritual beings with a key role and function in the daily patterns of life.    He says :

“I want you to think of what you call the Dawn chorus of the birds, that strange moment of nature just before the morning light seeps through. Suddenly, as you may have noticed if you have been lying awake, every bird in the neighbourhood breaks into song as though obeying some signal. For a time, while it is dark, the air is filled with orchestrated sound; the triumphant, challenging and positive sound of birds in song.”

“Now, why is this so? What prompts the birds into such a performance unequalled at any other time during the day? This mass heralding in of the day awakens the Earth in a magical way. Yes, actually awakens the earth as though God had arranged it, as indeed He has.” 

“It has been said that you cannot hurt the humblest creature or disturb the smallest pebble without your action having a reaction upon something else You cannot think an evil thought, no matter how privately, without it having an effect upon somebody else. Whatsoever you do in life sets up some form of resonance.”

“When I say the morning chorus of the birds awakens the Earth, I mean that the characteristic song of the birds sets in motion a series of vibrations which react upon other forms of life.  Remember, the soil of the Earth is full of living microorganisms. The plants are also living organisms. You, yourselves, are living organisms. Now, this is the beauty and wonder of it all – when one aspect of nature has been moved into a state of resonance it immediately relays its vibrational motion to something else.”

“So, when I say the Dawn chorus awakens the Earth, I literally mean what I say. I do not suggest that the Earth would come to a standstill without the bird song, but I do mean that life on Earth would be sluggish and ineffectual without that first instigating outburst of vibrational power poured forth at just the right pitch and tone to set off a chain effect.”

“I know some of you will say, what happens in those parts of the world where there are no birds? Well, what does happen? Very little, I assure you. The hot deserts and the polar regions where there are few, if any, birds are not renowned for their wonders of nature. It is as though they are more asleep. Little grows, few things live. Little resonates and there is often a great stillness over everything.”

“You see that outburst of sound just before the Dawn is like the little lever which works the bigger lever which turns the wheel which moves the machine and so on. Never underestimate small things.”  “Animals are blessed with instantaneous and unthought-out wisdom. They are in direct contact with God, and they act and live as though they are fully aware of it. Men are also in contact with God, but most of them act as though they have never heard of God because they are largely veiled from their divine centre by their own thinking minds of which they are so proud.”  (from ‘A Pilgrimage with Animals – the teachings of Dr Lascelles’).

The sounds of birds in the early morning are a resonant trigger for life to begin each day. This phenomenon needs to be acknowledged and being recognised by you, gives you a sense of your part in the daily play of nature in the world.

Sonic Bloom: The effects of birdsong on plant life

Many years ago, an article appeared in Nexus Magazine #4 on the discovery or invention of a method of growing plants using bird sounds. Christopher Bird and Peter Tompkins describe the development of Dan Carlson’s Sonic Bloom in their book The Secret Life of Plants. Many others have, it seems, recognised the role of birdsong in the growth of plants, and influenced or directly helped Carlson to develop his invention.

Dan Carlson’s desire to see that no one need be hungry through shortage of food sought to understand the optimum growth of plants. His discovery was that plants also feed from ‘the top down’ as well as the roots. Underneath all leaves are pores called stomata which open to take in nutrients and moisture from the air. Carlson’s observation that the more bird life there is on the farm, the more abundant plant life, has been echoed by farmers throughout history, except in modern times. Where there is little bird life, plants are stunted and dwarfed. Nature has the birds sing at dawn and dusk, which dilates the stomata, and so feeds the plants. One can immediately see the importance of trees.  The development of Sonic Bloom was to create birdsong, which is played to the plants, while a foliar nutrient is sprayed onto the plants at the same time as they are being stimulated by the sound, to enhance their growth. The secret of Sonic Bloom was the development of the music of the same frequency as the Dawn chorus of the birds.

Another piece I came across that strangely confirms the phenomena is that there is an electromagnetic frequency Dawn Chorus which is picked up on radio monitoring equipment and resembles the sound of the Dawn birds’ chorus.  Is this the melody of the trigger effect on life forces translated into measurable radio frequencies? Scientists believe it may be caused by high-energy electrons that get caught in the Van Allen radiation belts of the Earth’s magnetosphere and fall to the Earth’s surface in the form of audible radio waves. These electromagnetic Dawn choruses also occur more frequently during magnetic storms.

Take note next time you hear the first sounds of birdsong in the early morning. In some places, it will still be dark when the first one calls. Be a part of that sound and recognise the vitally important role that sound vibrations play in the life of the Earth. When you hear it first remember what is in this article. Ocean waves, wind, trees, thunder, rain and now the sound of birds in the early morning. It makes us realise there is a lot more to heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophies (thanks to Hamlet).  There is certainly a lot more going on than we imagined in our world.

Stanley King, Editor, A Pilgrimage with the Animals, The Seekers Trust, Kent, 1982.

Rachel Carson, The Silent Spring, Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

Cornelis van Dalen:   ‘Dawn Chorus’ – http://www.newphysis.com/dawnchorus.html

For pure morning bird song recordings search –

Listening Earth by Andrew Skeoch: nature sound recordings:    http://www.listeningearth.com/

NB:     Listening Earth has a Dawn Chorus section.

Andrew now has a book out in 2023 ~ “Deep Listening to Nature”. 

“Our pure nature recordings bring you the sounds of our living planet – joyous symphonies of birdsong, the timeless flow of the ocean, the rippling of a stream as it glides through the evergreen rainforest. All our recordings feature only sounds as you would hear in the wild – no music, commentary or other distractions.”

Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/listeningearth

Richard Giles, Astrologer and Feng Shui practitioner –  [email protected]
“Since we are in Spring I wanted to resurrect this article from 2011 as we need a renewal of the reminder  ~  that the birds of our planet are a far more powerful source of life energy than perhaps many realise. ” Richard Giles

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