Early mornings

The woods were strangely quiet this morning and it took me a while to work out why. I could hear the faint noise of traffic from the motorway in the distance but I suddenly realised that I couldn't hear any birds. As I turned around at the top of the path to walk back through the trees I stepped on a twig, snapping it loudly, and something clattered through the branches above me dislodging a shower of acorns. Just as we reached the path again, one or two birds had started to tweet and the dawn chorus began, but it looks as though my morning walks will be quiet for a while.