Magic and Majesty of Dawn

"It was before dawn, that period of hush before the birds had begun to sing. The lake was breathing softly as in sleep; rising and falling, it seemed to me to absorb like a great sponge all the sounds of the earth. It was a time of quiet--no wind rustling the leaves, no lapping of the water, no calling of animals or birds." -- SFO, The Singing Wilderness

“Dawn. A pregnant green moist silence everywhere; and then the robins, and the starlings, and the jays, and the juncos, and the Barred Owl closing up shop for the night, and a hound howling in the hills ....” 

                                                   - Mink River, Brian Doyle