Set an alarm & woke up at 5am on December 22nd for the summer solstice – put my MKH8040s and MKH8020s outside and recorded from 5am through until 8am… Listening back I enjoy the sparser predawn birdsong than the somewhat shrill & busy dawn chorus, have a listen:

Plimmerton, Wellington, New Zealand – 5am on 22nd December 2015

Half speed Plimmerton, Wellington, New Zealand – 5am on 22nd December 2015

Plimmerton, Wellington, New Zealand – 5.45am sunrise on 22nd December 2015

Half speed Plimmerton, Wellington, New Zealand – 5.45am sunrise on 22nd December 2015

I had a play around in Melodyne with these recordings… kinda funny to make the birds ‘snap to E Major’

Original recording (half speed 5am)

“Corrected” recording (half speed 5am)

You can hear dawn recordings from the solstice from a number of other locations here