In previous years my first birds, seen or heard, have variously been a wee Robin that would tick-tick-tick its way around the tree at the front of my flat in the pre-dawn light, one of the many Lesser black-backed gulls that whirl around this seaside town, and a Blackbird whose alarm call rang out while I was still abed, probably in response to a prowling cat. This year, as last year and the year before, it was a little Robin, this one singing a merry tune as it sat in the tree. The RSPB website says Robins usually only live a couple of years but the oldest recorded was 11 years 5 months, so this could possibly be the same bird as in previous years.