eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Springtime, Kitchen, Squirrels, and Crows

Ah Spring... Time to re-organize the kitchen. In the picture above, you can see the island we built, and Mrs. CapeCodAlan's new pottery collection sits happily beneath a "family heirloom timepiece". (My folks originally bought the kitchen clock back in the '50s... It died back in the '70s, and out of sentimentality I saved it from the landfill. Eventually quartz technology and double-A batteries made a re-hab simple, and the quaint result will probably stay with us the rest of our natural years.)

Anyway, Springtime re-arranging is afoot, and that meant that old crackers and nuts found their way out to the crow feeder. Forever the opportunist, "Don" the squirrel tried to stake claim, but that didn't last long. Crows being selfish brutes, Don was chased away pronto.

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Ah yes, the ever graceful crows....After all this time photographing them, they're still elusive subjects. It took an hour to get the photo below, and that pic certainly ain't nothing to brag about. (OK, so I wasn't standing by the window every second... Still, crows have an unnerving ability to be where you aren't, at least when you don't want to be there.)

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And so it goes... Singers and poets have called it the "Circle Game". How appropriate...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flooding, Hummingbirds, and Good Film Fun

Hi all,

First off, please keep in mind the flooding that's occurring in parts of North Dakota and beyond. (Hence the public domain picture above.) To help out, you can contact the American Red Cross here. And remember, this disaster won't end when the news coverage stops; flooding will continue for at least a month.

Have you checked out the hummingbird migration progress? We haven't seen any yet, but we're looking. (That reminds me... We've got to get our feeders ready for the Ruby-throated. And we're also going to have find a better way to photograph the creatures. No doubt that will mean that I'll have to start messing with stuff like shutter speeds and aperture, so expect blurriness, underexposure, and absolute white. You've been warned.)

One last thought... A flicker was on the feeder today. It was such a beautiful thing, and the bird was right in the sweet spot of my normal camera setup. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera setup "set up", and so this post will close not with a stunning flicker shot, but rather with a lame-o DVD rental suggestion. (I'm sorry, I just should have gotten those closeups... However, you can still see some great bird and wildlife pictures by accessing our eBirdseed.com photo library link below...) Now about those film suggestions... Parents, take a look at the old "Sherlock Holmes" movies (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce). Yeah, the flicks are campy and contrived, but kids (and adults) love that stuff. Doubt it? Just look at the success of NCIS and the Harry Potter series... Just a thought...

See you by the feeders, (I'll be the one wearing the deerstalker hat and brandishing a magnifying glass... Great Scott!)

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sparrow, Hero Parrot, and Emily

Hi all,

Well, we've got a real mishmash here folks, so let's just get cracking...

A few posts back I mentioned that we have a new sparrow family in the birdhouse... Well there you go. The wife got a series of photos of them including the one above. Looking at the shot, it strikes me what a good idea that aluminum plate was. We've watched red bellies try to "break in" to no avail. Anyway, I hope the sparrows enjoy their new digs,

Onward.

Did you hear about Willie, the hero parrot that alerted a babysitter that her charge was choking? Normally I stay away from "tug on the heartstrings" stories like this, but this one deserves attention. There is clear evidence of these birds having a significant EQ. Not bad. From everything I've read, these members of the psittacinae family can hold their own with even the corvids (crows, magpies, ravens, etc.) That would give them the equivalent "intellectual horsepower" of approximately a five year old human child. And that would also explain the rescue by Willie.

And in the "Other Stuff Dept.", a few days ago we had a slight cold snap (25 degrees and windy). As I glanced out the window I noticed an assortment of red wings, crows, and doves scattered around the ground under the feeder, And for whatever reason, a poem by Emily Dickinson came to mind... So here is poem number 32 (I believe):

"Hope" is the thing with feathers----
That perches in my soul----
And sings the tune without the words----
And never stops----at all----

And sweetest--in the Gale----is heard----
And sore must be the storm----
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm----

I've heard it in the chillest land----
And on the strangest Sea----
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb----of Me.

See you by the feeders, and goodnight Emily...

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

UFOs... We're Surrounded by UFOs!

Hi all,

Some time ago I spun the tale of my great UFO adventure. (Note the follow up P.P.S.) To say that I'm slightly skeptical about UFOs would be an understatement.

But anywho... The photo above is a perfect example of the kind of "evidence" that "Ufoligists" trot out as proof of "Little Green Men". But I'm getting ahead of myself... First, the weather and birds...

It's cold (25F), windy, and snowy. That's what I was trying to capture with the lead photograph. (Pity the small things like the Carolina Wren.) To be completely honest, I don't know how such diminutive creatures as birds survive in the cold. (And yes, I know about feathers, down, air pockets, etc. But I also know of being out in these conditions on far, far too many nights - it can become unpleasant.)

Alright, initial intentions out of the way, back to ET. How is it the lights (and their reflections) in the pic managed to be both in front of and behind the deck railing etc.? Well, to be completely honest, I'm not exactly sure. The snapshot was taken by a high-quality camera from a tripod using a remote triggering device - there simply was no movement. My best guess is that because I was shooting through a dual-pane sliding glass door the convex lens picked up light from slightly different angles and focused it in different locations within the image. (And no, I didn't photoshop the picture. You can easily reproduce this experiment yourself.)

A final thought... Maybe on cold nights like tonight, it's the space people who are keeping the birdies warm... (Sorry... Couldn't resist...)

See you by the feeders (I'll be wearing my aluminum foil hat),

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hairy Woodpecker... (And Other Strange Bird Names)

Hi all,

Well, as promised in the March 19 post, there's a nice shot of a hairy... (You can tell that it's a hairy vs. a downy by the long bill and ample size.)

So anyway, for some unfathomable reason that photo got me to thinking about bird names, and I'm just going to ramble for a while... (Be afraid - I have issues when it comes to bird names. In case you haven't been reading this blog from the very beginning, check out the insanity when we held a contest to name the questionable "Gordon Alan Pterodactyl Squirrel" ("Rocketus-J-Squirrelum Vespucciland"). Yeah, "issues" is an appropriate word.)

Obviously, some bird names make complete sense... The Ruby-throated Hummingbird bears a completely descriptive moniker. The Cooper's Hawk was named after William Cooper, the first person to have the creature officially identified - fair enough. And I'll bet the American Oystercatcher could stock a small raw bar. So far, so good. But at some point me thinks ye' ol' naming nomenclature game got a little out of control. Consider the following...

The Blue-footed Booby: The name comes from the Spanish word "bobo" for "foolish" or "idiot". (Maybe we should have named our clumsy cat "Booby"...)
Then there's the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: This guy looks like a cross between a downy woodpecker, a hairy woodpecker, and a red-bellied woodpecker. Though on a "Name Coolness Scale", the YbS has got to rank right up there with the boobies. (Hmmm... Now wait a minute... Given that naming convention, does that make me an "iron-bellied beersucker? Hmmm...)
And what of the Yellow-rumped Warbler: Ornithologists can be so cruel. (If this site wasn't rated "G", I could come up with so many funnier derogatory names.)
Bohemian Waxwing: Yeah, cool daddio... This beatnik is nomadic (hence "bohemian") and would indeed look hip wearing a beret. I vote that we officially change the name to the "Kerouac Waxwing".
Magnificent Frigatebird: These rascals are known to attack other birds, and were named for the marauding frigates of old. (They are also called "pirate birds". I kid you not.) But maybe if we called them, "Ahoy There Maties and Give Us All Your Fish" birds they'd enjoy a bit more respect... Oh never mind. (Can you tell that I've had a long day?)

The bottom line is that this silliness could go on all night. And that probably is as it should be...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Flickers, Turkeys, and Hummingbirds... Oh My!

Ah, it's Springtime, and the NovaBird (a remote, motion-activated camera) finally gets her chance to strut her stuff yet again - hence the shot of the flicker above. I also got a few snaps of both hairy and downy woodpeckers, but I'll save those for another day.

Let's see... What else? We haven't seen the turkeys lately, and that suits me just fine. I'm not really keen on having aggressive birds in the yard.

We are however looking for our hummingbirds. (It's a lot of fun to follow the creature's migration pattern via hummingbirds.net... If last year is any indicator, we should expect to see the hummers in about a month.)

Breaking news: Sparrows have returned to our birdhouse. (Here are the plans and a description of the build.) There's something very comforting and re-affirming about a successful birdhouse build/mount. In our case, we used a copper pipe as the mount pole. (See links above.) Down the road, I think I'd like to ram a dowel down the pipe to stiffen it. Then again, something like iron pipe wouldn't be out of the question either. Deep sigh... That's the fun of this hobby. No huge expendatures of money... No massive allotments of time... Just simple, rewarding fun...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

THIS is Why You Should Keep a Camera Handy

Hi all,

I just wanted to add a quick post... Check out "Don the Squirrel" above. Now is that a cool photo or what?!? I had literally no time for the backyard today, but passing through the kitchen, I spotted Don on the railing. As the saying goes, "it would have made a cat laugh" to watch yours truly struggle to re-configure the tripod to get the pic. (I finally gave up on the tripod, collapsed the legs, and used it as a unipod. Talk about a "Barney Fife/Inspector Clouseau Moment"!)

Anyway, the moral of the story is to always be ready with a camera. You never know what quick photograph lies in wait.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Busy Monday

Hi all,

Another Monday... Let's see... Not much time... (Ah backyard birding... The ideal hobby for the harried!)

I set up the camera in the kitchen and managed to catch the photo above in a matter of a couple of minutes. Obviously, it's just a grackle. (As Spring comes into its own, the young Grackles' iris turns from brownish to milky white. You can get a sense of the season by the birds' eyes... Looking good.)

Other stuff... We've got a huge project that has to be done by day's end.... I have got to fix the condensate pump on the furnace in the basement... The market is up 100, and President Obama is about to speak.

Wonder how the birds are doing? I'll be right back....

And...

Not bad... A blackcap and a tufted titmouse. Ah the joys of the simple things.

Gotta run... Tempus fugit.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here and Gone

I was going to use a picture of a far-away gull shrinking into the clouds to introduce this post, but by the time I got the tripod set up and the camera configured properly, the bird was gone. (Anyone who even occasionally tries to photograph the creatures will tell you that another name (perhaps a better name) for this hobby known as "casual birding" might be "exasperation"...) Anyway, I did manage to get some cool shots of a cardinal including the one above.

Now about that gull... If I had been able to get the pic, it would have been a wonderful intro into today's ramblings. But I guess we can muddle through regardless...

One of my earliest memories was that of being in kindergarten, and staring out the window at a gull. I made up my mind that I was going to watch the bird until it was no longer visible, and that is exactly what I did. (Needless to say, my teacher was probably slightly "less-than-enthused" with the dumb kid who was staring out the window at a dumb bird...) But stare I did until the bird was gone. And the questions I had then linger 45 years later... What happened? Where did it go? How long did the creature live? How did it meet its fate? The questions just go on and on and on. But more importantly is the bigger, underlying question... What was the real intrinsic nature of the thing? Did its "being" change moment by moment, year by year... Even children know that people change as they age... Which one was/is the "real" person? How was/is it that mommies and daddies make thinking beings out of virtually nothing? And how was/is it that thoughtful creatures suddenly go cold?

Anyone who's studied philosophy would recognize these sorts of questions as the stuff of ontology, the "philosophy of being".

Practical bottom line? My little kindergarten observation was probably as good as it's going to get. As far as we know, things consist of "the here" and "the gone". And only magnificent things like faith, principles, reason, courage, cardinals and even gulls lie in between.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 1:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rainy Day in Cape Cod

Hi all,

Don't bother looking for birds in the photo above - there are none. Not much bird activity here right now. This happens... Sometimes the feeders simply go motionless in the rain. Maybe that's appropriate today...

In 1962 Tony Joe White penned "Rainy Night in Georgia" (made famous by Brook Benton in 1970). If you're not familiar with the song, it's a sad piece... A couple of lines in the lyrics read:

A rainy night in Georgia, a rainy night in Georgia
It seems like it's rainin' all over the world

Yeah... A shooting in a German school leaves 15 dead... 10 dead in Alabama... The president just approved a bill containing $7 billion of pork by all accounts from all sides... Oh goody...

What else?

Well, on a less depressing note I was looking out the window the other night and two white birds flashed by. As the first bird passed I questioned my sight, but the second one seemed to confirm the first. They were really just blurs, but impressive none the less. My best guess is that they were Snowy Owls...

Time to sign off... Nothing to do now but make chowder.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gulls and Geese

Hi all,

Yup, it's springtime, and we're between snow storms. Mrs. CCA was determined to take out one of her boats - hence the pic above. Looks like we've got plain canada geese and a run-of-the-mill herring gull. (Though I'd listen to debate concerning the latter being a great black-backed gull.) Nothing too exciting.

While the Mrs. was out in her kayak, I scratched up a few quahogs out of the muck. Lessons learned in the mud:

Old boots can leak like the proverbial sieve. (Thank heavens for repair kits... I'll let the boots dry completely, mix a soap/water concoction, then fill the insides with tap water and coat the outside with the soapy stuff. A few bubbles will give away the leak, and I'll be off to the races.)
Ducks can be right friendly if you don't pay attention to them. As I was digging an American Black Duck just tootled on by 4' away. (Why don't I keep a waterproof disposable camera on my person when I go clamming?)
Never leave your favorite shell fishing spot. Productivity was low, and and the slurry was murder on the legs.
The nearby marina has a nice old Mercury that's just dying to hang off the stern of our antique boat. Time will tell if conditions are right.

Ah yes... A few birds, a home-built kayak, leaky boots, and thou... Simplify, simplify, simplify...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hawk and Crow

"Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

(So said Forrest Gump in the movie of the same name...)

I originally set out to get a fun crow pic... Instead, Mrs. CCA spotted this hawk, and we were off to the races. The big question now is whether the bird is a Sharp-shinned (or a Coopers), or even a Northern Goshawk. The wife votes the former because of the mottled chest, and I motion the latter - I say that because of the seeming eye stripe and the dark eyes.

But that's just part of the fun of the hobby. It's sort of like being a fisherman and arguing with your buddy about the one that got away. Was it a 50 lb striper or a 25 lb bluefish? Regardless, it was still an amazing fish.

Onward...

Below is a cranky, bread-gobbling crow taking wing. (I don't know why, but there's something about their flight. They have a remarkably flat flight trajectory. When watching crows, see if you can spy one flying directly away from you - it's truly amazing.)

crow 019_cropped.jpg

A quick crow story seems in order... As I was watching the crows before this photo was taken, one perched on top of the feeder and began harassing the attached suet feeder. What first appeared as the usual attack on the rendered lard soon took on a more sinister methodology. The animal was trying to peck away the cable tie that held the suet cage closed. Corvus brachyrhynchos ain't dumb.

Hawks and crows... I keep tellin' ya... Someone oughta sell tickets...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Carolina Wren... Sad Story

Carolina wren_resized.jpg

Hi all,

Witness the unfortunate Carolina Wren... These birds are primarily warm weather creatures... Though large as wrens around here go, they're still no match for the cold. It's 25 F outside right now... I wonder if the poor thing will survive...

Not to become too philosophical, but to become too philosophical, life is a funny old duck... One moment, that bird was probably in the warmer climes of the Southern US (Florida perhaps?), and now faces freezing to death. What compelled it to fly north? Was it a lack of food? The drive to mate? Safer nesting area? Pure instinct? Perhaps it was just a nonsensical wanderlust.... Why does all this stuff resonate?

Anyway, I hope the little bird survives...

There's a chilling line in the movie "Night of the Hunter" starring Robert Mitchum... It's a hard world for little things...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Crows vs. Gulls

Crow stepping with bread_resized.jpg

Ah yes, Mr. Crow strutting with some bar-b-que. (Sorry, I regress.)

Back to planet earth... Here we see a crow with a couple of slices of bread stomping through a slight snowstorm. Fascinating to watch... He knocked the slices onto the ground, then took the time to align them. We've seen this type of behavior before.

But that's just the lesser story... Away from the lens, crows and gulls were verbally duking it out over the crow tray. It's a little spooky really... The gulls were considerably larger, but the crows were brighter and more "gang-related". Think "Jets vs. Sharks" in a more cacophonous format.

Anyway, the crows won the rambunctious battle, and hence the photo above. I swear, somebody should be selling tickets.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. And speaking of selling tickets, keep in mind that we have a free streaming live video of our feeders here. At the moment, it ain't the highest quality, but it still beats flying toasters.