eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Since the last post was so popular (it included a photo of a bird's ear), here is another shot. (Maybe the wife should dump the kayak more often. The more we put the old Olympus C-2100 to work, the better it looks. Take a look at the butterfly bush below...)

Butterfly bushes are great--they're virtually un-killable. You cut the bare wood down almost to the ground in the dead of winter, and by July, the bush is fully leafed out, blooming like mad, and about eight feet tall. Plus, of course, the hummingbirds and the butterflies love it, it provides shade and shelter to the other birds who come to visit the bird bath. It also happens to be fragrant and quite beautiful.

Butterfly bushes also come in different colors and sizes, so there's likely a perfect choice for you. Consider adding one to your garden this year. You'll be glad you did, and so will the birds who visit you.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't get your hopes up too high, but I put out the NovaBird remote, movement-triggered camera just in time for a virtual "bird storm".

Okey dokey, the afternoon has passed and I just brought in the old NovaBird and am looking at the snapshots - all 354 of them. Let's see what we got...

• A bunch of nice grackle photos (love the white iris)
• The cardinals didn't let us down
• There are the usual chickadees

But better yet, we've got perhaps the finest shot of a bird's ear ever. (Well, okay.. maybe it ain't the finest, but should the picture make the rounds, I'd guess a few ornithologists will sit up and take notice! The link to the high res photograph is here. You can also use our library link below and browse to it there.)

Is that not wild or what?!? I've searched the Web, and looked at my books: Sibley, Peterson, and Alsop III... So far, this is the best I've found. That hole behind and below the eye is called the auricular, or outer ear. Normally this is covered with down/feathers. Hopefully, given the time of year, this little fellow is still molting (versus being sick.)

I don't know why that stupid picture above gives me such a kick, but it does. I've made it no secret that I'm not a bird nut... Yeah, I like to look at them, and yeah their songs sound nice. And their flights are acts that human dance will ever approach... But I'm still not about to pop a second mortgage to go to Peru and search for the rare "Ha Cha Cha" bird. Sorry...

Still there's something very rewarding about that picture. (Eat your heart out USGS!) I don't know... Maybe it's just that a well-intentioned though time-challenged amateur can occasionally come up with some pretty fair stuff. Maybe it has to do with these inexpensive results compared to the exorbitant costs of "real birding"... In any event the photograph looks cool beans by my eye.

Very content by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Once again, another busy day. Set up the Olympus on a tripod on the kitchen counter and went about the usual. And sure enough when I was working on the scullery computer (more about that in a minute) I turned, and there she was, a female ruby throat frozen in time right there 18" away from the lens. I mean we're talking perfect; it was as if the creature was caught in stop action in mid air. Man oh man alive... I focused that camera and... the batteries died. It went lights out. Arghhh!!! All kidding aside, there's a reason why "picture boxes" and I don't get along. In a sentence, they're stupid and digitally malevolent. There I said it. But anywho, here are a couple of nice hummingbird shots that did survive.

And not to be outdone, here's a crow yelling...

So there you go... And don't be too surprised if future illustrations take on that distinct "feel" of that old non-digital camera manufacturer, Crayola. Harrumph! Now, on to more info about our real-time bird cam.

When last we visited our fussy network-based bird cam, all seemed okey dokey. Ah ha! You fell for it just as I did. Well, it turns out that simply unplugging one of the lines coming off the router makes the entire network hold its breath and stamp its little digital feet. (I know, I know, I know... What we did shouldn't have caused the thing to crash, but it did crash... it crashed faster than an old Russian-built jetliner.) Whatever... The web cam is back up, and more popular than ever. Be sure to check it out - the hummers are going nuts over here!

Gotta run... I'll see you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please forgive the picture below, but Cape Cod is experiencing a rare Summer Nor'easter (a long, wet, windy storm that blows in from the north east) and birding probably ain't going to be so hot for a couple of days.

Not a problem though - I get to wallow in a few of my favorite pastimes... Insomnia, working, listening to the rain, butchering the fine art of photography. You get the idea.

About the snapshot... I took that at about 4 AM in an attempt to show the storm-scattered red petals on our front landing/ramp. While I somehow miraculously stopped the flashback, steadied the camera, and slowed the exposure (well, ok, the camera did most of those things) I still managed to pick up the reflection of the inside of the living room. Talk about talent. But there are stories there. (I always wanted to drive north to the crown of Maine, towards Caribou, and find one of those dilapidated, abandoned homes and then research the thing. Who was born there? Who died there? Why was the house left to crumble? But I digress...) There are stories in the reflection in the picture above.

• We've got a couple of pieces of exercise equipment. Ugh.
• It's tough to see, but there's a dining room table (safely smothered) that is being used as a temporary model boatbuilding area. I'm a moderator on a couple of boatbuilding forums and I've found that for really tough questions, sometimes a quick model will help.
• The toolbox on the white cabinet is pretty cool. I built that from scrap, and the influences include Japanese, Shaker, luthier works, marine arts,.. In short, it's a hodgepodge held together with 64 hand-cut dovetails. Still, plain and common can be beautiful if you get the lines right and the piece functions well.

Well, the birds are singing and my eyes are crossing... .

See you by those soggy feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 3:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ah... 'tis time for another NovaBird remote camera crapshoot. You can see the setup in the pic below. (The NovaBird is mounted on the tripod.)

As the camera is motion-activated and has a fixed focal length, the quality (or even existence) of photos snapped is a matter of "by gosh and by God". I'm hoping for some decent crow images, but honestly, I have no idea what I'll get. I'll keep you posted as to the success or failure of this mini-adventure as the day goes along.

Other mundane stuff while we wait...

Lots of vitamins and supplements to take:

• A "one daily" vitamin for men
• There's a bunch of fish oil for my heart health... (Gee, does that mean I can keep my salt lick?)
• Can't forget the loperamide hydrochloride... Fussy guts will accept no less.
• Who can forget the glucosamine chondroitin and msm? (This is what happens when you spend your youth as a runner. (You ain't a runner if something as trivial as having your big toenail ripped off stops your run.))

As always, there's real stuff to do... Grrr...

Just checked the Nova'... The birds really don't like it.

Yet more grind...

Intersperse the usual workout... Boring.

I wonder how the camera is doing? The crows seem to be particularly skittish around the tripod...

I might finally make another stab at building a model of Bolger's 1964 "Surfmaster 19" boat. The model build is pretty much a duplicate of the real thing only in the realm of the tiny and fussy. This will be my 5th model. That and four real boat assemblies pushes me squarely into the category of dangerous.

Alrighty then... Let's see how the camera did!... I'll just bring it in,... And take out the memory card... And... D'oh! Double D'oh!

All I got was 17 lousy shots, the best of which was that of a grackle's tail section?!? Stupid crows... Ten minutes after I brought in the NovaBird, all the scraps were gone.

I'll be grumbling by the feeders when I get a chance,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, our bird cam is back up. Looks like we had a busted router and maybe a fried network interface card. Anywho... To give some sense of the mess when even a small network goes bananas, here's a shot of the back of just part of our system. (Remember, this is just my own personal network, and it has no connection with the eBirdseed configuration, which is fine.)

So, be sure to check out our rejuvenated eBirdseed.com bird cam

Onward... You didn't think this old engineer would leave today without noting what happened 40 years ago - Apollo 11. The image below is of yours truly sitting by the TV watching the greatest achievement in human history in real time.

Think about that for a moment... The moon shot made the Great Pyramid look trivial. A bunch of engineers living the American mantras of hard work and competition actually put men on the moon four decades ago. The on-board computer system that they used? Well, it had 1/16th the computing power of a $50 calculator available from Staples today. And here's some cool info about the Saturn V rocket that got the men to the moon...

• At liftoff, the rocket weighed over 3,000 tons.
• Ever wonder how tall the vehicle was? Go to your local skyscraper and take the elevator to the 35th floor, get out, go to a window and look down. That's how tall that thing was.
• The rocket consisted of three stages...
• The first stage took the astronauts from zero mph to roughly 6,000 mph in two minutes.
• The second stage accelerated from 6,000 mph to 14,000 mph in six minutes.
• The last stage would drive the vehicle up to 17,000 mph in eight minutes.
• When all was said and done, the craft boogied towards the moon at a cool 25,000 mph.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, my network went bonkers. I mean like crazy man. Somehow the power cord to the cable modem went roaming for greener pastures, and the battery backup could only hold the fort for just so long. (How I love mixed metaphors! But you get the idea.) As the modem wheezed away, apparently it damaged either the router or the NIC. Anywho, my network is sucking wind, and the connected eBirdseed bird cam is down. (Keep in mind that my network is completely separate from the eBirdseed.com network which is fine... that's why you're able to read this.) To remedy the situation on my end, we've purchased a new router, and shifted the modem over to another computer. Now, if we can just get the router working, that will breath life into our network, and bring the camera back online. In an arcane way this is really a bummer... We launched the bird cam about 15 months ago, and ran into trouble after roughly 4,000 views. Since then, I've reset the thing in our kitchen, and racked up another 15,500 views. All told, we were inching up on 20,000 hits when this new problem occurred - arcane bummer indeed. But stay tuned, I'll fix this mess, or my name isn't Phineas J. Whoopee.

On to the birds...

Obviously, the shots below aren't exactly of real birds... These are carvings by a local artisan - Fred Schmelke from right here on Cape Cod. It's quality stuff... The birds are (in order): Canada Goose, a Stilt, the Short-billed Dowitcher, and a Pin Tail...

So that's it... A broken network and bird models. What do ya want for nuthin'? Rubber biscuits?

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 3:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thought I'd try a little something different... That is, perhaps give you a feeling for a Cape Cod treasure - Provincetown (aka "PTown"). Yeah, there will be a reference to birds, but only once. This time I'm going to shoot for a bit of variety.

And "variety" might be the perfect word for PTown. But I'm jumping the gun. First, here's a map of the end of Cape Cod to give you some bearing. Note the compass rose.

Yup, Provincetown is the end of the salty, sandy, and scrub pine-lined roadway known as Rt. 6. If nothing else the little village boasts creativity, diversity, and uhhh... Historically speaking, the scan above speaks volumes, but it's the culture and concomitant architecture and physical layout of the place that provides real insight. The next photograph should help us gain access to a better view of the entire scene. This is the PTown Monument, all 250 feet of her. (350' if you count High Pole Hill upon which the monument perches.)

Next is a pic taken out the back of the base of the monument. That neat spire in the background is the top of the town hall.

Alrighty then, take a look or two from the top of the monolith...

That town hall is right below and just out of sight. You can see MacMillan Wharf on the left. Notice anything else? Kinda tight digs ain't it? Here's another view...

And this last snapshot says a lot too...

Put bluntly, Provincetown isn't for everybody. If the sight of same-sex couples holding hands or the smell of smoldering ganja mixed with grilled hot dogs puts you on edge, PTown ain't for you. But if you can keep your values to yourself, and leave your agenda at the door, the place looks pretty good. If you're polite and civilized, you might just be at home on those turbulently crowded streets.

Yesterday, as we started back to Harwich, we saw half-scattered flocks of grackles coming off Pilgrim Lake in a gray and windy sky, and their angle and our speed was such that they seemed to just rest beside us. That's Provincetown Massachusetts.

Some day, maybe just some day, I'll realize my last dream and become a PTown High School teacher amidst the static, scrape, and bird songs. Yeah... to teach Algebra and Calculus, Physics and Phys Ed. in a small school... that would be a good thing. To build small boats for sale, and quahog for a few extra bucks... All watched over by a village of loving if sometimes ignoble grace. (H/T Brautigan...)

Waiting by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

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

On such a day as this, it was incumbent upon me to take my kayak out on local waters for a trek from pond to ocean and back, communing with nature, taking photos, and generally having a life.

Having fought the tide and the breeze all the way downstream from Swan Pond to Nantucket Sound, taking photos of the local wildlife (such as branta canadensis, below) as I went, I decided to beach my craft, stretch my legs, and perhaps take a quick swim before my return trip.

Nature may not actually be red in tooth and claw these days, but she sure has a quirky sense of humor. As I was about to beach the kayak, a sudden series of waves gave a not-so-gentle push, the kayak turned turtle, and into the water I went. Unfortunately, also into the water went a Palm Treo cell phone, a hand-held GPS, a very nice Canon DSLR camera, and a small video recorder. All of these were in plastic bags; however not one of the bags was actually sealed. After assessing the damage, trying to dry what I could (not much, as my towel of course was also soaked), I righted the boat, bailed out the small bit of water remaining in the cockpit with one of my Crocs, and headed back upstream, the journey back made easier by the push of the tide and the wind.

Having successfully retrieved from the flash disk the hundred or so photos I took on the trip out, I have some small (very small) hope that the Canon might not be beyond repair. Sadly, the video camera and the cell phone are toast. The GPS, being made for the outdoors, is likely fine.

Maybe I should stick to the backyard feeders.

See you there.

Mrs. CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm going to keep this short... The four minute video alone will eat up enough of your time...

Yeah it's the usual suspects... Cowbird et al.

Before I go... Just a reminder that bird baths shouldn't be too deep. Back when I was a kid, we used to use an old bowl... A bird got into it and couldn't get out. Just use your heads.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We first noticed a grackle trying to take a dip in an all-too-shallow bird bath and added water to liven things up. (Yeah, yeah... we added water to the bath and not the bird smart guy.) And, as you can see, liven things up it did. Looks like there's a couple of grackles and cowbirds. What's more, sunshine seemed to play a role in the activity; when the sun is out, so are the birds, but when the clouds roll in, the winged ones exit aqueous "stage left". Also take into account the effect of the bubbler... The backyard bath (near the feeders) sees little attention while the one in the front yard is often crowded. And of course, the front one is by the road - the birds seem to like that miniature fountain.

It's all simple fun really... We set up the tripod and (in the infomercial lingo of our time) "set it and forget it." Sometimes we get cool video, and sometimes we get 30 minutes of gurgling water and the sounds of cars going by. 'Tis life.

There really isn't too much to add to the video aside from this... This backyard birding stuff (B.B.S.) is astonishingly easy and fast. And compared to a Vegas vacation is dirt cheap. It is what it is. (To paraphrase, "What happens in Vegas stays with your money in Vegas... What happens in your backyard, deck, or coffee break costs little and stays with you forever.") Maybe a good future post will be a breakdown of the basic requirements for B.B.S., soup to nuts... Hmmm...

In the mean time, everybody out of the pool!

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First the sparrow...

Now is he cool or what?!? To borrow from K.C. and the Sunshine Band, it looks like he's going to do a little dance, scrub a little scrub, and git gone alright, git gone alright. (Long ago I warned you that I needed help.) No, seriously, ain't that one magnificent creature? The red cap and the eye stripe really are spectacular. At least we think so...

Now, about that ice cream... How about home-made banana/chocolate chip that will break your heart? Here's a list of machines/ingredients/steps that will make it happen:

1. Buy a food processor, mixer, boat motor... Whatever... Just get yourself a gadget that can wreak havoc on a pile of food stuff and still keep it clean.
2. Purchase one of those ice cream makers. You know, the gizmos you see at Sears, Amazon, and Walmart.
3. On to the good stuff... The ingredients:
• We'll need about six ripe bananas (If they aren't really ripe, stick a sheet of paper in the middle of the bunch and wait til tomorrow.)
• One tablespoon of lemon juice
• 3/4 cup of light corn syrup
• Two tablespoons of vanilla extract
• One and one half cup of heavy cream
• Your favorite chocolate bar chopped very fine
• Put bananas in freezer and let harden for at least 12 hours.
• Remove bananas from freezer and let them thaw for about an hour. (The point being that you really don't want to work with yellow ice rods.)
• Now, peel those bananas. Warning - them puppies are cold and squooshy!
• Put the bananas along with the lemon juice in a bowl and "schmedrate" (mix) it for about 30 seconds.
• Add everything else sans the le chocolat slowly adding the heavy cream.
• Blend/"fold in" for 25 minutes or until you get a nice thick consistency and then toss in the chocolate and let whir for another three minutes.
(It might be fun to add chopped pineapple at the last moment!)
• Finally, freeze the melange for an hour or more and dig in. Yee ha!

See you by the Summer feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 1:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The picture below is of stuff the wife found at a yard sale. No big deal...

Let's see... We've got (left to right and front to back):

• Plate number 8 from "Birds of America" consisting of a number of terns.
• An article from the Sept. 1952 Atlantic Magazine entitled "Do-Nothing Day" by Wyman Richardson, M.D. This is an off-the-cuff discussion of a day of birding on Nauset Beach on Cape Cod.
• The next two are advertisements for bird books circa 1930s to the 1950s.
• The folder in the back right is the 1916 University of New York State Museum "Birds of New York" collection of 106 plates including the one below. That of Crossbills...



• And finally, there is a wonderful 31 page hand-written tutorial to friend, mentor, or perhaps an editor or publisher. The piece is dated around 1925, was composed in Dennis MA, and has what I would consider a very insightful passage...

  "The more you go about among birds the more you will learn about these wonderful creatures and you will find as Mrs Porter says that they can reason."

Mulling by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From July 1 - July 3, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg raged. Casualties were appalling on both sides, with over 7,000 dead at the end of it. It seems appropriate on this Independence Day, as we celebrate our freedom, to recall the the price that was paid then, and continues to be paid today, so that we may continue to enjoy the blessings of liberty in this country

Perhaps the best way to remember the battle is to repeat the words of President Lincoln who commemorated it some months later with words that should be familiar to us all:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate...we can not consecrate...we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Enjoy your independence.

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)