eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Man, have we got an interesting one for you today! There we were last night, watching a cheesy movie when arghhh! What on earth was that sound? I grabbed the little Mino Flip camera and stuck it in a screened window and let it just record. Obviously, there was no video to speak of, but the mic still worked. Later, a little creativity stripped the audio out of the recording and turned it into the following MP3...

Is that creepy or what?

I'm thinking that's the sound of a couple of muskrats fighting. I say this because the racket sort of mimics this. I know, I know... the sounds are different. But listen in the background for the "cooing". My guess is that the difference in the main has to do with fighting vs. courting etc. Mrs. CCA on the other hand wonders about possums, martens, or maybe a fisher cat. Both of us have searched the Web for those possible Steven Tylers of the natural world that could have produced such a caterwaul. We've listened to owls, foxes, raccoons, flying squirrels... all for naught.

Anywho, that's quite an unnerving racket for 10:44 PM on a Sunday. I've only heard that a couple times before, and it offers a real impetus to double check the locks on the doors.

I'll keep you posted on this one. And should anybody out there know what sort of beastie would have the pipes for this sort of thing, please let us all know!

Shaken by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. Remind me sometime, and I'll re-tell you the true tale of the night the wife and I ran across the "Beast From Hinkley's Pond"!

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just wanted to give you a quick update on what's been happening with some of your comments and address those I just discovered. If you haven't seen your comments being posted in the most timely of fashions, don't lose heart - there's a reason for this. When a reader submits a comment (and we do love your comments by the way!), I am notified by email that I should read and if appropriate, approve that comment. Naturally, I check my email several times a day every day just so that I can quickly address your thoughts. But here's where the going gets fun. Like all commercial (and private) email systems, we do occasionally get spam, and like all commercial systems, we use software to try to filter that out. And somewhere between our spam filter, the email system, and human error (probably mine), a few comments have slipped past. Sooo...

As best as I can tell, there were two old comments (9 days) that I want to address right here, and right now, and hopefully bring us all up to speed.

One reader pointed out that I'd messed up the math on the "Designing a Better System for Crow Pics and Vids" entry. Right on Harry "Gipper" Morris! The pic below shows the proper dimensions and angles needed to mount one camera 15" away from the center of the feeder and the other 40" away on a single support mounted to the base of the 48.5" feeder post.:

It's interesting to note that while I wrote the incorrect angle between the base of the feeder post and the support (I wrote 35 degrees when in fact it was as Gipper correctly pointed out around 17.2 degrees) I still got the length of the support correct to 1/100th of an inch. (84" - 4" for the camera mount.) Unfortunately that's what I get for doing exactly what I used to admonish my students for doing - scribbling and trying to play the "number shortcut in my head game". Thanks again Harry! And yes Harry, it would be great to hear of your adjustable system, though I think you might be right - the whole shebang might just scare the birds away.

Next comment... Gipper mentions his F-120 camera not having a remote control option. True enough. But there are five ways to go:

• Some folks literally hack into the hardware of the camera and make their own remote. There's quite a bit of info concerning this on the Web. Personally I wouldn't do it for fear of destroying the camera, but I know others have done it.
• Some people hack disposable cameras as above.
• If you check out the model rocketry and RC plane sites, there are a bunch of remote cameras.
• You can build a little platform and jury rig a mechanical shutter "finger" using an RC control and servo motor. I did this for a kite camera and it worked well.
• And then there are the more conventional cameras with the remote feature built in.

(In my best Strother Martin voice) We'll be commun'catin' by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

In keeping with trying new and unusual photography and video, I shot the following by packing our Flip Video Mino in an old waterproof "IkeLite" camera housing and sticking it out in the remnants of tropical storm Danny. The streaks you see and the sounds you hear are the raindrops actually hitting the case...

It was an interesting experiment, and the camera shifted in the case (see below with the back off), but all was secure and completely watertight.

And of course, the next photograph shows the empty IkeLite...

Granted I had to shim the rig for level, and bungee the beast to the deck for fear of the wind, but all seemed to go exceptionally well.

(Funny story about that acrylic camera case... I got that over 30 years ago. I was 13, and my buddy Richard and I had discovered snorkling. I wanted an underwater camera in the worst way, but couldn't afford a new one. However, I did have an old Kodak X-35 and could swing a used housing from the local dive shop that was six miles away. So in exuberance that infects only young teenagers, my buddy and I walked the trek twice to get the Ikelite. (The manager wasn't there the first time.) So that little plastic gem above cost me $15 and 24 miles... Ahhh youth...)

As for future unusual photog - stay tuned. For some time now I've been wanting to get some shots of birds under water. To that end, the wife has been looking for a large glass bowl that we can partially fill with rocks and waters as a sort of a birdbath. I figure I'll leave a path for the lens up through the bottom of the bowl. Like I said, stay tuned.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Trying some new stuff here at eBirdseed.com... We're going to start playing with cameras in new and unique ways. I'm not sure exactly what we're going to do, but it should be interesting. (Read that, "I'll find yet more ways to insult the Lens Gods.") Subjects that have been mulled include radio-controlled macro shots (for those nice closeup, blurry pics); 3D images (we could provide those cool 1950's paper 3D glasses); underwater photographs of ducks feet (or anything else that moves); a stunt squirrel cam; or maybe even a rocket cam for inspecting nesting areas. But for the moment, I thought it might be cool to simply look at birds from the ground level, and see the goings on "from the 'hood" if you know what I mean...

Here we've got a blue jay taking some bread. Kinda cool. It's very fast, but you can always replay.

Gotta love an inquisitive mourning dove! I know this guy is common... But still, it's a pretty creature.

And then there are a couple more doves standing pretty for the camera...

And finally, there's "Doves vs. Don the Squirrel". (Or is that Donna?) Guess who wins?

Simple fun stuff really. I just snugged a tired woodworking spring clamp horizontally to the base of our diminutive Mino video camera and stuck it out in the weeds out on the lawn and let her rip.

Stay tuned...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, we got another visit from a dragonfly a few days ago. And obviously, that's nothing new... Here's a link to our Gomphus Borealis post. (I swear, someone has got to name a rock band "Gomphus Borealis", or there will be no balance in this sphere!)

To be completely honest, I know zipoid about dragonflies, or damselflies (or pretty much anything else for that matter...) So the fellow below was a complete mystery.

Thank heavens for the Internet... I contacted Glenn Corbiere, an expert on dragonflies (his site and photography are amazing) and asked him what he thought of the critter above. I wondered if it might be a petaltail, a darner, a clubtail, a snaketail, a spiketail, a baskettail... Mr. Corbiere, politely and thoroughly corrected me and informed that the insect is in fact a Blue Dasher (aka "Pachydiplax longipennis"). A better photo from Mr. Corbiere is available here. Live and learn...

On a different but very important note, everybody on the East Coast should keep their eyes wide open concerning storm Danny. Once again, I point to a great booklet that discusses emergencies.

Let's be careful by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Did you notice how the juveniles were relegated (sometimes rather dramatically) to second place behind the adults in queueing up for the jelly? And that certain of the juveniles shoved others out of the way as well? It's likely that most, if not all, of the youngsters are from the same brood, so there are very probably be family dynamics at play here (just like in other families, large and small!)

I guess it's not too surprising that we go through a jar or two of Welch's finest every week!

Eatin' jelly by the feeders

Mrs. CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been a strange day... Right now, we're waiting for the shards of Hurricane Bill,

The weather has been a little too warm and humid a little too long. There's nothing good on TV. There's still a lot of junk to be done. Beyond that, the lawn needs mowing and the house needs painting and I'm probably not ever going to get a date with a hot super model. Ya see what I mean?

Even the crows aren't bothering with the ancient chips I put out. Everybody got them blahs. (Oh, for the good old days when a crow was a crow and a kernel of popcorn trembled in fear!).

It's as if Summer is holding its breath and stamping its feet rather than exiting gracefully. There might be a few bright sides though... Hurricane Bill might wash up some scallops on the local beaches. (I remember when I was a kid we had a major blow, and the scallops were so thick that people were filling up trash cans with them. It's tough to get tired of scallops, but we did.) Also, there's a lot of coyote activity outside - that's always interesting. (I assume that they're coyotes, though they lack the usual "yip yip yip" sound. Given the craziness of "Cape Cod Coyotes" with some wolf DNA tossed in for good luck, who knows what's going on out there? To borrow from Woodie Allen, for all I know there might be something lurking with the body of a crab and the head of a social worker. Way beyond that pleasant image, no doubt the birds will be more active tomorrow.

So much for the blahs...

See you by the feeders and I'll be waiting with a Hollywood super model... ;)

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For some time now, we've been trying to find a reliable way to both remotely photograph, and video record our crow tray with limited results. Oh, we've had our moments, but still, there has to be a better way. (It almost seems as if the tripod/cams rig scares away as many birds as it photographs.)

So, here's the deal... I'm starting to think about maybe building a single, canted, permanent camera support board that will be attached to the base of the crow tray. Since the focal lengths of the cameras differ (the NovaBird is 15", and the Flip Video is at least a meter), I'll have to arrange the board such that the NovaBird's lens will be at the bird's eye level, and the Flip Video will be shooting down; and both will have to be at the right focal length. Confusing? Just think of the Leaning Tower of Pisa rammed into the base of the crow feeder such that both cameras will be happy.

Alrighty then... What have we got to deal with? Well, this...

Here's what I'm thinking of. (And yes, I know the difference between the leg and the hypotenuse of a right triangle!)

Hopefully, this is the math that will all make it work... (I heard that groan... Don't make me come over there!)

Bottom line? I now know the scale I'm dealing with, and can easily make such a contraption, but I'm not sure I want it. (Ah, the crude beauty of pen and paper.)

We'll be thinking by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. BTW... I used the "Law of Cosines" for much of the number crunching on this one.)

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ok, not to freak anyone out, but there seems to be a storm heading towards the eastern seaboard (see little ol' Cape Cod sticking out of the east side of MA?)

Now keep in mind that the hurricane might well veer out to sea and all we'll get (in New England) is some sort of "wind event". But... Just a reminder that New England (and the Cape) have seen this sort of thing before. Witness Hurricane Carol from 1954...

The former shot (src: NOAA) is one of the Edgewood Yacht Club in RI, and the latter reflects the sad state of Lower County Road by Allen's Harbor in Harwich MA (src: Mom). All told, Carol killed roughly 70 people.

Sooo... Early preparation ain't a bad idea even if Hurricane Bill proves to be a no show. Nothing like being proactive. You know the drill... Stock up on batteries, reliable flashlights, water, canned goods and non perishables. Know your exit routes and emergency shelters. Have medication and contact info for all. Keep an emergency radio and cell phone at your fingertips - even in the dark. Blah, blah, blah...

This has been a public service announcement from the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. If by chance we do get the storm, stay tuned to this blog as I'll try to live stream the puppy!

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

First off, it looks like the first major storm of the season is starting to develop and the eastern seaboard may take a hit. So, once again, here's info that you should take to heart. Please, even if this storm fizzles out, be prepared.

Alrighty then, that out of the way, what have we got?

(Using your best "Strother Martin" voice...) What we have here is a crow (or murder thereof) unwilling to pose or co-operate for a videeo camera. Yes, yes, yes, he's cute "cake walking" around the tripod, but it seems that the three-legged aluminum beast keeps the two-legged, feathered corvidae at bay as it were. Popcorn is tempting, but not that tempting. Truth be told, crows are tough to photograph - they're incredibly skittish of humans. (There's umpteen reasons for this, and I promise that I'll touch on that the next time I have a "coffee-table" non-bird post. No doubt you're all going to love a gun history/safety entry.) But for the moment, the crow above exemplifies the nervous behavior of crows. Still, it would be fun to get photos and videos of the little beggars without bugging them. So here's what I propose... I'll make a camera stand such that it will have stations for camera mounts for both the NovaBird and the Flip Video. True, it will take the crows a bit of time to acclimate, but I think I can make it happen. Stay tuned...

And in the mean time, regardless of where you live, be prepared.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thought you might enjoy this cardinal on a bird bath... Kinda cool.

As for the informal "movin' pictures" camera review... After our old "Flip Video" took a swim, we had to replace it, so we stepped up to the "USB Flip Video Mino". Let's see...

• The Mino is about the size of what you'd get if you put a deck of playing cards on a diet.
• It weighs 3.3 oz.
• The little guy packs apx. one hour of 640 x 480 digital video in 2 GB. To view that magic on the machine itself, you can use the 1.5" diag. LCD view. Not bad.
• The f/2.4 aperture zooms and offers up a very respectable MPEG-4-AVI.
• Focus ranges from one meter to infinity
• Internal lithium ion batteries keep the critter alive for four hours, and recharge via a USB 2.0 port in three hours.
• I haven't used the "TV Out" NTSC, but I imagine it should work well.
• The mic seems far more responsive to higher frequencies (like birds) than lower frequencies (like TV).
• The Flip Video site suggests that the minimum PC requirements are a 2 GHz processor with 1 GB of RAM. Given the slow speed of the Flip Video software as it creates a movie, this is understandable. (To be honest this software leaves a lot to be desired.)
• The actual sequence (that we use) for making a YouTube movie consists of the following:
  1. Use the Flip Vid software to create a movie on the local hard drive (raw AVI to WMV). Patience is a good thing.
  2. Use Windows MovieMaker to edit and then upload the WMV.
  3. Note the Youtube address of your new movie and distribute appropriately.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This is my 432nd entry in this blog, and rarely do I do what I'm about to do... I'm just going to post "free association" if you will. (Read that senseless rambling.) First comes our micro garden (8' by 8')...

Not bad... A little trellis and a little Monarda. Peaceful... You can see one of the feeders in the background. That's looking west. Sometime I'll break out the blueprint that we have for this property and design a proper landscape.

What else? It was cool here today... It actually managed to rain a little, but Fate couldn't summon the moxie to really give us a good soaking. Seemingly in response, the birds were exceptionally quiet (except for the crows - they'd yell through any event including the hour that the Ship comes in.) But the point might be taken - hot or cold times stress the birds, and special attention needs to be paid to food and water during those times.

Politics? Naw... I don't want to talk politics.

Muddle over TV? See above.

Boat babble? Yeah... I can do that... I'm a moderator on a couple of boat-building forums, and it's amazing the contrast between interest and active participation on those forums. Come on gang... If you've got a hankering to ply Davy Jone's Locker in something you actually built, look around. There's "Instant Boats", "CLC", "DuckWorks", ad nauseum. Get in there and ask questions. They're all good people and the hobby is a lot easier than it looks.

One last thing... I promised quick recipes for killer summer burgers and corn on the cob. Very simple... For the hamburgers, take a red onion, and dice into 1/4" pieces. Then take a handful of ground beef (enough for a patty) and mash the onion throughout the meat. Repeat the process to the point where the patty simply won't hold any more onion. Then cover and place the burger(s) in the frig to "rest". After that, get grilling. It's surprising how little onion flavor survives, and how much hamburger flavor is enhanced... Now, as for the corn... Lay out as many 14" sheets of aluminum foil as you have ears of corn. Shuck the corn, and the slather the ears in butter. And I do mean slather - only the very tops of the kernels should be visible. Next place on the foil, salt and completely wrap in the foil such that no butter can leak out. Grill those for about 20 minutes rotating every few... And be careful handling the ears during and after grilling - that hot butter wants to spill everywhere!

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 1:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Hot one here today on Cape Cod... The temp got up to about 95. Nothing that a little shade and dark rooms couldn't fix. (Though the computer room runs a few degrees above that, so in there it was no doubt nudging 90.) Oh well... The forecasters are predicting that the temp will drop tomorrow back down into the 80s. With a bit of luck, we'll get a good storm to clear out this sticky mess, and that will be the end of Summer. (I heard that! Here on this peninsula, there is no season like Fall. The air is fresh, the red leaves rustle, the sleep is deep and cool... Now we're talking*.)

Anywho, I just set up the NovaBird remote camera in hopes of capturing a crow or two coming in for a late night snack.

Looks like zipoid for luck. (I always worry about setting up the camera for fear of disturbing the birds. Better that you the reader get my usual crud photo than I disturb an animal who's just trying to get a bite before going to sleep.)

Yup... The proof of the pudding is in the eating... Here's a fine picture of old bread sans bird. No doubt that the crows will be all over this when I bring in the camera. I wonder if those creatures can laugh?

And so it goes. Something will get the bread ASAP. And that's fine... I just wish I could have gotten a picture. (Stoopid crows!)

And on that happy note... See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

* Remind me to tell you about the greatest formula for grilled burgers and corn on the cob some time. They're ideal for this time of year, and they're bound to drive your cardiologist into the upper atmosphere. No really, they're that good! (And that's not to mention our 100+ year old recipe for "jag", but modified for mud bugs!)

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A summer Saturday is a great time to watch the backyard birds, especially the clowns we have around here. While the jelly and orange feeder is primarily intended for the orioles (of which we have plenty!), the catbirds also enjoy snacking there, and sometimes seem to think we've provided them with their own private jelly buffet.

Case in point is the youngster below, who spent his time flitting from the top of the trellis to the feeder and back, announcing each short trip with a mewing call. Every time he took a bit from the feeder, he'd call with his mouth full, sounding for all the world like a muffled cat, but he was clearly pleased with his ability to fend for himself.

I could hardly keep from laughing.

We also have a bumper crop of bee balm this year; I'm not sure why. The last few years we've had a few stems which the hummingbirds loved, but this year for some reason, the monarda has grown wild, and we suddenly have several dozen plants in the back garden and the hummers are having a field day with them.

But we're also still filling both feeders on a regular basis, which suggests that the hummingbird population around here is, well, humming right along.

I guess that's about it from the back yard.

See you by those crazy feeders,
Mrs. CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, another day of zipoid. I promise that the feeder was crawling with orioles just a few minutes ago. What is it with these birds? We've got a NordicTrack exercise machine that looks out the sliders onto the back yard, and we can use that and the birds seem happy as can be. Even the crows go "ho hum"... But break out a camera and they are all "feathers non grata". What are these birds??? Hollywood stars?

Onward...

Anyway, here's yet another study that indicates that crows and their cousins are pretty darned crafty. Like I was saying...

Onward yet again... Wish more of those non-existent birds would show up. Remember when we got a visit from a rose-breasted grosbeak? And then there was the hummingbird video...

Ahhh... There are good birding times, and not so good birding times. Guess that's just a model for life. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But the sun will come up tomorrow. Let's just hope that the birds show up too.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, our cam is down again... Sigh... We spent another weekend doing battle with CapeCodAlan's network. (Which has nothing to do with the eBirdseed.com network by the way.) We changed zipoid (nothing) on my local network, yet the beastie went tummy up anyway. After a ton of work, the network lives though the cam does not. We (once again) talked with our router manufacturer, NetGear, and (once again) their tech support came through like champs. Still, the cam itself still holds its breath and stamps its feet... Time for "Plan 'B'". As the photo below shows, the cam cable (snaking across the kitchen floor and up the cabinet) was far from perfect.

Stay tuned for updates to our cam system...

And then there's this hummingbird video from our new flipvideo mino...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank all that's right in the world for tonight's rainstorm and a few grumbles of thunder. As long is there's no flooding, and no one gets hurt, there's nothing like a good rain. How I used to enjoy being in a real downpour way back when I was a kid in my little rowboat, or inclement "running the bogs" with my buddy when I was in my teens, or jogging in the stuff just a few years ago... Rain... Ahhh... The stuff of a perfect night's sleep.

Anyway...

With the Canon now "walking the streets of glory" (or "dog paddling the brine of eternity" as it were), we're back to our old Olympus camera. Still, it ain't a bad little beast. We bought it back in the day when the company I used to work for handled the tech support for Olympus cameras. We used to have a policy that anyone could sign out any Olympus camera and take it for a test ride. And if we had problems, we could just wait for the experts to go on break, and ask for help. (Think about that for a minute.) So we ended up with a C-2100 camera because it was both user friendly and had image stabilization. To this day, when it decides to focus on the right object, it takes no prisoners. Here are a couple of day lilies, a crow, and a dove in a bird bath...

And so it goes... More rain... More flowers... More birds... So far, so good.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)