eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Well, as I mentioned last time, I discovered a forgotten shared network folder that was loaded chock-a-block full with photos. Here are three more. The first is of our homemade trellis wrapped in Christmas lights and snow.

In retrospect, that project worked out quite well. Better yet, it has aged well and stayed plumb and level. The best advice I can offer for such a project is to take your time in the design phase, and then break out the bubble level and plumb bob for the build.

The next shot was obviously taken at night. For some reason I like this. (The backyard birding hobby is cool in that you can take a photograph that you like that may in fact be junk - no harm, no foul. On the other hand, if your pastime is amateur aircraft construction and you aren't very good... well, at least you won't be around to hear the criticism.) Anywho, I like the pic...

The last image is obviously of a downy. (I've got a bunch of 'em.)

Yeah, I know, you've seen a gazillion downys on this site. Well here's another one. If you don't like it... tough. Now turn off your TV and eat your lima beans and liver. (We in the business call this "tough bird love". )

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 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you follow this blog at all, you no doubt know that I've had network/camera problems. (I think I've got the cam situation on the run by the way.) But the resolution of the network issue uncovered a treasure trove of bird photographs on a forgotten shared network drive. There are over 1,000 of them, and to be completely honest, I don't even know where to begin. So what I'm going to do is just pick eight that I think you'll enjoy and include them in this post. I'll toss in a bit of explanation on the last, but aside from that, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Enjoy...

The last shot actually consists of two pictures that have been PhotoShopped together. It is the merge of a year-old pic of two turkey poults standing on the deck railing combined with a snapshot taken last summer of an adult gobbler standing on that same railing. (For all we know, one of the little fellers on the left grew up to become the monster on the right. Amazing.)

I'll continue to wander through that newly discovered ocean of images...

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 2:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi all,

Caught sight of the female cardinal above sitting in the feeder. Just trying to get out of the rain-soaked, November, windy world I guess. At first, it was difficult to distinguish for sure that the thing was even a bird, but binoculars and the Olympus confirmed the lonely fact. Normally, the hope of spotting a bird, and then trying to set up the tripod, load the camera with batteries and memory card, focus, and actually take the desired picture is a dim hope indeed. Yet this little soul remained still for at least 20 minutes... probably "seeking shelter from the storm" as Bob Dylan might say. I wonder how many people are like that small creature this time of year. How many Americans are cornered by financial woes, depression, addiction, old age, loneliness, family problems, and God only knows what else in this time of winter and "joy"?

And on a lighter note, I noticed this in my Inbox tonight and thought I'd share it with you...

Yeah... 'Tis the season for companies to discover the value of free shipping. Jeez, hasn't eBirdseed been doing that year round? Look, I'm no great company salesman (and this blog was never meant to be a sales conduit), but facts are facts. (Brace yourself because I'm about to get on my soapbox.) Back in June of 2007, I wrote a hopefully-funny little post about some tattered being named Bill who has to pick up a bag of bird seed after a grinding week of work. The point of that post, and of this tirade, is that gift-giving (and sometimes life in general) doesn't have to be so difficult. You find quality product, good customer service, and hassle-free ordering, and then you buy it online and have it shipped to your door. Done. I cannot stand the little "(plus shipping and handling)" gremlins that haunt virtually all online stores except eBirdseed.com. Just tell me what the price is and send me my derned stuff! There... I feel better now and will step down from the soapbox.

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 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Norman Rockwell image to the left seems fitting for this day. (Figures that there would be a bird in there, even if it was cooked.) "Freedom From Want" was one of Rockwell's famous "Four Freedoms" and was inspired by an FDR speech:

"In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, excerpted from the Annual Message to the Congress, January 6, 1941

In retrospect, parts of that speech now seem so wildly naive, but at least the thought was there.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving everyone, and please try to think of the men and women of our armed services. Without them, there would be no Thanksgiving.

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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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy holidays all. Tis the season for gathering and giving thanks for a lot of things... No, wait... Just wait... Look... I'll be honest. I've got a number of friends who are hard up against it. Tough stuff... Really tough stuff. Health issues... Job issues... Entire career, businesses, and long-term family security issues. I'd be a hypocrite to smarm "Happy Holidays" and then skip down "Happy Lane" wearing my rose-colored glasses... About the best I can say is take care and thoughts and prayers are with you.

Onward...

Welllll... The never-ending saga of the eBirdseed cam rolls on. Last time you tuned in, the streaming video was log-jammed because of a busted wireless network. No more...

That's right, I bored a hole down through the kitchen floor, and hard-wired the sucker right into the network. Hades hath no fury like an engineer/amateur boatbuilder scorned. (Note the other cable coming up through the white glob. That's the video from the outside... Reminder to self - don't epoxy a cable in place unless you really, really have no intention of removing it later.) Anywho, right now the network is fine, and only the cam itself remains "balkative". Not to worry... I'll get the whole shebang working again properly, or my name isn't Nathan Arizona! In the mean time, my $.02 concerning home networks - hard wire the puppies. Over umpteen years, I've burnt through three wireless routers, suffered countless hours of network down time, and in general have come to understand the wisdom of my old IT gurus - hard-wire.

There's got to be a bird around here somewhere! Arghhh!

Ah... That's better... Just a couple of finches. (Gold and House?) Ommm...

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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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I wouldn't have done this, but Mrs. CCA did. (And yes, she does talk to herself and turkeys, and even shouts at the TV when her team is losing.)

It's really unfortunate that these animals have lost their fear of humans. Whenever Man and Beast collide, Beast always comes out the loser. (Humans have developed an extraordinary talent for killing things.) If for no other reason than principle, I think I'll stick with my "flying comfy deck cushion of doom" introduction to the gobblers. better they fear people than get shot by them.

While the wife was out in the yard, she also got a nice pic of a downy.

Kind of fun...

Beside the photo, it's been a gray day that's turned into a rainy night. Cold... Stormy... Beautiful. I wish the powers at be would let us dig clams at night - this would be ideal. (Mrs. CCA's blood pressure just jumped a tad. She's yet to understand the fine insight of the following Melville piece:)

The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm.

Ummm... Better go... Not to worry... The wife and I will be out on one of those sleet-driven flats in no time. (Yeah, right...) At least we'll be watching for shore birds as we scratch.

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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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For some time now, I've been swearing that I'd actually write one of these posts and not mention birds. (The great theory was to have the occasional "coffee table chat" that would mull social, political, scientific, and entertainment stuff, and not birds, birds, birds each time every time. Ummm, that hasn't worked out so well...)

So let's have another go at it shall we? How about NASA TV? While I was working on one of the machines today, I tuned in to a couple of ISS folk doing their EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activities) and marveled at the process in real time. Here are a couple of screen shots...

In the first picture, you can clearly see the astronaut (sideways) going about his work. In the next, the earth slides by 220 miles below. Hey! Wanna see how an orbit works? (Yeah, I knew you would.) Check out the drawing to the below left.

Not bad, eh? Okay, to understand orbiting, consider the little stick guy standing on his tiny world in the top diagram of this artistic masterpiece. He's just fired a gun (the square box in his hand) skyward and the bullet has obviously arced but fallen victim to gravity. In the next drawing, more ballistic "oomph" made the bullet fare slightly better, but it still fell from ethereal grace. But the last fella... The last stick man used a gun powerful enough to make the bullet go high enough, fast enough, and on the right trajectory such that it keeps falling as it follows the curvature of the tiny world. Of course, there's a balancing act - too fast and too high, and the bullet shoots off into space... too low and too slow, and the projectile comes crashing down as in the first two attempts.

And that's the trick with the shuttle... We need to launch 4,000,000 pounds (2,000 tons) of fuel, vehicle, and payload, and get it up to 17,000 mph to hit that magic 200+ mile mark. If we do that just right and get the angles perfect... Whee! We're in orbit. Of course, the energy required to pull off this stunt is equal to opening 13 Hoover Dams all at once...

On second thought, I think I'll stick with the birds.

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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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Just a quick note to let you know that I'm making progress on the eBirdseed.com outdoor bird cam. (See link below.) Basically, the wireless doo-hickey (router) that receives the video signal and networking info from the streaming cam computer went belly up. (Routers are notorious for their propensity to turn turtle. Just consider yesterday's air traffic debacle.) To get a better sense of our issue, see the Oct 16, 2009 "Nor' Easter, and T-Shooting a Cam" and check out the diagram below:

Ya' see that "Wireless Signal" and that "Wireless Router" in the snap above? Well, they ain't doing the "Wireless Rumba" with any of our computers anymore. Sooo... To borrow from Felix Unger, "Sew Buttons!" I'll hard wire the reprobate signal right into the network. Take that you "Wireless Weasel". (I'm sorry that I drone on about this technical stuff as much as I do, but the fact is that people love these bird cams, and it's important to keep folks in the loop.)

As for the summer(s) past... There are times when it's fun to just roam through the photo library and see what jumps out. How about this...

For the life of me, I have no idea how I missed that photograph along the way... Obviously, it's a downy and a goldfinch, but look at the brown on the back of the finch... Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know... It's all moot - the birds are long gone. What's the difference? Quite frankly, I don't know what the big deal is. It's just the silly fun of discovery, that's all - kind of like fixing a network.

What else? Oh! If you don't read the online Science Daily magazine, you might want to check it out. here's a great piece on a museum butterfly house, and another on creating a butterfly garden. (And yes, SD has a whole section on birds.) Very cool...

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 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Man oh man oh man... Does that shot above reflect the pensive nature of my day... The computer that controls our outdoor cam has lost its ability to establish a network connection. Winsocks, TCP/IP stacks, HW... I'm pretty sure I've tried everything short of kneeing it in the Netherworld and calling it "Waldo". Nothing to do but keep on keeping on. I'll let you know when the system is back up again.

Onward...

For some reason the bird activity has been slow around here lately. I'm not sure if the turkeys are scaring them away, or if there's a hawk watching, but in any event, the feeders have seen little action. (Though I did see a small pile of feathers, so maybe that explains everything.) Ah, the joys of the backyard.

What else? Well, believe it or not, we've had 511 posts on this blog. Of those, I wrote 482 not counting this one. I wouldn't even guess at the number of readers. But to give you some idea, our (now un-cooperative) bird cam has gotten over 18,000 views (22,000 if you count the first iteration of the camera). Anywho, I'm inching up on the 500 post mark... Not sure what I will do to celebrate the Big Five Oh Oh. Just brace yourself.

Better run and see if I can't fix that stoopid streaming gadget... 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 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, this isn't the mostly politically correct of posts, but given the season, it seems only fitting that you get to see the popular banquet in the flesh if you will...

The photo above reminds me of the lyrics of an old jazz/blues tune by Johnny Mercer,

The next pics were taken of a gobbler that was standing on the railing of our deck..

The two photographs above should give everyone reason to give these creatures a wide berth. (And that's to say nothing of the wings!)

So where's that gravy? Just kidding, just kidding. Truth be told, the turkey hunting season has come and gone in Massachusetts. Consider also the ever shrinking hunting grounds, and this Thanksgiving will no doubt be fueled by store-bought bird. And I'm not saying that that is necessarily a bad thing, but I am saying that I can understand why some folks might prefer to harvest their own toms and/or hens.

No, I'm not a hunter, but consider this... The average adult wild turkey weighs between 16 and 24 pounds. On the other hand, a commercially grown turkey may weigh up to 40 pounds. Hmmm... I can see why people might think twice about buying a dinner that has been so hybridized that it can't even mate and the hens have to be artificially inseminated... Ummm... Yeah, that would make some think twice. There's something to be said for the good old fashioned way. (Why do I get this feeling that there "frustrated female gobbler" jokes and "masculine avian feelings of inadequacy" jokes starting to simmer?)

Time to go...

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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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First, here's another quick screen shot of a turkey at ground level. (Forgive the blurriness... We're expecting the remnants of tropical storm Ida, and I placed a glass jar over the cam.)

And in order to truly automate the screen shots of a streaming video (I don't have frame-grabber software), I jury rigged our NovaBird motion-triggered camera such that it stared at a fluttering ribbon buffeted by a fan. (The ribbon curves gently in the bottom left of the closest monitor.)

For the life of me, I don't know why this kind of bird observation and photography guns my motor, but it does. There's something about the "remote", yet at the same being in the "middle-of the-action" nature of it. I guess that it's just one of those things that a person does for the good of the inner being...

Aside from the turkeys and the crows, there wasn't much happening today. (Ya know, those turkeys really are bullies. It seems that they don't hesitate to charge anything that they perceive as being a threat - squirrels, crows, big critter or small... Thankfully, I've found the secret anti-turkey weapon - the menacing, descending-from-the-clouds comfy deck-chair cushion. Oooh... Scary!)

Lastly, as mentioned before, we're working our way through the shards of Ida. Probably will be raining by morning. Looks like coastal Virginia took a pretty tough hit... Thoughts are with you...

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 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just stumbled upon the coolest "night-time hobby": Backyard Night Fishing, (BNF for short). BNF consists of bringing up our streaming bird cam at night and resizing the window such that it occupies a minimal amount of screen and yet is still viewable. Then go back to whatever, and from time to time restore the cam window and see if you've got any "hits". (That is, see if you've stumbled upon some creature of the night. See below...)

The fun of Backyard Day Fishing (BDF) is obvious. "How many types of birds did you see today?" But BNF is more sublime. The question becomes more of, "What kind of critter did you see last night?" The possum above is just one example. Here's a raccoon also from prior PM...

Not bad - two strikes within a single evening. But of course, the trick becomes that of actually recording the sightings. At first, I just kept the digital camera at the ready, and that worked out fine, except that should a visitor appear it was a hassle to fire up the camera, focus, steady and shoot. Nope, there had to be a better way. Enter the "NovaBird BNF Monitoring System" or "NBBNFMS" (or better still, the "NB²NFMS" - pronounced "en-bee squared-en-fims"...)

(Yeah, I need help...)

Just a quick wave of the hand, and the green, tripod-mounted, motion-activated NovaBird would come to life and the shot was mine. This is especially handy in a multiple PC/multiple monitor environment!

But there's one more avenue when it comes to optimizing the BNF experience... Introduce some sort of a trigger that entices the NovaBird to fire every few seconds. Behold the "Triggered NovaBird Backyard Night Fishing Monitoring System, or "TNB²NFMS" - pronounced... Oh never mind. The game plan here is to bring up the time.gov ticking clock and use it to regularly photograph whatever was on the screen before it...

(Yeah, I really need help...)

Anywho... This is just one more way you can have a blast with feeders, even if you don't have any... Just tune into ours... Now all we have to do is come up with some sort of BNF rating system. Let's see... five points for a raccoon, five points for a possum, 15 points for a fox, 15 points for coyote, 50 points for an owl, and 100 points for a bigfoot. Just be aware that I'm going to use every Rube Goldberg assembly to play the game. Just like in fishing.

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 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, here's a nice way to start a post...

Nothing like a beautiful hydrangea to get the ball rolling. And let's keep it rolling with a cape rose...

It might seem a little unusual to have blossoms like these so late in the season, but on Cape Cod, you just never know. (BTW... You do know that there are over 1,000 images like the hydrangea and the cape rose in our library free for the taking... Makes for fine wallpaper. And if you can't find what you're looking for, just holler. We've got a pretty respectable selection of the local birds.)

Onward...

Once again, the turkeys didn't "play well with others", and one of the ruffians charged me again today. Now that I've seen this behavior a few times, I'm beginning to wonder if the creatures are actually charging, or on the other hand just rushing forward to be fed by hand. I certainly hope it's not the latter. It's one thing to put feed in feeders and then leave the wild animals alone; it's entirely another to try to make pets out of them by hand feeding. In any event, this is wearing thin. Thankfully, we keep a comfy cushion on the deck - it's as harmless as a nerf ball, but looks positively "turkey menacing" when it flutters down from on high. If I scare them away forever (yeah right), so be it. I'd rather they re-gain their natural fear of humans than have one of them (or a person) get hurt.

What else?

Hey! Real quick... Remember that killer pork recipe? Well here's something even easier that's destined for the grill. Mix up a quarter cup of A1 with a like amount of Italian salad dressing and set that aside. Next, take a one pound pork tenderloin and butterfly it. Plop the pork in with the A1/salad dressing melange in a vacuum bag and using one of those kitchen air-sucker gadgets, asphyxiate the whole deal. Refrigerate for a day. Grill 'til thoroughly cooked and enjoy.

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 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's start off with big ol' Tom Turkey...

Beautiful creatures... they truly are. But note the toes and claws - not things to be taken lightly. This one by the way is just one of a rafter of seven that visit us almost on a daily basis. (Did you know that Ben Franklin preferred the turkey over the eagle as our national bird? Here is a link to a fascinating letter Franklin wrote to his daughter in 1784 arguing his case. The only input I might add is that a person doesn't have to be dressed in red to be attacked by one of these monsters.)

The next bit of business is a particularly silly USB experiment... Mrs. CCA and I got to wondering why the max USB cable length was only apx. 16 feet. (I'd looked at a ton of Web sites and got conflicting info. The issue seemed to be that of signal delay vs. signal deterioration. We figured that if we could get our cheap but colorful USB cam out back by the feeders, well then we'd really be "cammed up and streamin' large". After all, we could live with delay as long as the signal quality didn't suffer.) Sooo... We bought five sixteen footers and hooked them all together for a total of 80 feet.

(Why is it that you just know that this ain't going to happen?) And not happen it did. The computer wouldn't even boot. My guess is that the added resistivity of all those cables flummoxed the USB port, which in turn yacked at the initial hardware portion of the PC's boot sequence. We unplugged the mess and hooked it back to the way it was with the single short cable and all was well again... Sigh... And that leads us to the screen shot of the two cams below...

The live streaming puppy on the left is our eBirdseed.com bird cam. The one on the right is our front lawn USB cam. (If only we could have gotten the latter out back and outdoors... Dang!) Anywho, it's late now, and those cameras offer strange company. (Ok, so the USB rascal ain't exactly enthralling in the PM with the shade down and a motionless note.) But the one on the left is ghostly in its camaraderie. It's almost as if a creature will come hulking out of the woods in the background. Did you ever see the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"?

Hmmm... That's enough for tonight...

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 2:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Forgive me if I can't be too peppy when writing about birds right now... As you no doubt know, there was a mass shooting at Fort Hood yesterday... and by an officer no less. If the motive is anything like the one Hasan Akbar had, I hope the verdict is the same as Akbar's - death.

Onward...

I guess the least I can do is provide a decent bird pic...

That's a nice photograph of a catbird that was taken last summer... At the time, we had been working out in the yard and some of the birds (including the fellow above) decided that we were no great threat. So at one point, Mrs. CCA pretty much walked up to the creature and took the picture. (BTW... We usually try to stay away from the birds for a couple of reasons... First, they are wild animals and can be dangerous. And secondly, whenever wild things become too complacent around humans, the critters are at risk.)

Onward yet again...

Believe it or not, the 2010 Cornell "Great Backyard Bird Count" is not that far away! So mark your calendars for Feb. 12 -15, 2010 and tell all your friends, co-workers, relatives... It's free, fast, and fun. Last year, I entered early and "won" a nice bird poster. (BTW... In general, the Cornell Web site is a treasure trove of birding info including insight for backyard birders. Use the link above or the ones below to check it out.)

Before I sign off, just a heads up concerning the weather here. It's raining, and that means that our streaming Web cams are going to be blurry. One cam is indoors...

Free video streaming by Ustream

And the other is outdoors and protected under glass here. Somehow I'm going to have to figure out a better system.

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 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First things first... I ain't a bad guy. I'm not perfect, but I'm not a brute or a politician or anything nasty like that. I'll take a lot and won't react, but there are two things I will not tolerate... Physical attacks on my family, and attacks on me and mine on my property. Anyway... Take a look at the fellow below:

I'd tried to give this gobbler and his buddies time enough to eat and move on. Indeed, I thought they were gone when I went out to re-fill the crow tray with frozen sausage. Surprise! Two of the Toms charged me from out of the woods. I guess it was a territorial thing. Regardless, it was a huge mistake on the birds' part. (When I was a kid, we raised chickens, and I was attacked by a rooster. My damages were minimal, but my mother got slashed in the legs trying to protect me. Needless to say, when my father saw the wounds, we ate chicken for several nights after the event.) Anywho... I had the frozen sausages and they didn't and a firm underhand toss from three feet resulted with a thump on a birdie chest and a re-think of the entire battle plan. "Retreat!" said turkeys, "Damn the sausages... Full speed reverse!" In a way, it was almost comical... Nobody got hurt, and hopefully, the birds earned a bit more respect for bipeds. But imagine if a child was out playing... This ain't no game.

Onward...

Once the turkeys decided that there were other "less-confrontational" yards and moved on, the regulars returned. I wish I had a better photo of the image below...

Man, that's such a sight.

Before I sign off, check out this YouTube Web site of Mahalia Jackson. Wow... Just wow... Music to lay your weary head down by.

See you by those brawling yet typically peaceful feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mrs. CCA took the week off and was determined to get in some serious nature outing... (King of the world Ma! Just look at that convoluted sentence!) Anywho... Picking up on the theme of amateur ornithology we started long ago, here's a bit more on primary bird feathers. First is the crow...

Next is a mallard drake...

Cool beans or what? Look at the shadow of the primaries on the duck's chest!

These snapshots were the result of a couple of days of "naturing". The first day, Mrs. CCA hit the Bank St. bogs and caught some fine Fall photographs, but it wasn't until she got home that she snapped the crow. The second image has a slightly longer story... Determined to make her "vaca day" a ringer we set out towards Brewster and Orleans. We found the end of Portanimicut Rd. and a congregation of ten ducks. With camera batteries already running low, she managed to capture the mallard. But the cool part was just tooling around the Cape in late October. We hit Rock Harbor, route 6A, Goose Hummock Sports Shop, and best of all "Land Ho!", a local cape eatery and landmark. (If you ever are on Cape Cod, you need to check out the killer burgers at Land Ho!)

Let's see... What else... Oh yeah... Halloween was eventful in a truly sinister way. As darkness was finally anchored, I looked out the picture window and spotted a large creature ambling down the road right under the street light in front of the house. I muttered a series of "uh oh's" and the wife rushed over to see what the problem was. Problem indeed. The coyote/wolf was huge. I saw it for the longest period of time - maybe 15 seconds. It most definitely wasn't a dog, but its hind legs sort of drooped like a shepard. I'd put the weight in the 50 pound range... I thought about calling the police in the hope that they could shine a spotlight on it and scare it away, but it was gone within seconds. (BTW... You don't see many pets running free on Cape Cod for a reason... Word to the wise.) Anyway, no one got mauled, but there's a lesson there - as we as a culture do more and more to protect wildlife, the outdoors becomes more and more wild. Let's be careful out there...

Gotta run,

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

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