eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Faithful reader Harry "Gipper" Morris has raised a couple of great questions concerning glue and building birdhouses. Being a hobby boatbuilder, former cabinetmaker, and glue collector, I think I can almost address these concerns as an "expert". (Below is just a small portion of my collection... Abandon all hope...)

Harry writes about "Gorilla Glue", "Gorilla Fast Drying Glue", Elmers Waterproof Exterior Glue", and "Testors Cement for Wood Models": "So far, they do the job but I'm not satisfied with any of them. I will try to test those you've mentioned as soon as I can get to it."

CapeCodAlan replies: Judging upon a later comment (see below), I'd say take a look at something like "J-B Weld"... That's basically a non-toxic industrial epoxy that will set ("kick") in 4 - 6 hours. (Full cure time is 24 hours.) While nothing will fix a hopelessly mangled joint, a good epoxy and screws go a long way. On the other hand, something like "Uglu" might have promise. (Note: I've never used Uglu.)

The next question goes as follows: Many areas of Birdhouses can't be clamped except maybe with rubber bands. Waiting 24 hours for glue to cure is a pain. I'm an impatient builder. And what works fast, doesn't hold up very well in exposed exterior environments.

And I reply: Clamping is an art. (Hence the photo here.) Aside from springboards, there's always the Spanish Windlass (basically a rope wound around the obstinate beasts being glued, and then tightened tourniquet style), wedges, weights, ratchet strap clamps, temporary nails, duct tape, vacuum bagging (everyone overlooks this), levers, hot-melt glue (you can temporarily hot-melt pieces together while the real adhesive kicks), and of course there are the good old fashioned clamps.

I guess for me, backyard adhesives come down to four issues:

• They need to be non-toxic
• Glues should be strong and at the same time gap-filling - hence my love affair with epoxy
• They shouldn't demand extreme clamping pressure - hello epoxy
• Mechanical fasteners are good things

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ah Spring... A time to fix the things that the Winter broke, and then some. Below is a cement birdbath, and its base has seen better days.

My guess is that during a snowstorm, water managed to work its way into the base and then a freeze broke away a chip the size of a breakfast sausage. But not to worry... In fixing something like this, I turn to an epoxy putty like "A+B". Its easy to apply, likes rough gritty surfaces, is waterproof, bonds to almost anything, and strong as all get out. Other glues to tuck away for your birding projects include:

• TiteBond III (aliphatic resins glue): This is good for outdoor projects like wooden birdhouses that will stand up to weather. A couple of things to keep in mind though... This stuff does not fill gaps, and you have to watch the shelf life. Other than that, it's a go-to goo.
• White hobby glue: Nothing like good old Elmer's for that occasional indoors, non load-bearing project.
• Hide glue: Few people use this guy anymore, but it does offer a couple of unique characteristics. Not only is it strong and has a long cure time, but it's highly water soluble to boot, So if a glue-up goes all cattywumpus on you, you can always expose the joint to water and start over.
• Cyanoacrylate (or CA glue): This is the so called "Instant Glue" or "Crazy Glue". I've used a lot of this in model making. Warning... CA would be inappropriate for an outdoor project like a birdhouse, but it does a fine job of sticking your fingers together.
• Construction adhesive: Nasty stuff! I've used it, and it's heaping strong, but cleanup can be a chore.
• Polyurethane glue ("Gorilla Glue" et al): It's strong, and can even fill fall small gaps. I'm not crazy about it because I've found it to be unforgiving once it starts to cure, but it does hold.
• Powdered plastic resin glue ("Weldwood"): Fantastic, cheap stickiness. Waterproof... Easily mixed... Strong... If you need to build a deck piece or a outdoor bird-related masterpiece, take a look at something like Weldwood.
• Epoxy: Yeahhh... Now we're talking! I've used epoxy for everything from boats to bird digs. And we're not speaking of that 5 minute stuff either. If you want real "umph" in your build, look at Raka, West, System 3, U.S. Composites, etc. The gap-filling properties alone are worth the price (though the price will take your breath away.)

One final consideration... No matter what you decide to use, be sure to check for possible toxicity for our feathered friends. (If you're not sure, contact the adhesive manufacturer, or send a comment my way and I'll see what I can come up with.) Birds have such red-line metabolisms that we always have to be on the lookout for stuff that might make them sick.

See you by those tacky feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. The "Tyvek" tape above is good stuff too...

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 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

(There are times when housekeeping can be pretty cool... I've had a couple of posts in "Draft Mode" for what seems like forever. As I was rummaging around our blog site, I stumbled upon the following and decided to publish. Nothing earth-shaking, but pretty neat nonetheless... CCA...)

Well, the title tells at least half the story... Perhaps a better title might have been "Turkeys - The Fun Never Stops... And Neither Do The Surprises". Imagine looking out your kitchen window and seeing this:

And if that wasn't bad enough, there were three others on the railing as well:

(I kind of like the effect of the screen in the picture above... It almost lends an Impressionism or Pointillism feel to it.)

But anyway, there they are in all their unexpected glory. (I don't even want to think about what the deck looks like now.) I guess that raises a valid issue - what do we do with birds who are too aggressive like these turkeys? I've stumbled upon a technique that works well for me. (So far at least.) If I want to get to the feeders and the turkeys try to interfere, I'm ready with a padded cushion which I throw "Frisbee Style" and let that float down into their lot. While completely harmless, it simply horrifies the beasts. Still, I'm careful around them... They're such large, fast animals... I'd hate to run across one that was having a bad day.

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 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a question for you... What do the two photos below have in common?

My answer is, "serenity"... I was reading a fantastic article by Charles Krauthammer (Pulitzer Prize-winning author, syndicated op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, M.D., psychiatrist, Fox News contributor, etc., etc., etc.) in which he was explaining how he could be in love with the Washington Nationals - a ne'er-do-well baseball team with a "...prodigiously -- epically -- bad" record...

I go for relief. For the fun, for the craft (beautifully elucidated in George Will's just-reissued classic, "Men at Work") and for the sweet, easy cheer at Nationals Park.

You get there and the twilight's gleaming, the popcorn's popping, the kids're romping and everyone's happy. The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment.

We took the top picture of a Cape Cod Baseball League game from a couple of summers ago. Are all these kids going on to the majors? Nope. In fact, only one in seven will. A person goes to these games expecting no more than a cheap, pleasant night out. Do we hope to see the next Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Reardon, or Jeff Bagwell (all CCBL alumni)? Absolutely! But we don't expect it. We can be happy with the exceptional serenity of OK. After all, this is only a pastime. And so it is with backyard birding. If you're like the wife and me, most times when you pass by the window, there won't be anybody out there (as in the pic above), or if there is, it will probably be that chickadee you've seen a thousand times before. But... every so often there might be that once-in-a-lifetime rose-breasted grosbeak...

Once again, to borrow from the good doctor... "The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment."

See you by those serene feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

First off, check out the eBirdseed.com cam screen shot I got of a coyote last night.

It may not look like much, but it's still fun to look up and realize that there's a visitor out there. If you're not familiar with Backyard Night Fishing, here's the link. (Oops! We just had a possum wander through... Very cool.) Every so often we'll have an owl or maybe a bat swoop by. Of course, it moves too quickly to "Print Screen" but it's still a hoot if you know what I mean. Then there's the occasional mouse or skunk...

Onward...

I told you that crows were smart! Check out the Caledonia Crow video inside this BBC piece. I don't know about you, but in a strange way, that vid just gives me the creeps. (Back in 1974, a strange, slow-moving sci-fi movie named "Phase IV" was released. The basic premise was that for some reason desert ants developed a collective consciousness, and attacked their fellow desert-dwelling human counterparts. It was a genuinely frightening movie on a couple of levels: not only was the insect cinematography excellent, but it also had that "that's-impossible-but-I-wouldn't-be-amazed-if it-did-actually-happen" possibility. (Hitchcock's "The Birds" springs to mind as well, as does "The Andromeda Strain".)) Anyhoo... Back to the BBC creepy crow... I just get this nagging feeling that if he only teamed up with his buddies and put their "mind" to it, we'd be in in a hurt locker.

And finally, a bit more on the woodworking 101... Before we start talking about tools, we first have to have a place to store them - enter the shop. Shops will vary depending on what you have available, your needs, your price range, your proposed project(s), your living situation, etc. But here are eight key considerations:

• Have room enough. Tearing apart a chunk of house just to get a boat out of a basement is a bad thing. Trust me, I know.
• Have heat. Trying to build a birdhouse (or anything) when the temperature is 17 degrees is an excruciating process. Been there. (And for Heaven's sake, use SAFE heat! I lost a childhood friend to carbon monoxide.)
• Have adequate light to work safely. Not being able to see properly is a great way to get blood on your project. Done that..
• Have a means for safe ventilation. Paints, varnishes, some glues, etc, can get you walking on the streets of brain damage pronto. (Think of a hangover on steroids.)
• Be able to move your equipment around freely. Immobile machines and clutter under foot can cause injury. You try stumbling with a circular saw.
• Use an area that you can control completely. A shop is no place for children, pets, or neophytes to be wandering. Once again, trust me, I know.
• Establish a rock-solid work surface. Trying to cut a piece on a tippy old chair is just kicking "Old Mr. Fate" right in the wallet. Yeah, I learned that one the hard way too.
• Have an adequate electrical service for your intended endeavors. If you're not sure, get a master electrician involved ASAP. (Man, it's exciting to have a table saw go dead right in the middle of a sizable cut!)

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 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of our readers posted a straightforward question:

"Do you have any thoughts on how to identify male and female genders for Common Grackles and Morning Doves?"

The short answer to the question is that for mourning doves there are three things to look for:

• The male is slightly larger
• The males are more aggressive in mating season
• The female is less reddish below

• Males will fluff out their shoulders to make a ruffled collar
• Males will droop their wings and sing to impress the female
• The female is smaller and duller in color

Well, aside from watching birds, I have a small library of bird books and Web references. But there's a resource out there that cannot be over-rated: Project Gutenberg. Care to read all of Frank M. Chapman's "What Bird is That?" complete with illustrations? Just check out this site: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31751/31751-h/31751-h.htm. Granted... As the photo below shows, the search engine takes a bit of getting used to, but with a little practice, the fun never stops.

If you don't mind wandering through old books (including bird books), Project Gutenberg is for you. (There's even some audio books in there, so look carefully.)

That ought to keep you busy for a while!

As always, see you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. Rumor has it that another contest is afoot... Stay tuned...

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A few days ago (April 10th) I mentioned building stuff... While I've spent quite a bit of time discussing the details on specific projects like birdhouses and feeders, Maybe it's time to take a bird break and offer a few back yard "How-To's" when it comes to the age-old art of wood working. (I used to make a living as a cabinetmaker and am currently the moderator of two boatbuilding forums.) O.K... Where to begin? Take a look at the photo below...

There's a symmetry there (more about that later...) But much more importantly, buried in that workbench of tools in the forefront is something far more critical than the hutch or tools - eye protection. The first rule in woodworking is eye protection. If you want to do any kind of woodworking (birdhouses, feeders, mounting posts, roosting platforms, etc., etc., etc.) you must have eye protection. Period. Next comes the standard credo that accompanies all tools - "Read, understand, and follow all safety instructions that come with your tools." And that just doesn't apply to power tools... Hand tools can ruin your day too.

Alright... What else before we get you started on the road to "Chippendale Birdhouse Construction"? Ah yes... You need to understand the Tao of the "Moaning Chair" my son. (I borrow heavily from Dynamite Payson et al concerning this subject.) The moaning chair is the chunk of furniture your sorry, frustrated, and confused tail section should seek out when you discover that you've just made (without a doubt) the most bone-headed mistake of all time. The moaning chair should be your repository of self condemnation and in being so save your salvageable "oops" from the firewood scrap heap. Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that you aren't going to make some "IQ = -100" boo boos. If you get into woodworking, you'll blow it for sure! But there is a time for putting down the tools and walking away. Enter the moaning chair. If you never take another thing away from this blog, please take away this hard-learned lesson... The only real mistake in woodworking is the one that sends you to the emergency room with your hand (or worse) wrapped in a bloody towel. If you simply butcher a piece of wood, you can save your nickels and dimes and approach the project all the wiser. Any failure that doesn't result in the loss of blood isn't a mistake - it's a learning experience.

So, let's see... You now know that careless woodworking can be dangerous, and no matter what, you're going to make dumb mistakes. Ahhh yes... That's the way to fire up a newbie!

Anyway... Going back to the picture above... I think the first thing I'd teach the apprentice is the importance of "plumb, level, and square". Take a look at those sprung, curved battens holding down the mahogany apron on the cherry shelf. (Yeah... Ya gotta learn the language sometime.) Whether you're building a birdhouse, a piece of furniture, a home, or a boat, you have to find a way to make one piece of wood line up with another piece of wood while the adhesives/fasteners do their job... even if that means wedging in spring battens from the ceiling.

And that's it. End of lesson one. That's about 50% of all of what you need to know about woodworking: plumb, level, and square... and the occasional beauty that goes along with making it happen.

Down the road, I'll offer my over-priced $.02 on such matters as shop layout, tools, sharpening, measuring, design, modeling, glues, woods, finishes, etc., but those issues are for other days.

'Til the next time I'll be standing in the sawdust over by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Some time ago, I promised you visual proof of a Cape Cod Bigfoot... Those of you familiar with this blog know that I was pulling your leg. (I'm an engineer and pretty much skeptical about everything, including my own UFO sighting.) Anyway, in the spirit of fun and a bit of explanation, I present "The Cape Cod Polar Bear Man!"

Take a look at the screen shot below...

Notice the "Polar Bear Man" by the upper left feeder... To make "him" a bit more clear I've outlined him in red below...

While the shots above are far from the ideal, they still illustrate a point... The lens and even the eye can mislead. (The actual eBirdseed.com live streaming cam was far more compelling because of shifting light levels and the vagaries of analog to digital signal transmission... At times it seemed like the "bear" was not only out there, but moving to boot. We're talking clearly defined ears, eye slits, arms and legs - the whole enchilada.)

Today, TV is super-saturated with pseudo science (at best) that include such claptrap as "Monster Quest" (where they do in fact go in search of giant birds), "UFOHunters", and "Ghost Hunters"... And each is dripping with video "evidence" of the super natural. My suggestion is that you take more than a grain of salt with everything you see on the toob, the PC, and even from your own backyard.

When Mrs. CCA and/or I spot an unusual bird (or other critter for that matter), we always try to corroborate the sighting with each other and a camera. If a camera is not available, one of us will use binoculars and reel off info such as a guesstimate of size, general shape, back color, bib color, chest color, leg color, foot configuration, tail color and tail feather structure, beak shape, song type, etc. And the Cornell sites below offer plenty of reference materials for the identification of birds. Then again, only the eBirdseed.com blog offers actual proof of "The Cape Cod Polar Bear Man!"

See you by those cryptozoological feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'll tell you straight up that there is derned little in this world that scares me. I've looked down the bore of a handgun at 1AM in the old Combat Zone in Boston... No problem. I've been beaten unconscious, kicked, burned, cut, suffered broken bones... And very little wigs me out... Except... Spiders...

Yup, that little arachnid rascal above rocks my world. Not that he is the be-all and end-all of terrors, but that tiny bugger is well on his way. Truth be told, there are only two truly dangerous spiders on Cape Cod - the brown recluse and the black widow.

Most spiders, of course, are harmless and beneficial--they eat other insects, their silk is pound for pound, stronger than steel, and most spiders would prefer to keep well away from people. But when the sight of a spider on the ceiling makes your blood run cold, you can perhaps understand my reaction when I saw a honking crawling black eight-legged menace scuttle across the room.

Once a long time ago, I got out a BB gun and darn near shot my eye out in an attempt to destroy a spider--although in my own defense, that one was probably a monumental brown recluse.

But I didn't resort to such drastic measures with this black behemoth, but instead resorted to the old standby of the vacuum cleaner, which of course means said house spider made a successful get-away. (Where is my trusty Red Ryder when I need it?)

Later last night as I was working down in my shop, I once again faced said beast. I have four rules for confrontation in life: 1) If at all possible, back away and let the authorities deal with the problem; 2) If there is an unwanted guest on my property, that guest will leave ASAP; 3) If the unwanted guest won't leave of his own volition, he will leave in a horizontal fashion; 4) If the unwanted guest won't leave of his own volition, he will leave in a non-breathing horizontal status. In the case of the brute, he left this realm in a rather greasy depiction of Rule 4.

Phobia be darned, they have all the great outdoors. They don't need to live in my house!

See you by the spider-free feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First off, check out the screen shot of our streaming hummingbird cam...

It's just a matter of time now... We can't wait. (I wonder how many photos we can get of the hummingbirds this season???)

And now, on an almost-completely different note... This blog has been no slouch when it comes to bird-based woodworking building projects. But maybe it's time to step back and offer a bit of wisdom (read that "painful experience" from someone who has made every cellulose-based moronic mistake known to humankind). Here's just the starting point... The base of a good handyperson's library:

• "How to Work with Tools and Wood" (Standard Book Number: 671-78063-8)
• "Audel's Carpenter's and Builders Library (Tools·Steel Square·Joinery)" (ISBN: 0-672-23365-7)
• "The Complete Woodworker" (ISBN: 0-89815-022-1)
• "The Woodwright's Shop" (ISBN: 0-8078-1484-9)
• "a Museum of early American Tools" (ISBN: 0-345-32611-3)
• "Shaker Furniture" (Standard Book Number: 0-486-20679-3)
• "Making Authentic Shaker" Furniture (ISBN: 0-486-27003-3)
• "Design and Figure Carving" (Standard Book Number: 0-486-21209-2)
• Virtually any work by Harold "Dynamite" Payson... MUST-HAVE books include:
• "Instant Boats" (ISBN: 0-87742-110-2)
• "Build the New Instant Boats" (ISBN: 0-87742-187-0)
• "Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson" (ISBN: 978-0-07-147264-7)
To order the books, I'd use a service like Abebooks.com for most of the volumes, but would definitely order the Dynamite books right from the source. Granted, a few books is just a start, but it is a start. After 35 years of cabinet making (pro and amateur), I still turn to that relatively tiny collection of tomes. Anddd... Here's the hutch build as it stands now... (Note the stained glass work by "Cape Cod Glass Light", email: ennuisrealm@yahoo.com... That is simply outstanding work!)

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 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not too much happening in the screen shot below, is there?

Nope... Just a little Backyard Night Fishing (BNF), and the wildlife ain't biting. But that's not the point of this image. While it's a little tough to read, the "Number of hits: 23884" speaks volumes. That's the count of times people have visited our eBirdseed.com bird cam. (Actually, you can add about 4,000 to the tally - we changed cameras and had to start over.) But in any event, 23,884 is a pretty large number. To put it in perspective...

• If each view lasted only one second, that would still constitute well over six hours of viewership.
• Looking at the cam hit rate from another angle, if the typical American only viewed our cam whenever he or she was having a hamburger (three per week), he or she would have to live at least 159 years, cradle to the grave.
• And finally, to really put 23,884 in its place... If an astronaut were to leave planet Earth and travel at 23, 884 miles per hour, it would still take that person 10 hours to reach the moon.

Anyhoo... Mrs. CCA and I (along with 20,000+) have had fun with the online cam system... Hope you do too.

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 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, our cam is back up... Lesson learned - when you bring the streaming camera computer down, power it off... Resetting simply doesn't cut the mustard.

And on a related note... Check out the shot below...

Kind of weird, isn't it? Almost like a watercolor. And yeah, we've had 23,767 views on the video. It's been a ton of fun, and we're going to try to expand on that now that the weather is amiable. The plan is to use the outdoor cables that are still in place from earlier vid attempts to bring you hot feeder action up close and personal. (Wow... That sounds a bit off color for a bird blog!) Anyway, stay tuned...

And now, for something completely different... The weather was quite nice over the weekend, and I was able to get the old NovaBird motion-triggered camera out for a gander... Time for a bit of a photogenic Stonewall Panther (Chipmunk) hunt...

It's a silly hobby really, isn't it? Capturing images of the backyard and rodents... Still... There are worse thing... We could be watching professional sports... (At least none of our interests are felons.)

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. Happy Easter!

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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Backyard Bird Cam

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

First of all, Happy Day Before Easter!

Secondly, please keep in mind the flooding in the Northeast. Lots of folks have been flooded out and could use a hand or at least a good thought or two... (You can contact the Red Cross here.)

Alrighty then, take a gander at the photo below...

That may not look like much (it's just a screen shot from our web cam), but it sure beats snow! Ahhh... Spring... Temps in the 60s; warm-weather projects ahead (maybe another boat!); cleaning the feeders and getting ready for the Hummingbirds, which clearly are making their way north at a very rapid rate!

So get prepared! Once the hummingbirds arrive, the orioles won't be far behind; next thing you know, all your songbirds will be nesting and raising young 'uns. Ain't Spring grand?

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Post script: we're thinking about adding some cool new camera activities--keep watching this space for updates!

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 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)