eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Yup... How's that for ho hum? Truth be told, the birds are on best behavior. The weather is warm, the birds sing and eat, and all is peaceful with the world. (Just watch -- next week Bigfoot will crash the backyard and then be struck dead by an asteroid...)

I guess there's always the matter of a new/used shed yet to be assembled, and a new chainsaw that has yet to tackle the big logs behind the house, but that's all rather boring. (Detect a theme?)

I suppose I could shout another warning about the Euro and the global economy, but that is probably wearing thin...

Naw... I think I'll just put this one to bed early... All is cool with the birds and the rest will work itself out... Then again, winter is just a whisper away... Are you and your birds ready?

Snoozing by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What can I say? Princeton University Press keeps sending us these books, and I'll keep reviewing them. This time, it's a 240 page field guide by Luke Hunter with 86 color plates by illustrator Priscilla Barrett.

First up, book details:

• It measures 6" X 9.25"... The cover and paper are standard quality fare.
• The Table of Contents points to the Introduction, Species Accounts (13), Skull (prints), Footprints (prints), Glossary, Bibliography, Index, and Acknowledgements.
• The Intro lasts seven pages, and covers the carnivore families, as well as a basic 'how to read this book' sort of collection.
• The next 171 pages cover the guts of the tome... Exceptionally nice... Stuff like the size, habitat, feeding habits, social and spatial behavior, reproduction, mortality, and status...
• The skull and footprints drawings are a nice wrap up as are the thorough index and very thorough references..

So, who would want a book like this? Well, certainly sportsman... Kids would love it too. (What youngster wouldn't get a kick out of looking up the Palawan Stink Badger or studying a Grizzly skull?) It would make for an ideal field guide for birders, lepidopterists, guides, campers, backyard birders ("What on earth was that thing?") fresh water fishermen, farmers... You get the idea... Truth be told, this would also be great as a coffee table book, or even bathroom reading stock...

There's not much to dislike about Hunter's and Barrett's work... I'm not crazy about the metric measurements, but that's a problem on my end... About the only thing that makes me pause is the cost -- $29.95 U.S... Still, a ton of work has gone into this, so from my angle, it's well worth it.

By the well-read feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, that was the idea -- I'd mount the streaming cam in the old waterproof Ikelite housing, and put that outdoors. Granted, I'd have to dig a trench for the wire, house the wire in a system of PVC pipe for burial, snake the wire through a 4 X 4 mounting post, plumb the whole mess into the homestead... After all that, I'd have no guarantee as to the effect of wild temperature swings and camera performance... Nope... Not gonna happen... Wouldn't be prudent. So, for the moment at least, the link below is the best streaming cam shot I've got...

Beyond the moving picture machine, things around here have been slow bird-wise. (Part of the problem no doubt has to do with all the activity that's going on as we try to repair all the downed-tree damage..) Still, we feed the feathered ones, and they eat. I do however, continue to notice one behavior in the crows that seems to cross at least a couple emotional boundaries -- whether they're frustrated or excited, they ruffle their wing feathers. Is it a single behavior for two sentiments? Am I missing a nuance that separates two different types of movement? Perhaps the birds are incapable of feeling the difference between frustration and excitement... Who knows?

Lastly, here's a neat little trick I learned while building a canoe -- use tire inner tubes as giant rubber bands/clamps for unusual shapes and for joints that want to slide around. Here's that Shaker tall clock being bound together for fitting and eventually gluing and nailing... Pretty clever, no?

Happy Holidays!!!

By the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Man oh man oh man, is it easy to get lost in the colors and the fonts or what? Truth be told, there's nothing wrong with the sequence. The only real problem is the duplication of the word 'and' in the instructions. And so it was for the contest -- the answer was there in the title but so easily skipped -- find a way to translate 2096 characters into a recipe in less than 60 seconds. 20/20 hindsight says there must be a converter or translator; and so there was.

In general, misdirection and inverted perception are nothing new... And so it goes with birds... A couple of weeks ago, I was working with a knowledgeable friend in the backyard, and when we got our usual turkey invasion, he gushed that one must have weighed 30 pounds. (Wild turkeys rarely exceed 20 lbs. The hen in question was more like 15.) When my friend spooked the thing, it flapped off at an estimated speed of 60mph. (Once again that was an overestimate. Turkeys have a top speed of about 45mph, and this one wasn't doing half that.)

The bottom line to all this (contest, birds, or UFOs for that matter) is that perception can be exceedingly persuasive. (I wonder how many 'Rare' bird sightings are legit'?)

I think I'll be by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, we have a winner! Kathy K. won. (She won a previous eBirdseed photo contest back in Oct. 2008.)

Kathy was quick on the draw and realized that all those ones and zeroes could easily be converted to plain old text using an online converter. (I checked... There are converters out there for every imaginable language and numerical expression.) So not only did she win a boatload of delivered birdseed, but she (and you!) also bagged a killer recipe... And here it is: all that binary converted into the following...

3 eggs, 1.5 c sugar, 2 c flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, .67 c oil, .25 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla, 3 pears chopped, .5 c raisins, Walnuts (opt). Mix all together, and bake in a 9 X 12 pan at 350 degrees for apx. 45 minutes.

By the demystified feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Nice prize aye? You get that much in birdseed delivered to your door if you win... But I'm getting ahead of myself... First the background of this simple contest...

Yeah, it has to happen. That old eBirdseed.com data encryption contest just has to have a winner, and today is the day... (We've had a bunch of bird-related contests before, and I really wanted to have something non-bird just for a change of pace.) Well... Here are the rules, and then the contest...

• Previous winners are allowed to enter this contest!
• eBirdseed.com employees and their immediate family are not allowed to enter contest...
• Prize will only be shipped within continental United States....
• Contest solution must be submitted via email to: capecodalan@ebirdseed.com (I'll contact the winner by responding to the winning entry...)
• First correct answer wins...
• Judges' decisions are final...
• Contest remains open until we have a winner...
• Timely notification of contest winner will be posted on this blog...

00110011 00100000 01100101 01100111 01100111 01110011 00101100 00100000 00110001 00101110 00110101 00100000 01100011 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100111 01100001 01110010 00101100 00100000 00110010 00100000 01100011 00100000 01100110 01101100 01101111 01110101 01110010 00101100 00100000 00110001 00100000 01110100 01110011 01110000 00100000 01100010 01100001 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110111 01100100 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 00110001 00100000 01110100 01110011 01110000 00100000 01100011 01101001 01101110 01101110 01100001 01101101 01101111 01101110 00101100 00100000 00101110 00110110 00110111 00100000 01100011 00100000 01101111 01101001 01101100 00101100 00100000 00101110 00110010 00110101 00100000 01110100 01110011 01110000 00100000 01110011 01100001 01101100 01110100 00101100 00100000 00110001 00100000 01110100 01110011 01110000 00100000 01110110 01100001 01101110 01101001 01101100 01101100 01100001 00101100 00100000 00110011 00100000 01110000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101000 01101111 01110000 01110000 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 00101110 00110101 00100000 01100011 00100000 01110010 01100001 01101001 01110011 01101001 01101110 01110011 00101100 00100000 01010111 01100001 01101100 01101110 01110101 01110100 01110011 00100000 00101000 01101111 01110000 01110100 00101001 00101110 00100000 01001101 01101001 01111000 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01100111 01100101 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 00111001 00100000 01011000 00100000 00110001 00110010 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 00110011 00110101 00110000 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100001 01110000 01111000 00101110 00100000 00110100 00110101 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 00101110

Waiting by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, the old eBirdseed.com streaming cam isn't looking so hot right now...

Time to make a change... Granted, the window could use some washing, and the sun wasn't cooperating, but still... The cam is focused on a now-vacant hummingbird feeder, and where's the fun in that? No, it's time to get a cam outdoors. The problem of course is to get video 'out there' without destroying it. Here are my concerns:

• I need a good housing that will stand up to a drenching or two (or three... or...) At the same time, it will also have to endure countless blizzards. In that respect, I'm leaning towards my previous 'mailbox solution' -- modifying a standard mailbox and using that as a housing. The problem is that I'm not in the mood for setting up a thermostatically controlled enclosure. On the other hand, I'm not about to sacrifice our Logitech 9000 Pro either.
• The USB extension cable may not be designed for elements -- that would dictate shielding it in PVC pipe and burying it... Yech.
• Then there's always the issue of the mount itself... Do I want to go through the hassle of making a long-lasting mount for a short-lived project?

Onward... About that pesky $195 contest... I'm 99% sure that I know what I want to do, but the problem is that it's insanely simple and at the same time terribly offputting. The person who sets aside the intimidating and deals with the problem can solve in less than one minute. The individual who freaks at things that look scary will walk away disheartened. Probably the best way to handle this is simply to work as a team... You need someone who can solve problems by thinking outside of the box snicker snack...

Next time, the contest... Be ready...

By the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Back around my 800th post, I mentioned that I wanted to do something special for the event... I never did. That got me to thinking about other things I've promised along the way and never followed up on. (Yeah, I know... I finished off that last sentence with a preposition... tough.) Anywho, here are two projects that go unresolved: the streaming eBirdseed.com Web cam refinements, and that pesky encryption contest from long ago... One thing at a time...

First, here's a screen shot from our streaming Web cam mid-day.

Not very exciting is it? The original plan was to house the cam in some sort of protective enclosure outside (see the link above), but that sort of fell by the wayside... Maybe it's time to re-visit that idea... The first step is to find the acceptable operating temperatures for the camera (a Logitech Webcam Pro 9000). Bummer that the Logitech manual and site doesn't have that info; I put in a tech request for same. We'll see.

Next up... that nasty old data encryption/decryption contest... Truth be told, it really isn't that nasty, and offers tremendous insight into the ease of data encryption. (Whether or not you know it, you're probably using some form of data encryption as you read this -- your banking, credit cards, and medical records all use this stuff.) Anyway, all it takes to win this is a brief bit of learning and then doggedness... Alright... Your silence (and the silence of those who read two other blogs) concerning this contest has been deafening. So, it's now closed... I need to simplify the contest, and at the same time change the rules and prizes. How about this? I can boil it down to a 30 second solution, change the rules as to who can enter (previous winners will be allowed), and up the ante on the prize. Let me mull it over... But in the meantime, here is the single lump sum prize for that future lone winner...

• Black Oil Sunflower - 10 lb - $24.19
• Cracked Corn - 4 lb - $14.02
• In Shell Peanuts - 6 lb - $28.50
• Large Striped Sunflower - 4 lb - $17.98
• Nyjer - 20 lb - $47.48
• Peanut Pieces - 5 lb - $19.55
• Safflower - 7.5 lb - $22.04
• White Millet - 10 lb - $21.40

Total Retail Value: $195.16 delivered right to your door in the continental U.S. only... (Value may vary with supply.)

Now there's something to ponder...

Tidying up by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Given the time of the year, I thought I'd do something a little unusual and wander around eBirdseed.com looking for gift ideas... (This blog was never meant to be a running advertisement for the company, but rather a place where backyard birders could meet and exchange ideas of all sorts. Still, eBirdseed itself offers good fodder for a post or two or...)

So, what would I buy that 'special someone' if I had birds on the brain?

• I guess first up would be a feeder, but that would be a function of the birds in the target location and the required feed... Well, it just so happens that WhatBird.com has you covered... Combine that info with our feed charts numbers one and two, and you're well on your way. Just pick the appropriate feeder -- keep in mind that if the recipient is young or infirm, you might want to vacuum seal 'serving size' portions for the birds... Not only does vacuum packing make the seed more manageable, it also preserves it.. The birdseed below (left) is perfect for one of our feeders. (The wild rice on the right was a gift from friends, and is still good after 2 -3 years... need to look up that recipe again...)

  

• Alrighty then... Now that you've got feed and feeder, what else? For sure, you're going to need a place to hang it. No prob... We have a number of mounts. Just remember the 'Five Five Rule' - keep the feeder five feet off the ground and within five feet of some sort of protection from hawks, cats, etc Beyond that, a squirrel baffle is a wonderful thing.
• Finally, a book is a must. I strongly recommend Sibley

By the feeders and not elbowing through the mall...

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just stepped out on the deck and took a quick look at the sky and the squirrels...

A couple of things struck me -- the sky and the air have that "ominous" feel to them, and the squirrels are particularly fat and furry this year... Oh goody,.. Sounds like a mild winter... Not! So, here's a quick rundown in no particular order of the things you might want to be doing now:

• Stock up on birdseed and suet. Make sure the seed goes in a rodent- and bug-proof container. We've been known to vacuum pack the seed.
• Clean the yard of fallen branches, etc.
• Clean the bird feeders and birdbaths (and ready the birdbath heater...)
• Consider alternative communication options... Last year, we lost both our land-line service as well as cell service. Lesson learned... We now keep a pair of Motorola commercial walkie talkies charged.
• Prune your trees to avoid downed branches/downed power lines?
• Read and follow a good disaster preparedness manual. (Here is a great one from the Cape Cod Commission... Note, this is a lengthy download, but it's well worth it.) We try to have a month's worth of supplies on hand.
• Always carry a flashlight and a pocket knife on your person (unless the knife is prohibited by law.). A Boy Scout pocket knife or a Leatherman Squirt is sufficient. Ditto for a simple one-LED keychain light like the Streamlight Nano and a couple cards of spare batteries -- that will keep you out of the dark for days if not weeks when judiciously used.
• Prepping your vehicle for a storm emergency
• Making sure you can get to your feeders and birdbaths after a big snowfall... Remember that birds need water and high-energy food, especially under winter duress
• Lastly, consider a generator along with a heavy-duty extension cord, gasoline stored out of your domicile and garage, and a safe ceramic heater. (If nothing else, think of how much money you've got tied up in your frig and freezer right now...)

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently I've been a little busy on the home front. Aside from having two more trees down, there's still work to be done around the estate itself...

First there's the aging dining room ceiling light... 1970's chic... Out with the old, and...

In with the new...

Actually, the light isn't all that new. Mrs. CCA picked it up at a consignment shop for a song. (Why don't people do their research before they sell stuff?) Unfortunately, I had to reinforce the attachment point (leaded glass is heavy) which meant crawling around in the attic, but beyond that, the wiring wasn't all that different from the torchiere I discussed a couple of posts back -- just a hassle... Up close...

Onward...

Next up is a couple of shots of the before and after drama of splitting about 4' long by 2' dia. downed maple... Here's the split getting started...

Two hours, a broken splitting maul, a broken ax, and a fractured wedge later... Fini... A bit more battle, and we'll have two massive slabs ready for air drying in the basement. After a few years, these will be trued up, flattened and yield heirloom boards...

Finally, a little hairy woodpecker on our feeder...

So what in the name of Sam Hill do all these things have in common? Well... It took me a while, but I finally figured it out... For me, they all reflect accomplishment, peace and future. I'm looking at a bird carving now... There is a serenity in conviction of imagination -- determination -- home...

By those subtle feeders...

CapeCodAlan...

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

Live eBirdseed.com streaming cam

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

By Location, Birds and Natural History Books (a global reference)

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)