Wow... Where to begin? (When in doubt, borrow from a master...) In the opening of Steinbeck's "Cannery Row", the author described the town as "...a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. He then went on to further depict it as another series of nouns which I can't use in that we want to keep this bit of the blogosphere strictly rated "G". Still, an accurate description of "Old Cape Cod" would probably be akin to that of "Cannery Row". (Apologies go out to Patti Page.) Personally, I like to think of "classic" Cape Cod as the place where the best of intentions go to die.

Still, that hardly offers real insight for the uninitiated... Hmmm... Perhaps another angle... The old rule was that one could not call himself a Cape Codder unless his kin had been here for at least four generations, and he had a minimum of a peck of beach sand in his bloodstream.

Nope... Empty definitions just don't cut it either - a story is in order... (This won't be easy - while I have literally hundreds of such tales, I can relate but a few in this forum. Here goes...) Years ago, local contractors, friends, (and real Cape Codders) Rocky and Marc got into a slight game of trading practical jokes. While that might sound silly enough to those of you outside of the confines of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges and fettered with post-1980's political correctness, it was hardly silly to those of us on this peninsula. Existentialism a la askew humor is our stock in trade. Anyway, weeks after the "Joke War" began I stopped by Rocky's, and there attached to the peak of the west-facing, exterior wall of his house was the naked bottom half of a female mannequin. More to the point, Marc had somehow managed to affix the partial model such that it looked for all the world like Superwoman had been flying about "au naturel" and hit the wall head on. Yup, the legs and tail section were on the horizontal... When I asked Rocky if he wanted help lowering the 50% figure, he was hysterically incredulous...

Are you kidding??? No way! That's a work of art! I'm going to leave it up there!

Rocky's poor neighbors... If they hadn't understood that they were living near an authentic Cape Codder before the nudie Superwoman crash, they certainly did afterwards.

And so it goes... Adult "Children of the Clam" claim such bizarre accomplishments as being thrown out of a police station for drunken and comical conduct. We earn our PhDs in physics, and then become commercial fishermen. We buy a restaurant, and then actually get banned from the joint by our own employees. The stories go on and on and on...

Anyway, thankfully, I have escaped the insanity as the "grillin' in the Winter" picture below clearly shows.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

eBirdseed.com photo library

References ]]> tag:www.ebirdseed.com,2008:/blog//2.273 2008-04-20T05:11:25Z 2008-04-20T08:51:23Z

Ever wonder how fast those jumpy, herky-jerky birds flit about? It looks like the grackle photo below might offer some insight...

Let's see what we can do with this picture...

• The NovaBird camera used to take this pic has a very fixed focal length of 15 inches. Apparently, the camera focused on the tip of the beak, and hence the weird image above.
• We know that the NovaBird's shutter speed is 1/60 of a second. And in that 60th of a second, the tip of the beak traveled apx 2 inches or .167 ft.
• Grinding out the math, it looks like the grackle is moving its head at about 7 mph. More math suggests that the acceleration involved is something on the order of 10 feet per second squared.
• However, the numbers are misleading... We're assuming that the image reflects uniform acceleration over the 2 inches - a terrible assumption. More accurately, the beak is probably starting at 0 mph, accelerating to about 15 mph in 1/120 of a second, then slowing down to 0 mph in the next 1/120 of a second. That peps things up a bit.
• So just how quick is the movement? Somewhere in the order of a boxer's jab, (though of a considerably shorter duration). Then again, boxers can't jab all day long either.

Well, now that you're bored to tears, here's a respite - a site that is just cool beyond words... Check out USGS National Map Viewer. While it's slower than Google Earth, and really does tax even a high-speed connection, it offers many more features including a topographical option. IMHO, this is a master stroke, and deserves considerable study by serious birders.

And if the USGS didn't bust you out of the doldrums, how about a chickadee?

There... If that doesn't gun your motor, you're probably reading the wrong blog!

See you by those feeders,

CapeCodAlan

References ]]> tag:www.ebirdseed.com,2008:/blog//2.272 2008-04-17T06:28:43Z 2008-04-17T07:08:41Z

Hi all, Well, as the photo below shows, the sparrow couple seems to be settling in rather nicely. If you look carefully, you can see the female holding a slight twig in her beak. If all things go to plan,...

CapeCodAlan Well, as the photo below shows, the sparrow couple seems to be settling in rather nicely. If you look carefully, you can see the female holding a slight twig in her beak. If all things go to plan, she should lay eggs in a week or so, and then incubate them for another week or two... With a little luck, we should hear chirping by early May... Time will tell.

(I really should go on a bird house building binge... Aside from the sparrows that now live in our existing bird house, chickadees and a woodpecker also expressed interest in the dwelling... But right now, the only thing Mrs. CapeCodAlan is going to let me build down in the shop is her cherry hutch... And she's right, I've got it more than halfway done - it's just that all of the challenging fun stuff is fini. But I can't build another boat until that hutch is finished so I guess I'd better snap to it.)

Not only is this the time of year for sparrow "domestic bliss", but it's also the season for the return of the humming bird. According to the Spring 2008 Migration of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds Map, it looks like the critters are just about to enter Cape Cod air space. Now that is cool. This Spring and Summer, I'm going to make a concerted effort to get some decent photos of the little birds. I know the workings of the NovaBird well enough now to hold my own. (The NovaBird is a remote, movement-triggered camera.) Unfortunately, the rig has a very slow shutter speed, (1/60th of a second) so there's no way we can get a good stop-action photo of the bird in flight. Necessity is the mother of... Awww, you know.

And speaking of the NovaBird... It looks like you can no longer buy direct from the importer. Still there are some folks selling the camera. (For what it's worth, the NovaBird seems to have been manufactured by SunPlus in Taiwan, and the model we're familiar with is actually an SPCA533.) On the other hand, the Wingscapes BirdCam looks interesting too...

Gotta run... See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan ]]> tag:www.ebirdseed.com,2008:/blog//2.271 2008-04-14T04:33:55Z 2008-04-15T05:51:46Z

Hi, Very lucky to get the photo to the right... The American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is a quick little loner halfway in size between a chipmunk and a gray squirrel. Trying to photograph him is usually an exercise...

CapeCodAlan Hi,

Very lucky to get the photo to the right... The American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is a quick little loner halfway in size between a chipmunk and a gray squirrel. Trying to photograph him is usually an exercise in futility in that he zips from spot to spot at a remarkable speed, and is particularly wary of humans... Let's see what we can find out about this guy...

• Wikipedia claims that these critters are diurnal (active during the daytime), however the ones we've been seeing seem to be more crepuscular in nature (active during dawn and dusk).
• Red squirrels tend to be highly territorial, and quite aggressive towards intruders. Frequently, we'll watch a red "run off" a larger gray at the dedicated squirrel feeder or on the ground.
• On Cape Cod, it seems that both of these rodents are open game for most predators including the coyote. Other threats include cats, dogs, red-tailed hawks, foxes, and of course humans and their cars. Locally, we don't see nearly the amount of red squirrels as we do the grays, but in general (once again according to Wikipedia), they seem to be striving.

And in an indirect sort of way, that leads us to the next issue for this post - that of citing sources of information for this blog. First background... Ah, back in the days before the Web there were very fixed rules and styles required for giving intellectual credit where intellectual credit was due. (And failure to do so was an intellectual kiss of death.) Today however, things aren't nearly so straight forward. I might hit five or more Web sites corroborating a specific fact. (For example, there is some agreement that a full-grown red squirrel typically weighs 200–250g). To document all sites (not to mention a stack of books) involved in this corroboration process would make these posts needlessly bloated. Yet there are obviously times when uniqueness demands citation, such as the claim by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums that the American Red Squirrel tips the scales at 140 - 310g).

The bottom line is that we go to considerable lengths to make sure that the folks who create knowledge get their fair due, and that when I make a mistake, I fix it pronto. (See: Little Brown Bat Update.)

But when all is said and done (concerning squirrels, birds, or whatever), it's probably more practical to simply point to our references link unless a specific citation or correction is called for.

Well, that's about it for tonight folks...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan ]]> tag:www.ebirdseed.com,2008:/blog//2.270 2008-04-13T06:05:43Z 2008-04-13T17:20:29Z

Hi, It's a wonderfully stormy night here on the Cape, and I snapped the photo above just a few minutes ago... But the shot brought to mind an issue that has been bugging me for a long time, and...

CapeCodAlan

Hi,

It's a wonderfully stormy night here on the Cape, and I snapped the photo above just a few minutes ago... But the shot brought to mind an issue that has been bugging me for a long time, and I wanted to get it out in the open with you folks...

Deep breath...

Well, if I haven't managed to tick off every reader whose eyes have ever skimmed over this blog, this entry should fill the roster rather nicely. Yup, I'm going to post on global warming... But before I go forward into the muck of public opinion, let me just remind the reader that I've had to dog paddle my way through the mud of both a liberal arts education, and an engineering education. And both disciplines drummed home the mantra that "real knowledge" (vs. the colloquial) is a tricky thing indeed. We no more "know" the human psyche and condition, than we know the nature of the universe. Freud, Sartre, and Skinner no more gave us final fact than did Newton, Einstein, or Hawking. They offered direction, but not final knowledge. In short, beware those who state that they know global warming is or is not a function of man-made greenhouse gasses, (or if it is even happening at all).

So what have we got concerning long-term environmental change?

• We know that the climate of the earth is changing. That we can measure. Over time, we can photograph the changes in global weather patterns and environment from space.
• We know that the chemicals we're spewing into the land, water and air are bad stuff. If one were stupid enough to eat three-day-old city snow, he'd learn right quick that this is bad mojo. (And that is a highly repeatable and consistent experiment.)
• According to the EPA: Latest Findings on National Air Quality: 2000 Status and Trends Report, "The IPCC concluded that humans are changing the Earth’s climate, and that “there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.”"
• Beyond the EPA report cited above, common sense would suggest that 6.6 billion people are taxing this old planet, as are the billions of tons of pollution we loft skyward every year.

So where is all this going? My point is that far too often, the debate concerning global warming simply reflects the scientific and social egotism of our time. Arrogance, agenda, and the oh-so-warm waters of righteous knowledge get in the way of the issue - that of the environment. Put another way, I'm suggesting that all too often we pull an "Al Gore" and trumpet the issue rather than personally addressing it. As backyard birders (and birders in general) we should be sensitive to all aspects of the environment, including global warming (whatever its causes) and act! So... Do you act? Do you carpool? Do you recycle? Do you telecommute? Do you use energy-saving appliances and lights? Do you check your car's tire pressures? Do you drive your car as infrequently as possible and share shopping chores with your neighbors? Do you keep your furnace clean??? Look, you know the drill...

I'll be taking care of the feeders even though I don't know whether it's the birds or the elements that are wearing at them... See you there maybe...

CapeCodAlan

P.S. As soon as one of the experts can repeatedly and reliably tell me what my local weather will be 14 days from now, I'll start to consider the feasibility of "knowing" the global warming conundrum a century hence. Until then, I'm just going to play it safe, avoid the politics, and do the right thing.

P.P.S. This was recently in the headlines: Who's Who on Inhofe's List of 400 Global Warming Deniers

P.P.P.S. Told you that I'd tick everyone off.

Sources:

EPA: Climate Change - Science - State of knowledge

U.S. Census Bureau: World POPClock Projection) ]]> tag:www.ebirdseed.com,2008:/blog//2.269 2008-04-11T06:03:37Z 2008-04-12T10:13:06Z

Hi, I was thinking of giving this post the title, Suet and the Lonely City Housewives or Penultimate Fight Club Underneath the Feeders, but that just didn't seem honest. So here we stand, facing the dreaded "Math Beast". Oh,...

CapeCodAlan I was thinking of giving this post the title, Suet and the Lonely City Housewives or Penultimate Fight Club Underneath the Feeders, but that just didn't seem honest. So here we stand, facing the dreaded "Math Beast". Oh, this is going to be worse than a root canal performed by Dr. Yank using a brass band as Novocaine! Let's just get it over with...

• First on our list of terrors is a quick way for most readers to determine how much sunlight they have left towards the end of the day. All you need to do is turn towards the sun, extend your arm fully with your palm facing towards you and the bottom of your pinkie resting on the horizon, and count up the number of fingers until you hit the sun. Each finger represents around 10 minutes of remaining daylight. Obviously, you may have to change this technique depending on where you live, and the size of your hand, but that will at least put you in the ballpark. (Note! Staring at the sun can be harmful... I can't believe that people and their lawyers need these kinds of warnings...)
• This next one is a knee knocker - using your hand to measure distant angles... Extend your arm and hand as above making sure that the bottom of your pinkie is level with your eye. Each finger represents about two degrees of arc. This comes in handy when trying to measure distances...
• And speaking of distances, have you ever wondered how tall a tree was or pondered just how high up a certain bird perched? Yeah, a little bit of the old mean math can give you some idea... Take a look at the masterpiece below...
  

  Here's the skinny... You can roughly determine the height of a tree or whatever using just a tape rule and your tootsies...

  1. Pace off ten or twenty strides and measure the distance. Repeat the process a couple of times. Next take the distance covered by the fixed number of strides and average. There... You now have a respectable tool for approximating significant distance.
  2. Onward... Pace away from the tree until you can hold out a bit of your tape rule such that a fixed length of vertical measure uniformly covers the tree from base to top. In the impressionistic work above, the travel equals 100 feet and the red tape rule reads just 6 inches.
  3. Now, note the distance from your eyes to the tape rule. In the case of our little stick-figure fellow with the long arm this seems to be about 18 inches.
  4. Convert all measurements to the same unit, (in this example feet).
  5. Warm up the theremin, 'cause we're coming down the home stretch! Multiply the size of the red ruler by the paced distance to the tree, and then divide the result by the eye-to-ruler measurement. In this case, that boils down to: (0.5' * 100')/1.5' ... Which equals 33.33' or 33' 4".

There, now that wasn't so bad was it? In fact, common house-hold sundries and a little bit of the not-so-vicious math will let you calculate small weights to a fraction of an ounce, figure diameters to hundredths of an inch, and wrestle warping down to the thousandths. Quite cool actually...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. If you'd care to see the math behind the formula above, email me... Much fun with similar triangles... ]]>