eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Once again, we've got a lot to cover, so let's get busy...

First up is my Christmas present to you... What follows is an absolutely breathtaking rendition of Ave Maria (I believe this is the Verdi version) by the late Karen Carpenter and her brother Richard.

There's a funny/sad story as to how I happened upon the Carpenters' music... About a year ago I was rummaging through YouTube looking for my demigoddess of music, Ella Fitzgerald, and found a video of her singing with, of all people, Karen Carpenter. "Oh boy!" I thought... "Ella is going to rip that puff piece Karen to shreds..." Not so much. I have never heard a better duet, and never heard Ella in finer form. That brought me to the Ave Maria piece above. If you care at all for superb Christmas music, buy the Carpenters "Christmas Collection" - this really is a remarkable accomplishment, and Karen and Richard truly were/are stunning musical talents. (As extraordinary as Karen Carpenter was as a vocalist, she might well have been a better drummer.)

Now, about that hutch... Well, here she is in all her unfinished glory...

Obviously, the photo doesn't do it justice, but it really is quite nice... The stained glass is hand-cut... The drawers are dovetailed and epoxied together. The doors are all through mortise and tenon... Think of her as an Artisan Style/Shaker work in progress... (Speaking of a funny/sad story, when we were assembling it, the top became "gravitationally challenged" and plunged to the floor taking the bookcase and me with it. I suffered the worst damage but can still type, so no harm no foul. Onward...)

Now here's a teaser... The new streaming video camera is up, and you can't see it (Naw naw, na naw naw!) Let me work out the hinks, and we'll be good to go... At least expect the respectable. (Ultimately, the trick is going to be keeping the cam warm/cool/dry in the great outdoors... Oh goody!)

And with that, Merry Christmas and as always, we'll 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

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

First, here's a video we just made of grackles doing their very best trying to re-create Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". This is an unusually long video (apx. 10 minutes) and the camera gets shifted a bit in the process, but IMHO worth the view. Note how even the crows complain because they can't get to their standard buffet tray. Good to see at one point where "Don" the squirrel sends them scattering... I'm pretty sure red-wings are in the mob somewhere, not that that really helps any...

I don't know about you, but that just gives me the creeps. It also makes me worry about birdseed consumption and the grackles scaring away other birds. Not too much to be done I guess. Besides, with that kind of food source, it's only a matter of time before a hawk takes care of the problem for us. And on another front, we have the outdoor streaming cam hanging tough for 35 hours plus...

That's not bad considering that I'm streaming off an old tired AMD machine and that the video server service (CamStreams) often gets hammered... I guess the next hurdle will be to build a water-tight enclosure that will meet the following requirements:

• protect the camera
• be truly weather-proof under all conditions here on stormy Cape Cod
• be optically perfect in normal weather, and acceptable in inclement weather
• not diminish the light reaching the lens any more than necessary

I gotta tell you... Part of me wants to go with one of those water-proof camera bags, and the other part wants to build a shelter from scratch - something that would be more or less open yet still be buttoned up should things turn ugly... Hmmm...

I'll be mulling this stuff over 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 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thought we'd throw a little bit of everything at you in this post... Birds in photograph, birds in illustration, birds in video, and finally, birds in song... First, here is a nice shot of our Cooper's hawk...

I mentioned in my last post that the Coopers didn't seem to be particularly concerned with me... Well, that was even more apparent today. After Mrs. CCA got finished taking his picture, it was clearly time for him to go. Unfortunately, he didn't want to cooperate, and it took some considerable commotion to convince the creature that there were better hunting grounds elsewhere. (The old John Belushi skit, "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave" comes to mind.)

Onward...

Ah, the good old Tufted Titmouse... Tough to be down when this guy is in town... The illustration below is from a 1916 piece by Louis Agassiz Fuertes... (I'm very fortunate to own two of the original books that contain this artwork.)

And then there's our video of a couple of tufted titmouse... Neato, keeno...

Let's see... That only leaves the audio portion of this post. Hmmm... Ok... True, crows are birds and what follows is their "song", but if they're "singing" it might be prudent to think of them as the avian version of the Ramones. Just be ready to adjust your volume control.

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 2:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This entry (and the one before), focuses on setting up a streaming bird cam. (It turns out that bird cams are pretty common, so I don't feel too guilty about dwelling on this sort of thing.)

The "Big Picture" is that we want to take our wee "Hawk Eye" video "thing a ma bob" (below) and get it to talk via a digital converter with the computer. Down the road, we can tackle the Internet, but right now the goal is just to get the camera talking with the PC.

Unfortunately, this camera setup is cleaning my (our) clock(s). There ain't no way that this vid rig is going to play nice with our kitchen machine, and even one of our more stalwart Dell computers is struggling. We can get the drivers and the video software to install, but images on the PC are animated greenish-whitish junk. From our "What It's Worth Department", here's what we've done so far:

• Tried basic install on the AMD kitchen computer - not gonna happen.
• Checked the camera on the TV - all cool.
• Installed the system on a very proven platform. At least that went OK.
• Tested the software, and all systems are go from there.

So what's left? Either we've missed something, or the digital converter has gone MIA..Oh goody...

This is the umpteenth cam I've set up, and if anyone tells you it's an "A B C" process... Ummm... Errr...

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 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Before I get to the new video camera, first a word of warning about a flu bug from which I'm still recovering... Last night, I felt a little lightheaded, chocked it up to exhaustion, and went to bed. This morning I woke to a slight dizzy spell. Uh oh... Well, I got up, had a few pretzels (they always calm my gut), and started the usual. Nope. Wham! I owned those pretzel for about five minutes. (I would have made a fantastic Linda Blair.) So the day was spent shaking, sweating, aching, and giving anything I ever ate the mighty "Heave Ho" (including those french fries I consumed back in the third grade). Humor aside, it was a pretty vicious attack. I'm not sure if it was the swine flu, but it was something. My advice is that if you're a young adult, in good shape, and with no pre-existing medical conditions, you'll probably weather the storm. If you don't fall into that category, seek help, ASAP. And no matter how young and healthy you are, don't try to be a hero and "tough it out". Based on what I had, I'd say that the experts aren't giving this bug enough caution. For heaven's sake... If you get sick, and it strikes you hard, play it safe and see a doctor ASAP. (Here's the official CDC link.)

Alrighty then... That's enough of that. On to the new camera! The first photo is of "The Hawk Eye Birdhouse Spy Cam" as I was unpacking it.

So far, so good. There were no dents, the packing was good, everything seemed clean and in order. The next shot is of the breast unpacked.

The camera, brochure/instructions, transformer, and cable were all there and looking A1. (The camera is the wee silver thing sitting on the spool of cable. Here's a better shot of it.) But there's a wee problem... We didn't receive the converter that let's the RCA connectors from the cam cable talk with the USB port on the PC. Dang! I'm hoping it arrives tomorrow.

Onward! I'd like to offer the tech specs, but they're tough to find. The Chinese-made camera itself supports a 1,000' cable using nine extensions, it handles color and sound. It also has an infrared feature which is kind of cool. It can be hooked to a TV or a computer, and it does support live streaming video. (The live streaming part is going to take some work. I'll keep you posted, believe me.)

Better run, this old body is needing a break. Now, where are those pretzels and the remote?

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 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's more crow video. Kind of fun...

Who knows what communicative mechanisms crows have? I can recognize some of the calls, and know their visitation habits, but what of other stuff like head bobs, timing, and body postures? (Oh great... I'm turning into Dr. Doolittle. Better move on...)

Made some bread today... Always fun, (though not as neat-oh/keen-oh as brewing beer). This time it was a small loaf of black pepper. Ingredients included garlic powder, dry milk, and dried onion.

Ya know, I was thinking... A loaf of the above and maybe some homemade chowder would make for a good contest prize. (The amount of chowder depends on how much quahog I can dig...) Hey, I'll even throw in a framed pic of me out on the flats wearing Mickey Mouse ears... Unfortunately, the contest is an old one... Just waiting for a winner...

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 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First off, the crow...

There are times when the freezer gets packed with stuff that we simply will never eat. You know the culprits - the leftovers that weren't all that good to begin with, the food that was on sale and would have been overpriced at half the cost, the recipes that didn't quite work out. It's not that there's anything actually wrong with the stuff... It's just that it ain't gonna' get eaten. From time to time I clean out a little of the "lesser foods" and give it to the crows. Hence the snapshot above.

About the issue of scratching an MP3 out of a video file... Well here's a good example. But what's the actual process to make it happen? To make it sharable?

Here's a thumbnail sketch of the basic process I use...

1. First record in a digital camera like the Mino. (If you can't record onto a digital cam, record nonetheless, and find a way to convert into a digital format.)
2. Back up your original work and set the backup aside!
3. Use the appropriate software (in my case the FlipVideo software) to export as an AVI file to the proper folder.
4. Import that file into something like Microsoft Movie Maker.
5. Edit as needed and save. Remember, your concern here is audio.
6. Use some sort of converter software to strip out the audio and convert it into MP3. I use "WM Converter" (a free download from ZDNet).
7. Next, get your hands on a quality audio editing program (I use Audacity, another free program this time from the PCWorld download site) and edit your MP3 to suit.
8. To make your audio available to all, upload it onto an audio hosting service. I use HoundBite.

Onward! Talk about serendipity... the other night a screech owl decided to perch nearby. And here are his efforts.

What a blast...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. Breaking news! Madison Wisconsin has just made the plastic pink flamingo its official "City Bird"! (Ummm... Maybe it's just me... But don't our elected officials have more important things to focus on?)

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 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)