eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi all,

Well, I finally got my wish... The heat is gone, it's pouring out, and the wind is whipping... In short, it's perfect for clamming! Unfortunately, it isn't perfect for computers. We've had at least half a dozen brown outs, and we may have lost our main battle tank - a dual monitor graphics beast which now can't even see my home network. (U.P.S. be derned!) Anyway, this will probably be a quick post - my machines are dropping out from under me. I hope this video of an unusual summer nor'easter here on Cape Cod survived two crashes...

Keep in mind that we live in a sort of a large gully, and are protected by trees. The weather is a lot worse than the video portrays. (No doubt we'll have a few branches down, and we may lose our power for a time. Still, we're ready. (We make it a point to have enough non-perishable food on hand for a week of lost power, though I'd be amazed if this storm was anything more than a nuisance.))

Whoops, we just had another power dip... Signing off...

No doubt we'll be raking up by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

P.S. It looks like our streaming live Web cam is going to be down at least until tomorrow. After that, I can tear into our little old Cape Cod network and see if I can't figure what's going on...

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hi all,

Well, this post was supposed to start with a nice crow pic as the lead. Oh, it would have made for a great shot and a great entry... Cooking chowder in the kitchen... Looking out the steamy window and spying a crow... Not being truly alone on a rainy afternoon... Maybe some Emily Dickinson, and the soulful allure of, say, Coleman Hawkins' "Sweet Lorraine*" or "Body and Soul" as a backdrop...

Yup... This could have been a great post. Who knows what literary ether I might have pierced? But thanks to a stupid camera and a stupid crow, this is the end result. Let me explain...

I did manage to get out on the mud flats oh so briefly a couple of days ago, and a lot of hustling garnered the half basket of clams above. (Notes to self - you're too old to hustle in the muck, the ferrule on the rake needs hose clamps, and the left boot insists on serious patching.) So anyway, after a day of recovery and drying out, I started the long task of making a real batch of Cape Cod clam chowder, conspicuously mentored by a crow. Not a huge deal... All I had to do was interrupt the symphony of opening and chopping clams, slicing and dicing salt pork, slashing onion, and cubing potatoes - and cook the melange in just the right order and just the right balance. Yeah... A little crow's company was perfect. The lighting, weather, aroma, solitude, food... It was all perfect. And all I needed to do was to take a quick photograph of the crow, and the world's greatest post would write itself. And that's when the wheels started to come off the lawn chair. I couldn't get the camera set up, the salt pork was reaching perfection in the frying pan, and the bird was doing his level best to make Poe rise from the grave.

"Arghhh! Arghhh!" I say! The "Readers Digest" summary of this sad tale is that I managed to "flashbulb" the window twice. (If anyone needs a jpg of pure white, just let me know - I'm an expert at that sort of thing.) Bye bye birdie. (I did however manage to save the chowder.)

So close and yet so far...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

* Here is the closest version I know of to Hawk's "Sweet Lorraine":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDUIL_EC3vs

P.S. Check out our new reference links below to Cornell's Ornithology Labs

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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 9:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hi all,

Check out the video below... (Note: You may have to run it a few times to let it fully load.)

Pretty lousy bird video? (Well the end is kind of cool when the oriole flies away...) But I really didn't shoot it for the bird, but rather for the feel of the weather itself. It's rainy, windy, raw - in short it's an ideal day to hit the mud flats and scratch some clams.

There's a peace out there... In weather like this I'm usually alone. Oh, there are gulls, ducks, crabs and whatnot, but usually no humans. (Though on really stormy weekends, Mrs. CapeCodAlan loves to join in on the solitude, the drenching, and cold.) And it is cold... I haven't got around to fixing my old boots, so my feet will take a briny bath, but that's OK. As long as a person keeps working, he'll be fine. (I've only been really cold out there once. One miserable February day, a fellow scratcher forgot his gauntlets, so I gave him one of mine. After a while our exposed hands and arms would go numb from the constant immersion, and then we'd trade gloves and keep digging. Needless to say that there was some mighty fast quahogging that day!)

But I gotta' tell ya... There's nothing like coming home with a plethora of bivalves, washing and putting away all the gear, taking a hot shower, then settling down with a cold beer and some spicy chili. That'll make you sleep.

Ahhh... I'm probably just daydreaming... The odds of me actually getting out there are "zipoid"... Still miracles do happen.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. I was just kidding about Mrs. CapeCodAlan enjoying 'hogging when it's stormy - in reality, she can't stand it!

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hi,

Time for a bird break...

Well, I was going to take the NovaBird motion-actuated camera and stick it on a stick in one of the mud flats of Chatham MA, (pay no attention to the boss' screams) to spy crab movements, and then go quahogging. But it turned out that my shellfishing license for Chatham had expired. Not to worry, the wife snapped a few pictures of the cute hermits some time ago.



But I'm drifting off topic... As the title suggests, this post is concerned with clam chowder. (Though in spirit, it could be addressing the native mud-bug foods of Louisiana, or the farm-grown shrimp dishes of Arizona.) Regardless, here's the specific philosophy/recipe for my local dish, clam chowder:

1. If you can't get your hands on fresh, clean, scrubbed, stock (preferably clams you dig yourself in this case), oh well.
2. Take all recipes that use the words "canned" and/or the word "Manhattan" down to the firing range and shoot them with a 12 gauge shotgun.
3. Alrighty then, let's get started...
4. Dice two medium-sized "skinned" potatoes and chuck them in a small pot along with a quart of milk and cook slowly. Watch it to make sure that the milk doesn't burn or curdle.
5. While the potatoes are getting to the "half-way-to-fork-tender" point, use an iron skillet primed with a 2" cube of salt pork (or bacon) to brown some diced onions.
6. Now to the heart of the matter... Use only "littlenecks" - the smallest, most tender, and yet still-legal quahog. A couple of dozen will do ya'. Open the littlenecks in another pot wisely... That is to say, gently steam them open in a fine 2-can broth of "Pinot Budweiser" along with dabs of garlic and butter, and a dash of pepper. (Hey, if you want, stop the cooking here, extricate the mollusks now, and break out the Italian bread for mop up! You can always find another use for the milk and potatoes...)
7. Coming down the home stretch... Once the potatoes feel "15-minutes" away from being cooked, dump the entire mess including the "Pinot Budweiser" together and cook over mild heat until the potatoes are done... (Shuck and dice the clams first if you must.)
8. Briefly nuke ceramic bowls until warm.
9. Serve up the "chowdah" with a healthy dollop of your favorite cream.

Ok, so that's the basic recipe... But aside from fresh ingredients, what are the secrets? Why, here they are now!

• Use a decent light beer... (And no, I'm not referring to that swill with the title "Light" tacked onto the back of the brand name. No... Simply avoid the amber and darker beers.)
• Timing is everything... Getting the potatoes to reach that "just-right" texture at the same time as the clam liquor reaches that "just-right" flavor is an art.
• Striking the balance of cooking beer (or even white wine) in combination with garlic, clams, pepper, and the "coup de creme" takes time.
• Serve with fresh oyster crackers.

There... Now you have some real food to savor as you watch your birds!

See you by the feeders, and bring a spoon...

CapeCodAlan

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)