eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Thought we might take a 'bird-less-traveled' track this time... Take a look at the pics below...

There's a common theme here -- that of doing it yourself. The top shot is of homemade brew, and the one below is of a glimpse into our dining area. Aside from cost savings and getting just what you want, there's something comforting in DIY -- "Yeah, I made it or put it together myself..." There's no buck passing here. Obviously, this isn't the first time we've discussed taking on a project without hands-on professional help... There was the shed, the trellis, a farm table, a birdhouse, and even a Shaker clock... (I really should finish that clock...) Years ago I bought 'Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding', and was struck by the preface... Part of it follows...

Somewhere our culture seems to have lost that spark of imaginative energy that created it. I was thinking recently that I can't remember the last tree house I've seen. Why don't high school kids build 'rods anymore? And why do so many people stand around with their mouths open, afraid to try anything unless they first take a socially-approved class to tell them how?

How, in just a few generations, did this country's soul go from folks who walked, rode horses, and dragged wagons clear across our continent, to a majority who spend most of their time staring at teevees; whose feeling of self worth is based more on income than on personal accomplishment?

When I asked Mr. Buehler if I could quote that, he emailed back permission in a colorful sort of way. But he has a point...

What is stopping you from measuring out your own yard and house and making a scale model complete with trees, a pool, a shed, and whatnot? Maybe your architect already has all that info. (We got a copy when we bought this house.) Then there's Google earth. But once you have the dimensions...

To make things easy, you might consider modeling in one of the more common scales such as N, HO, S, or O (1:160; 1:87; 1:64; 1:48 respectively) and in doing so have access to existing accessories. Or, you can design/build to your own scale (I build all my boat models to 1:27 because they fit easily on the mantle or the bookshelf that way.) With model done, you can experiment with feeder/birdbath/birdhouse locations to your heart's desire. And you don't even have to be limited by medium -- use paper, plywood, clay, or software like Sketchup... The variety of choices go on and on...

Just thinking for myself, and hoping you're doing the same...

By the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is that a title or what? Onward!

First the birds... All are 'systems go" here... feeders are clean and full... water is fresh and warm... birds are fat and happy... Just take care of your feeders, and the rest is sanctuary.

What else? Well, New Years has passed and we (Mrs CCA and I) hope you're taking advantage of sales, football etc... But there's something else haunting us -- for want of a better phrase, 'a need for back to the basics'... To that end, we got off to an early start and picked up a used Rubbermaid 'Big Max' shed. Below is the 'foundation' almost complete...

Perhaps, just once and for all, we can get that garage cleaned out!

Next stop... Beer Land! As I've mentioned before, I used to be a pretty fair home brewer... Time to go back to the fundamentals... Commercial beer has become so expensive and so 'bleck' that a reasonable soul has little choice but to brew his (or her) own. Below is my second batch -- a stout. My first was a lager, and the next will be an English bitter... The hobby takes time, practice, a thick skin... But it's like making chowder or bread... Just hang in there...

Here's a particularly cool shot of the very active froth of a primary fermentation... (The smell is wonderful!!!)

And finally there is this -- a simple N guage model train. I've wanted one of these since I was a kid. (I used to build in HO -- 1: 87, whereas N is smaller at 1:160 scale.)

Regardless, the mind boggles at the possibilities... I was thinking of setting up/securing a complete local diorama on a 36" by 72" sheet of plywood, and encasing it in a closeable box suitcase-style. It could be stored on edge and come each December unfolded and plopped upon the dining room table for all to swoon... Just a thought...

I'll be regressing by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Take a look at the image above... What to do with the remnants of tropical storm Irene? Essentially, we're facing a 'maple' quandary on five fronts:

• There is the stump itself... I guess we could cut it off at dirt level, and have the remains ground away. Ughhh...
• Note all them thar logs... 21st century 'wisdom' dictates that all those guys should have been ground to flakes days ago. Once again... Ughhh...
• There's always the option of chopping the lot up into firewood. In fact, some of the smaller stuff has been taken away for the hearth. (IMHO, better that than chipping it up into oblivion.)
• My first real choice though is that of at least milling the logs. Take a look at the beast below keeping in mind the vertical yardstick as a size reference...

  

  It doesn't take much imagination to see an heirloom blanket chest or table hiding in there.

• But what of the birds? Now we come full circle back to the stump... Mrs. CCA and I think we want to leave the stump, and turn it into perhaps a pedestal for a birdbath. Then again, it would make for a super-strong housing for a birdhouse pole. Maybe it could house a small water fall for the birds...And so it goes -- circle of life... My money is on the birds.

By the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As promised in the last post, here are some thoughts about bird equipment survival during a strong storm... (I was going to include info on 'people survival' but I've done that to death already... Google on 'eBiirdseed prepare' and brace yourself.)

The old fella above doesn't look so happy does he... Wonder why? Could it be that his always-reliable 'crow feeder' below got smoked?

Thoughts on future feeder and bird house designs... Given their demise (the bird house is off to the left out of the picture), both units held up exceptionally well until a honking big branch fell on them. Still, I'll make changes in the future designs...

• I'm going to start seriously exploring 'poly-wood', -- a man-made, virtually indestructible plastic. There are pluses and minuses to poly-wood:
  • It can be worked with ordinary tools
  • It's relatively impervious to the elements
  • Poly-wood can be secured with standard stainless fasteners
  On the downside...
  • It's expensive
  • There are no glues for synthetic wood
  • It's heavy
  • Birds' claws can't take hold of it, so it will have to be grooved or a perch will have to be mounted
• I've got to do a better job of making the birdhouse cleanable... The breaking away of the bottom exposed a number of old nests... Shame on me.
• Speaking of 'breaking away', look at the 4 X 4 post in the shot above. See how it split away at the top where the post was set in. I always worried about that kind of a failure. In the past, I thought of using a stainless pipe clamp to 'collar' the area. Guess what I'll do in the future?

That should do it for now... I still have to put the garage back together again after the storm, repair the crow tray, change the oil in the generator and store that away somewhere, blah, blah, blah...

See you by those ever busy feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yup, after umpteen (interrupted) tries, the flicker has put in quite the dimple... Where's a hawk when you need one?

Onward...

After great discussion, Mrs. CCA has decided that she wants a rural farm dining table something like the one below...

This is not a huge deal for us -- I used to be a cabinet maker. But still, it does involve logistics which are not exactly my forte. Here are the two 18" boards that will be used for the top.

Naturally, I'll have to trim them to length...

The real trick in a table like this isn't the mortise and tenon skirts (the supports that bear the top and connect the legs) or the "H" web frame that offer rest for the feet... No, no, no... The dicey part is the top itself. We have two 60 year old wide boards, each of which wants to shrink and swell across each of their 18" widths at their own whim. And those critters will not be denied. If I try to glue, screw, and cleat those beasts together, I'll have more splits than you'll see in a gymnastics floor routine. Nope, believe it or not, the top has to be pretty much free floating. I'll use a series of wooden sliding cleats and clamps to keep the two pieces snug, and at the same time give them breathing room...

Time will tell...

As always... see you by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Before we get started, I should mention the obvious and then offer a simple solution. To wit, about the "puniness" of the chest drawing in the last post... True, it is puny, but you can zoom the IE/Firefox display simply by holding down the "Ctrl" key and hitting the "+" key. Try it... To reset the display, just do a "Ctrl 0". That should make the crude drawing usable and keep you sane at the same time.

Back to the birds, or more accurately, the yard...

While the shots above may not look earth shattering, for us there's been a significant change; I added mulch around the footings of the feeders. The idea being that the grass there had long since been worn/scratched away (and seed remnants took its place), and that a new venue was called for. Besides... perhaps the area won't be so muddy during the soaking times. We'll see what happens, but already the ground feeders seem to disapprove.

But that leads us into a touchy subject for me - spiders. Quite simply they scare the Hades out of me. We're talking phobia here. Oh, I don't freak over the daddy long legs types, but those big honkin' (1"+ diam.) black suckers absolutely blow my mind. (I once took a BB gun to a 2" wolf spider in my living room.) Anyway, back to the mulch for just a moment... I was lifting old bags of the stuff when surprise! Looks like I interrupted a nasty-spider house party. Woo hoo! I was already nursing my annual "back spasm boogie", but that didn't stop me from performing a near-perfect 9.8 "Ricochet Rabbit Head Smash" against our 9' garage ceiling. As soon as I landed, I stomped one of the brutes straight into the Shadows of Glory, and I know another galloped off into the flotsam and jetsam that is our still-being-cleaned garage... But after that things get blurry and I probably suffered a convulsive, arachnid loss of consciousness. (I don't mind killing spiders, I just mind getting close enough to them to kill them. Do you see?)

The upshot of all this? We've got mulch under the feeders, the garage is cleaner, and Mrs. CCA is going to ride shotgun for the rest of the car stall revitalization. (And I do mean shotgun!)

See you by the feeders,

P.S. Word search contest

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the past, we've discussed general woodworking, but given the time of year, perhaps a more immediate and practical post is in order. (Nothing like the change of seasons to break everything...) To the point, here I am fixing a feeder... (Note that this shot was taken off our live streaming cam and thankfully is out of focus...)

But what would be a good "all-hands-on-deck" tool kit? Put another way, if you had to grab just a single toolbox and race out into the backyard to save "Truth, Justice, and the American Way", how would you be armed? Take a look at my IRB (Immediate Response Box).

Alrighty then... What have we got here? Why, 20 tools that will save the world, weigh less than 15 lbs, and cost less than $100 total!

• Toolbox: Buy it cheap or build it from scrap.. No biggee.
• Pencil
• Plumb bob: These can be had for zip at yard sales, flea markets, etc.
• Knife
• Bungee: Buy a bag of bungees down at the "Bottom Buck" store Bucko. Good clamps make those.
• Screws and nails: If you don't have a "Skippy" jar full of mixed hardware, you need to leave the mall immediately!
• Cable ties: Do you see that heaving mass of white by the hammer head? Them's the greatest invention since duct tape... (Twist-ums are a good idea too!)
• Tape rule
• Torpedo level: Never leave home without it.
• Tyvek tape: Think of this as weatherproof duct tape. It also serves as a great clamp... Yee Hah!
• And speaking of "weatherproof": A glue like Titebond III is invaluable.
• Pliers: Never know when the Three Stooges may need to do some dental work.
• Saw: Take a good look at this puppy... I use a Stanley "Short Cut" saw... It's small, cheap, has a built-in square, and takes no prisoners. (I know there's a joke in there somewhere...)
• Multi-bit screwdriver (reddish-orange handle)
• Hammer (bang stick)
• Wire nippers
• Paper towels
• 14.4 volt cordless drill
• Collection of jobber drill bits (yellow box)
• Shingle(s): Where would we be without the inclined plane? (And you can write on them too!)

See you by those well-maintained feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've had a bit of a snag when it comes to comments. (We're jumping ugly on that issue! Not to worry... Keep sending your thoughts - I do receive them and will respond!) And here are two comments that have gone unanswered:

Hi Alan, I was thinking of you as Earl gets closer to your neck of the woods. Please be safe .....

kathryn

And...

Good morning CCA.
Mr. Earl is passing me today but leaving huge 10ft. high ocean swells.
I'm wishing you and the Mrs. safe harbor. Be careful. Forecasts
predict winds approaching you Sat. AM to be much less than they are today, so I hope it
won't be too bad. As soon as you can, let us know how it's going after it passes.
Good luck.
Cheers
Harry "Gipper" Morris

Thank you both so much for your concern... It truly means a lot to me and the Mrs... As you probably guessed, we came through unscathed...

Now... about recycling!

There's an old poem that celebrates Yankee thrift...

Use it up, wear it out,
Make it do, or do without.

These days, we might add another verse...

Once worn out, don't turn it loose,
Put it to another use. (Burma Shave)

Ever wonder what to do with that old grill? Here's an example of putting something "to another use". Late last summer, our ancient grill was pretty much on its last legs; we had replaced the innards several times, and it was clearly time for a new one. Once the new fire box was up and running however, what to do with the old one?

We started by putting it by the side of the road with a "FREE" sign on it. Understandably, there were no takers. So it languished beside the garage for nearly a year, with both of us always planning on taking it to the dump... eventually.

"Eventually" never quite rolled around, so we decided to figure out how to turn the thing to some other use... But what for? Well, since we are fair gardeners, how about trying to make a planter out of it? After all, it's a good big basin, it already has drainage holes, and it's on a semi-sturdy base.

So on a sunny afternoon, we pulled the beast from beside the garage down into the yard, disassembled it, and scraped off several years' worth of accumulated grease, grime, and rust (nasty!). What we ended up with was a jumbo, wheeled, clean pot ready for foliage.

We then cast around for some large rocks to add as a layer at the very bottom. On top of those, we added a layer of smaller stone (a leftover bag of marble chips). The larger rocks mostly block the holes in the bottom where the grill workings went in, and the smaller ones give a base for dirt; and they also provide drainage. We then smoothed the rocks and stones to end up with this:

Next, we added a layer of dirt (a combination of old potting soil and topsoil) and ended up with a large, well-drained space for potted flowers.

Once a few plants were put in place (we recycled some sad geraniums, and picked up a few pansies and a gorgeous impatiens at the Labor Day sale at a local nursery), the result was a one-of-a-kind movable container garden. Like this:

The great thing is that as the season wanes, we can simply wheel the whole cart to a new location for more sun.

Hmmm, now, what should we do with the big old cover to this grill? Maybe a water garden!

See you by those blooming feeders,

CapeCodalan and Mrs. CapeCodAlan

P.S. This entry has been cross posted with thriftyyankee.net.

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sorry to gross you out, but...

Uhhh... Yeah. That is the microscopic shot I took of Lord Only Knows what Toby (our Ragdoll cat) managed to find... My hunch is that this is something I tromped in after working out in the yard. It's probably 3/16" long and quite frankly indistinct save a wary eye.

I bring this to your attention because this is the summer, and we all like to be out playing Frisbee and frolicking in the grass and whatnot. Without proper attention to wee beasties (like ticks, etc.), the good times could stop rolling pronto. And nowhere is that more true than when it comes to cooking. (Imagine if that little hairy speck above got into your sala... Nevermind.)

Anywho, you get the idea, and I'd just as soon log off right now... But with one final thought... I've done quite a bit of landscaping, and no doubt disturbed much more than my fair share of monster arachnids... Last night I stumbled upon one in the narrow staircase that leads into the shop basement. If it wasn't a brown recluse, it was the big brother of its bodyguard. By the time I found the bug spray, it was gone. So now we have a potentially poisonous spider the size of a '55 Buick Roadmaster roaming the shadows of my workspace and beyond. Oh goody. One thing is for sure, he and his ilk are toast. (I have a friend here on the Cape who was bitten on the arm by a brown recluse, and has the divot to prove it.) As I said, he and his ilk are toast.

Sooo... My heartfelt advice is this - get out there and enjoy the season. Enjoy the birds and the feeders, and the BBQ, and all the rest... But just be careful out there...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anyway, as I say, I stopped at a local yard sale and came across this lovely little addition to our collection of indoor birds.

However, before adopting him into the family, there was the matter of price. No self-respecting yard sale attendee would dream of simply plunking down the sticker price without at least an attempt to dicker. So: sticker price was $20. I offered $15. Young boy manning the cash box says he'll have to ask his mom. 10 minutes later, I was $15 poorer and one genuine Herend green fishnet duck richer!

Once home, I was positioning the new arrival in place with some of the regulars, when I began to wonder just how many birds we have inside the house. After all, CapeCodAlan is always talking about the birds outside--what about the indoor ones?

Wandering around, camera in hand, I came to the conclusion that, however many birds we have outside, we also have avians aplenty on the inside.

And of all those birds, I was surprised to discover just how many chickens came home to roost:

Of course, it's not only roosters around here. We've slowly been building a collection of decoys, miniatures, and shore birds as well.

As you can see, the hobby of birding can encompass the great indoors as well as the great outdoors.

See you at the next yard sale,
Mrs. CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yeah, it's that time again... Time to bring in the hummingbird feeders and give them a good cleaning. You can see ours in the snapshot above. (Actually, let me correct myself a bit here. It's almost time to bring in the hummingbird feeders, at least around here on Cape Cod. We still have a few migration stragglers, so I think we'll leave one "sugar-water filling station" out for another week or two.)

Let's see... What else is "gnu"? The Hawk Eye Nature Cam sits forlornly waiting for a new adapter that will convert its old analog signal into the ones and zeros I need to stream the imagery into your machine. I contacted the vendor, and got the following detailed info for the camera. (I list this for the benefit of not just the nerds out there, but also for anyone who might want to try a cam project.)

• Photographic device: 1/3 video sensor
• System: PAL/CCIR: NTSC/EIA
• Effective pixels: PAL:628 x 582 pixels; NTSC/EIA: 510 x 492 pixels
• Image area: NTSC: 4.69 x 3.45mm
• Resolution: 380 lines
• Scanning frequency: NTSC 60 Hz
• Lowest Illumination: 0.2 LUX
• Sensitivity: +18 DB-AGCON-OFF
• Power Source +6VDC-12VDC
• Power consumption: 200 MW

One last thing - a completely unrelated, and chilling film recommendation... I just watched the 2009 documentary, "Day After Disaster". This work explores the carnage and anarchy that would be created by a nuclear attack on Washington D.C. While there is the unfortunate perfunctory computer generated graphics, there is also a ton of research. In short, this is not for young children, but it really is a must see for young adults and adults.

Gotta run... See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank all that's right in the world for tonight's rainstorm and a few grumbles of thunder. As long is there's no flooding, and no one gets hurt, there's nothing like a good rain. How I used to enjoy being in a real downpour way back when I was a kid in my little rowboat, or inclement "running the bogs" with my buddy when I was in my teens, or jogging in the stuff just a few years ago... Rain... Ahhh... The stuff of a perfect night's sleep.

Anyway...

With the Canon now "walking the streets of glory" (or "dog paddling the brine of eternity" as it were), we're back to our old Olympus camera. Still, it ain't a bad little beast. We bought it back in the day when the company I used to work for handled the tech support for Olympus cameras. We used to have a policy that anyone could sign out any Olympus camera and take it for a test ride. And if we had problems, we could just wait for the experts to go on break, and ask for help. (Think about that for a minute.) So we ended up with a C-2100 camera because it was both user friendly and had image stabilization. To this day, when it decides to focus on the right object, it takes no prisoners. Here are a couple of day lilies, a crow, and a dove in a bird bath...

And so it goes... More rain... More flowers... More birds... So far, so good.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Since the last post was so popular (it included a photo of a bird's ear), here is another shot. (Maybe the wife should dump the kayak more often. The more we put the old Olympus C-2100 to work, the better it looks. Take a look at the butterfly bush below...)

Butterfly bushes are great--they're virtually un-killable. You cut the bare wood down almost to the ground in the dead of winter, and by July, the bush is fully leafed out, blooming like mad, and about eight feet tall. Plus, of course, the hummingbirds and the butterflies love it, it provides shade and shelter to the other birds who come to visit the bird bath. It also happens to be fragrant and quite beautiful.

Butterfly bushes also come in different colors and sizes, so there's likely a perfect choice for you. Consider adding one to your garden this year. You'll be glad you did, and so will the birds who visit you.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On such a day as this, it was incumbent upon me to take my kayak out on local waters for a trek from pond to ocean and back, communing with nature, taking photos, and generally having a life.

Having fought the tide and the breeze all the way downstream from Swan Pond to Nantucket Sound, taking photos of the local wildlife (such as branta canadensis, below) as I went, I decided to beach my craft, stretch my legs, and perhaps take a quick swim before my return trip.

Nature may not actually be red in tooth and claw these days, but she sure has a quirky sense of humor. As I was about to beach the kayak, a sudden series of waves gave a not-so-gentle push, the kayak turned turtle, and into the water I went. Unfortunately, also into the water went a Palm Treo cell phone, a hand-held GPS, a very nice Canon DSLR camera, and a small video recorder. All of these were in plastic bags; however not one of the bags was actually sealed. After assessing the damage, trying to dry what I could (not much, as my towel of course was also soaked), I righted the boat, bailed out the small bit of water remaining in the cockpit with one of my Crocs, and headed back upstream, the journey back made easier by the push of the tide and the wind.

Having successfully retrieved from the flash disk the hundred or so photos I took on the trip out, I have some small (very small) hope that the Canon might not be beyond repair. Sadly, the video camera and the cell phone are toast. The GPS, being made for the outdoors, is likely fine.

Maybe I should stick to the backyard feeders.

See you there.

Mrs. CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK, So what in the name of Sam Hill has the photo above have to do with a birdhouse? Well nothing really... and then again, everything. Here's the deal... I was searching the Web a couple of nights ago for something on eBirdseed.com, and I noticed that the auto-complete feature of the search engine was adding in "birdhouse". That's cool. Right now, we don't carry them, but we've still got you covered.

Some time ago I wrote a couple of posts on building a birdhouse. In the first entry I laid out a rough design, and in the second I actually built it.

Alrighty then, what about building a birdhouse for your backyard? Obviously, it will have to meet certain "bird requirements" regarding dimensions, ease of cleaning, nest size, etc. (See our references links below for more info), But still, there lies the slightly flexible issue of aesthetics...

So how do you build that perfect birdhouse (or kitchen island, or deck, or whatever)? Very simple... First, you do your homework on the Web, find the designs that work for you, and then tweak them via a model like the one above. It's nothing complicated - just some cardboard and 5-minute epoxy... In the photograph, I'm building a 15' sailboat in a scale of 1.5" to 12". But it really doesn't matter - a person can just as quickly whir up a cardboard mock-up of a birdhouse. All you really need to do is establish the ratio between the design and the desired result. (Here's a table converting fractional inches to decimal inches.)

Many moons ago I was a cabinet maker... Today I moderate a couple of boat building forums... But one lesson remains the same. When you're trying to build something, even a simple birdhouse, model first... I'm telling ya, it saves time in the long run.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah Spring... Time to re-organize the kitchen. In the picture above, you can see the island we built, and Mrs. CapeCodAlan's new pottery collection sits happily beneath a "family heirloom timepiece". (My folks originally bought the kitchen clock back in the '50s... It died back in the '70s, and out of sentimentality I saved it from the landfill. Eventually quartz technology and double-A batteries made a re-hab simple, and the quaint result will probably stay with us the rest of our natural years.)

Anyway, Springtime re-arranging is afoot, and that meant that old crackers and nuts found their way out to the crow feeder. Forever the opportunist, "Don" the squirrel tried to stake claim, but that didn't last long. Crows being selfish brutes, Don was chased away pronto.

Ah yes, the ever graceful crows....After all this time photographing them, they're still elusive subjects. It took an hour to get the photo below, and that pic certainly ain't nothing to brag about. (OK, so I wasn't standing by the window every second... Still, crows have an unnerving ability to be where you aren't, at least when you don't want to be there.)

And so it goes... Singers and poets have called it the "Circle Game". How appropriate...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi all,

Yup, the photo above is the result of our last post's test. That was the post where I inferred that Billy May's "Mighty Putty" would never patch a broken tripod. Mea Culpa goes out to Billy Mays.

The fix worked like a dream, and has the heft to suggest that it will continue to do so for some time to come. But that got me to thinking... What adhesives should the backyard birder consider in the construction and maintenance of stuff like feeders, bird houses, roosts, camera tripods, etc. Being a "glue nut" I thought I might toss in my $.02...

But before we explore glue, let's give a quick nod to the issue of safety... Obviously, follow all manufacturer's directions and keep all chemicals away from both the birds and you. It's really a "no brainer". Now, let's take a look at sticky glop...

• First up is stuff like "Mighty Putty"... MP is really just an epoxy-based adhesive, and as such has significant physical properties. (Mighty Putty's compression strength is 12,000 pounds per square inch.) Other products of similar ilk include "J-B Stik", and "A + B". The list just goes on and on. So where to use this wonder "peanut butter"? The putty shines wherever you have a gap in any number of materials and need real strength. The tripod is a good example.
• The kissing cousin of MP et al is the supermarket syringe-type 5-minute or 30-minute liquid epoxy. And it's not bad. Because of cost, I don't think I'd use it to build a bird house, but it's plenty strong.
• And then there's plain epoxy from folks like West, Mas, U.S. Composites, System Three... When used with the right thickening agents, these products are wildly strong and have good gap-filling properties. Just brace yourself for the cost.
• Taking a large step backwards is the old faithful, white Elmer's glue. Elmer's is fine for indoors light-duty work, but that's about it.
• Next up is the new "yellow glue" such as TiteBond III. This is probably the best bet for that backyard project. It's weatherproof, relatively cheap, and holds well so long as your joint isn't too shabby.
• The ubiquitous "Crazy Glue" (a cyanoacrylate) is fine for inside hobby applications.
• Construction adhesive has its place - it's moderately gap filling and quite strong.
• I'm not really crazy about silicon or vinyl products, though Phenoseal is pretty good and has a low "volatile organic compound" rating. (That is, it's pretty benign.)
• WeldWood is a powder that when mixed with water makes for a decent, cheap, strong, waterproof adhesive. I used to build boats with the stuff, and it ain't bad.
• Rounding out the list is the new Gorilla Glue. This is a polyurethane glue that when "misted" with water forms a strong waterproof joint. It's a good adhesive, but not cheap.

• Check to make sure that the glue you are buying is appropriate for the materials at hand
• Always test on scrap
• 95% of the time, Titebond III will handle outdoor projects involving wood
• When in doubt, use both fasteners and the proper adhesive

Still stuck by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, I didn't believe it either. The other day I bumped into old friend Bruce G., who matter-of-factly told me that he and his better half had seen a flying squirrel right here in Harwich. Riiight I balked. The response was a sincere, "No really, we saw a flying squirrel. Ok... I hadn't heard of such, but it's possible, right?

After coming home, doing some research (and eating a bit of crow if you will), it turns out that flying squirrels have been spotted on Cape Cod.

So what have we got here? According to the experts at (MassWildlife), what Bruce saw was either the Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans) or the Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus).

Not sure about the species of the one above (think it's a Southern), but the characteristic patagium skin between the front and back legs is pretty tough to miss.

So... We do have flying squirrels on Cape Cod. And we also have hybrid coyotes/wolves. What's next? Manatees in Dennis?

Arghhh! That's it, I'm going for a wildlife photo hunt for pics of Bigfoot playing canasta with a chupacabra in Harwich Port.

See you by those skeptical feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I decided to give the backyard birds a break and touch upon the wallet for this post. Not to worry - you can still enter the backyard bird photo contest. That doesn't end until September runs out.

Well, there she is... Our pride and joy... If you haven't seen her yet, well there you go...

So what on earth does a 700lb boat trailer combo have to do with cheap gasoline?!? As it turns out, everything... Here's the explanation...

Mrs. CCA and I had to drive out approximately 100 miles to retrieve the boat above. (I'll rough the numbers, but the stats are spot on.) On the trip out we averaged around 20 MPG and that cost us roughly $20 at $4.00/gallon. But the return trip was to be far more interesting. Because I'd never driven a trailer before I was hyper-careful about not exceeding 55 MPH and allowing plenty of slow braking room (not to mention slow acceleration). And what was the return-trip fuel cost towing 700 lbs? About $14.

Yup... Read that about a 30% gasoline savings while towing a 700lb load just by using conservative driving techniques...

And by chance should you ease off the gas, carpool, and/or go to the market with your neighbors... Who knows? 50% savings? 60% savings?

Just some thoughts...

See you by those thrifty feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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

Hi all,

Just a quick reminder that the photo contest is an ongoing concern. There's still plenty of time to enter!

About that crow above... There are pictures that are just too cool to file away, and this is one of them. Yeah, look at that corvid. Us old jazz aficionados might say that he's Cake Walking Babies (From Home) or Struttin' With Some Barbecue. (Sorry, but for us jazz nuts, the sun rises ands sets on Ella, Louis, and Duke. Ives and Copland trail in the lofty dusk.)

Onward...

It's interesting to note how the crow moves on a swaying trellis. Obviously, the structure is moving front to back in the crow's perspective, but it's also moving side to side. Still, the bird uses a "stepping motion" vs. the "two-legged hopping motion" that serves him so well on the ground. Perhaps the "stepping" approach offers the advantage of always having one anchor point (note the grip on the trailing left foot). Should the unknown, undulating "next step" prove not to be in the place it should have been, at least he's got something to hold onto.

The crazy stuff that crows, jazz, and bird walking will get you into...

See you by the feeders, (expect the soulful allure of Armstrong and Cash Blue Yodel No. 9)

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you want a meal that is as delicious as it is wholesome and traditional, you can't go wrong with a good Cape Cod clam chowder. The problem is, the best way to make a good chowder is to start by digging your own clams like the fellow above. Now for most folks, that's out of the realm of possibility, but for CapeCodAlan and me, it simply requires a trip to our TOPP SEKRIT clam flats in the neighboring town.

Having a hankering for some chowder (and more immediately, some fresh air), CCA and I set off, and in an hour, we dug up plenty enough of mercenaria mercenaria (the common quahog) for our chowder. Back home again, CapeCodAlan opened the clams and I prepared the rest of the chowder fixings. At last, I got out the bowls and dished us up one of the most toothsome treats imaginable--fresh homemade chowder with clams that were alive and singing two hours ago. Yummy doesn't even begin to describe it.

Here follows the recipe, which was culled from an old Cape Cod cookbook, lavishly supplied with illustrations and dryly humorous anecdotes from dryly humorous old Cape Codders. Warning: this makes a delicious and very rich chowder. I always eat too much because it's so darned good!

Ingredients:

• 4 dozen quahogs (about 2 cups, plus liquor)
• 4 medium potatoes, diced
• 1 white onion, diced
• 2" chunk of salt pork, diced as small as possible
• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 dollop heavy cream

1. Start by simmering the diced potatoes in milk in a large pot.
2. While the potatoes simmer and soften, open clams reserving the liquor.
3. Next, chop clams fine, then simmer them in their own liquor to cook.
   
4. Render or "try out" the salt pork until dark brown and crisp. (If the cooked pieces (or cracklings) are too big, mince them once they're rendered.)
5. Remove cracklings from the pan and set aside.
6. Using the "cracklings" pan, add diced onions and fry until golden brown.
7. Once the potatoes are almost fork tender, add everything plus a dollop of heavy cream to the pot and simmer for half an hour.

See you by the feeders, right outside that old Yankee kitchen,

Mrs. CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• First things first... Be sure to thoroughly rummage through the U.S. Department of Energy, Tips on Saving Energy & Money at Home site. A little jaunt through all that info can save you thousands of bucks right there.
• Next, (and this is going to sound strange), but in the winter time avoid "bottoming out" your thermostat in the morning when you go to work, and then "cranking it" when you get home at night. In general, it's best to keep the high and low temperatures within 5 to 10 degrees of each other. The reason for this is that if you allow the dwelling to cool down too much, it will take an excessive amount of energy to warm it back up. Making careful note of your heating bill on a monthly basis will help you find the ideal...
• Dressing in sweats, tube socks, bathrobes, and caps inside the home is a wonderful thing... Wear layers and you'll be surprised how much you can lower your heating bill.

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)