First, the bad news... Earlier, I talked about brewing beer, and in that discussion I mentioned cleanliness... I guess I should have paid closer attention to myself -- one of my batches went bad (rotten egg smell), and I had to pour 6 gallons right down the drain. In brewing, there are three stages of prep to worry about: cleaning (no visible gunk); sanitizing (reduce the number of wee beasties to a tolerable minimum); and sterilizing (as in ready for surgery). Somewhere between stages two and three I blew it, and the mix was destroyed... If I had to guess, I'd say that my failure to sterilize the extract can itself was my downfall... Sooo... I cleaned up everything (bleach and steam are wonderful things) and started another batch. Time will tell...

On to the seed front,.. Do you by chance remember my 2007 entry about buying in bulk and vacuum bagging as a way to save money and keeping feed for the long haul? Well, it just so happens that we ran out of the stuff today and have nothing for tomorrow... except for that bag from four plus years ago, (see pic above). After all this time, that is hermetically tight, utterly bug-free, and ready for action. That is why we buy in bulk and seal for later. (I do the same thing for my brewing supplies -- not only do I always have the required materials on hand, but it's much cheaper in the long run.) Just sayin'...

Prepped and cooking by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meet a couple of cardinals. (Or is it a cardinal couple?)

Yup, I've talked about this before... You set up the tripod, do your thing, maybe get a bird photo, and then go on with your life. But, (as the song goes) these are days you will remember...

Memoies of the mundane are funny things... For me, the first that leaps to mind is the boring oil change. I don't know why, but when I started this post, I searched my soul for typical memories, and the 'oil change' came up. Ditto for my apartment in Natick, and flying a kite. (Welcome to ADD.) Certainly, there are a ton of them, but perhaps the earliest memory was that of a seagull... I must have been in the first grade, and I spotted a gull out a classroom window and decided to watch it until it flew completely out of view. I don't know how long I watched it, but eventually, it reached the point beyond my eyes... I still wonder about the creature... Did it live a long life and have many chicks? Did it meet its fate at the bumper of a car, or the cold of a winter? In all its time aloft, what did it see? How high could it fly, and did it ever reach its highest altitude just for the sake of smiles and giggles?

Anywho... I ramble... The point is that we remember things even for a lifetime...some as mundane as an oil change, and some quite remarkable like a distant seagull... 'These are days you will remember...'

By those hopefully indelible feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ain't they beauties? Those are 20 of 30 750ml bottles of home brew just waiting to head for dark storage.

Alrighty then all you adults... As promised, I'm taking a day off (sort of) from the birding theme and focusing on another aspect of cooking: beer. (Here are my posts on making chowder and bread.)

First up, a quick overview... Why home brew? There are a bunch of reasons: you like to cook; you want a higher quality beer than the stuff in the stores; saving money is always cool; it's nice to be able to tailor your own beer; etc.

So where do you start? That depends... If you want to get serious in a hurry, buy an equipment kit that includes a primary fermenter, secondary fermenter, bottling bucket, hoses, bottles, capper, caps, ingredients, hydrometer, thermometer, long spoon.. etc. Midwest sells a nice beginners package for about $200. I wanted to ease my way back into the hobby, so I settled for Coopers DIY setup for about $125. Coopers is a respected Australian brewery, and their DIY is simple and produces a decent beer. (Note on the bottles... I vastly prefer reusable plastic P.E.T. bottles -- no capping -- just screw on.)

General/subjective observations about the actual brewing process:

• After you decide what rig you're going with, order it and then hit the home brewing forums and start at least lurking -- knowledge is a good thing.
• When your gear arrives, open it and start reading... Don't even think about starting that night..
• Cleanliness is absolutely critical.
• Watch the temp of your wort... It matters.
• Be patient. If you rush your brew or its aging. Bad things happen to those who can't wait.
• Children and pets have no place around an active brewer. There's too much wet glass and hot fluids for something to get under foot.
• Keep a journal. (Years ago I created the finest red ale known to humankind only to lose the slip of paper that held its recipe. Sob!)

On a different note, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed a number of reviews of bird books from Princeton University Press. And that's fine because, for the most part, the books focus on the birds of the U.S. But now I can start reviews for birds beyond the States... the Indian Subcontinent for example. Would you like me to review those sorts of books? Let me know via a comment or email me at: capecodalan@ebirdseed.com.

See you by those feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, the shed build is coming along nicely... Here, the roof support timbers are installed...

And now the roof itself is in place...

I still have to secure everything, but you get the idea... Truth be told, we're the third owner of this wee building, and is does show its wear, but there's nothing there I can't fix. {Why is it that we as a country (or China, or Japan, or Russia, or South Korea, or Australia, or Germany, or...) can't come up with a 20-year plastic home like these sheds for disaster, famine, and refugee victims? They'd have to be 12 volt, small, have outdoor plumbing... But all this is do-able... Imagine a semi-permanent home for $100... Native Americans, Thoreau, and Eskimos all thrived on less... Anywho, Rubbermaid came up with a fairly good design... If they still made them, I'd recommend one to a friend in a heartbeat.

Let's see... What else? Ah yes, bird activity and barometric pressure... A post or two ago I wondered about the possible correlation between these two, and decided that some sort of informal, simple, non-scientific, experiment was in order... Here's what I came up with... Each day, I'll watch the birds for around 15 minutes at 1pm. Based on my highly subjective analysis, I'll note their feeder activity on the kitchen calender. After a month of this, I'll go back and look at the barometric readings for those days and see if I can spot a pattern... Obviously, any correlation is suspect unless it is screamingly apparent that it is out of the norm... (I'd get nervous if a sudden violent drop in pressure coinciding with crows and seagulls trying to get down with their bad selves and doing the 'electric slide 'together...) Still, we might have something to mull over...

I'm telling ya' that backyard birding is more fun than watching a five-legged turtle trying to juggle 5.5 M&Ms...

By the feeders and the shed...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi,

Well, it took until January 21st, but we finally got a decent snowfall -- 6" to 8". Not a huge deal because we were prepared. (Are you prepared?) (It's also nice to have a generator and extra gas at the ready.) But I digress... The snow was liveable, as was the dig out... To borrow from Dorothy Parker, I dislike shoveling, but I take rewarding contentment in having shoveled...

About them birds... I saw the most beautiful cardinals (male and female) in the snow-covered trees this morning. They were something right out of a $3.95 Christmas card. But did they hold still long enough for just one pic? Of course not... Personally, I've found that birds are to photography as paper cuts are to a thumb. So no, I didn't get any images... You'll just have to take my word for it...

Yet again, the feeders continue to be uneventful. It's almost disconcerting. The birds feed in the morning, eat a light lunch, and then snack before nest. I keep wondering if this kind of act has something to do with barometric pressure. (And I'm not the only one...) Sure enough, the following is from birding.com:

"When hurricane winds rip roofs off buildings and toss mobile homes, what happens to the birds? Birds are very sensitive to changes in air pressure and know instinctively to take shelter. A sharp drop in barometric pressure alerts them that a big storm is on the way."

So... That begs the question... "Can I correlate past strange bird activity with unusual local barometric patterns?" Well, because of the need for experimental redundancy and third-party corroboration, the answer is, "No, but this is curious..." Stay tuned for next time...

By those mysterious feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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

When I do these reviews, I like to look at the following factors: book logistics such as paper, binding, etc; the immediate and long-term ease of use; book organization; photography; and lastly an overall impression... Let's get started...

As for logistics, this 10" by 7.5" by 1.75" book consists of 520 pages, 975 pics/figures, and 66 maps. It's well-bound in cloth, and the paper is high-quality. This is 'library grade' stuff.

When it comes to use, I openly admit that the first thing I do is crack one of these tomes open and try to find a particular piece of known info. I my case, I wanted to see the petrel types that frequent the New England coast... I couldn't find a quick list... The best I could do was make a fast thumb through and look at the maps as I went... A more prolonged study showed that the author lists the North American ocean currents, and then provides a list of birds that inhabit those currents. It's then up to the user to look up each bird. (More on this later.) Beyond the reference issue (and I'm not sure how the e-book version handles this), Mr. Howell is remarkably thorough... Taxonomy, flight patterns, molts, wing spans and body masses -- you name it and he has covered it.

Concerning book organization... This is where standard Princeton University Press shines. Here's how it breaks down per bird:

• Bird Number (P1 -- P40 for petrels); (A1 -- A11 for albatrosses); (S1 -- S19 for storm-petrels)
• Identification Summary
• Taxonomy
• Names
• Status and Distribution
• Pacific (and/or Atlantic)
• Field Identification
• Similar Species
• Habitat and Behavior
• Description
• Ages similar
• On the Water
• Molt

What good is a photographic guide if it doesn't have good photographs? Not to worry... This one knocks it out of the ballpark...

Finally, my overall impression... This book is extraordinary in its depth... As far as I know, there isn't another one like it available... The table of contents is fine. The index could use a bit of fleshing out, but for me that's not a deal breaker The maps could be more extensive, but that's nothing to lose sleep over. IMHO, the only real weak point in this book is the lack of a simple table for quick reference of 'region to bird' including page numbers... But even that can be solved with a cup of coffee and a few minutes cross referencing ocean currents with birds. I'm just going to take a bit and generate my own local list.

All told this is obviously a 'must' for seabird fans as well as all serious birders. Mr. Howell's work would also be at home with those who live on any briny coast, with fishermen, in libraries, schools, and waiting rooms... You get the idea...

As always, by those feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I've mentioned umpteen times before, so long as you locate your bird feeders properly, keep them clean and full with quality seed, and provide fresh water, backyard birding is pretty much a hands-off hobby... If you're not familiar with any of the steps above, please feel free to:

• Google on this blog for instructions
• Ask a question via the comment field
• Email me at CapeCodAlan@eBirdseed.com
• Call us at 1-866-324-7373

So, around here, it's 'gaze baby gaze...'

On to other more domestic stuff...

First off, we have our n-gauge train on our dining room table... Both seem to be aging well... (Who knows what we'll do with the train...)

Speaking of aging... Here's our third batch of home brew snug and dark. Give it about a month and it ain't bad... (Stay tuned... Sometime I'll write a 300 word post on how to brew beer for the first timer...)

Beer maturing...

Next up is the tall Shaker clock... The mock-up cardboard 'hood' (the wood enclosure that houses the actual clock mechanism itself) rests about midway... The final assembly height of the hood will match that of our hutch...

Here is the board that will be used to make the hood... I'd guess it's 125 years old, checked, painted, and loaded with iron nails... I glued the checks back together, the old paint will be carefully stripped, and the board will be cut to shape using a blade that can handle both wood and ferrous. -- time consuming but beautiful when done properly...

Outside to the shed! Work goes exceptionally well... All looks square, level, and plumb... Right now, the ridge beam is in place, and all that remains is to put in the 2 X 6 roof reinforcements and to install the roof...

One small problem -- the 2 X 6 timbers we bought don't seem to be the standard 1.5" by 5.5", but rather a true 6" wide... Nothing a table saw can't fix...

And that's about it from here on the back forty... Happy birds and projects galore

Always busy by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)