Ya' see that "Wireless Signal" and that "Wireless Router" in the snap above? Well, they ain't doing the "Wireless Rumba" with any of our computers anymore. Sooo... To borrow from Felix Unger, "Sew Buttons!" I'll hard wire the reprobate signal right into the network. Take that you "Wireless Weasel". (I'm sorry that I drone on about this technical stuff as much as I do, but the fact is that people love these bird cams, and it's important to keep folks in the loop.)

As for the summer(s) past... There are times when it's fun to just roam through the photo library and see what jumps out. How about this...

For the life of me, I have no idea how I missed that photograph along the way... Obviously, it's a downy and a goldfinch, but look at the brown on the back of the finch... Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know... It's all moot - the birds are long gone. What's the difference? Quite frankly, I don't know what the big deal is. It's just the silly fun of discovery, that's all - kind of like fixing a network.

What else? Oh! If you don't read the online Science Daily magazine, you might want to check it out. here's a great piece on a museum butterfly house, and another on creating a butterfly garden. (And yes, SD has a whole section on birds.) Very cool...

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/more_cam_fun_and_summer_past.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/more_cam_fun_and_summer_past.html Backyard Sanctuary Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:26:50 -0600

Man oh man oh man... Does that shot above reflect the pensive nature of my day... The computer that controls our outdoor cam has lost its ability to establish a network connection. Winsocks, TCP/IP stacks, HW... I'm pretty sure I've tried everything short of kneeing it in the Netherworld and calling it "Waldo". Nothing to do but keep on keeping on. I'll let you know when the system is back up again.

Onward...

For some reason the bird activity has been slow around here lately. I'm not sure if the turkeys are scaring them away, or if there's a hawk watching, but in any event, the feeders have seen little action. (Though I did see a small pile of feathers, so maybe that explains everything.) Ah, the joys of the backyard.

What else? Well, believe it or not, we've had 511 posts on this blog. Of those, I wrote 482 not counting this one. I wouldn't even guess at the number of readers. But to give you some idea, our (now un-cooperative) bird cam has gotten over 18,000 views (22,000 if you count the first iteration of the camera). Anywho, I'm inching up on the 500 post mark... Not sure what I will do to celebrate the Big Five Oh Oh. Just brace yourself.

Better run and see if I can't fix that stoopid streaming gadget... 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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/long_day.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/long_day.html Backyard Sanctuary Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:19:36 -0600 Yeah, this isn't the mostly politically correct of posts, but given the season, it seems only fitting that you get to see the popular banquet in the flesh if you will...

The photo above reminds me of the lyrics of an old jazz/blues tune by Johnny Mercer,

The next pics were taken of a gobbler that was standing on the railing of our deck..

The two photographs above should give everyone reason to give these creatures a wide berth. (And that's to say nothing of the wings!)

So where's that gravy? Just kidding, just kidding. Truth be told, the turkey hunting season has come and gone in Massachusetts. Consider also the ever shrinking hunting grounds, and this Thanksgiving will no doubt be fueled by store-bought bird. And I'm not saying that that is necessarily a bad thing, but I am saying that I can understand why some folks might prefer to harvest their own toms and/or hens.

No, I'm not a hunter, but consider this... The average adult wild turkey weighs between 16 and 24 pounds. On the other hand, a commercially grown turkey may weigh up to 40 pounds. Hmmm... I can see why people might think twice about buying a dinner that has been so hybridized that it can't even mate and the hens have to be artificially inseminated... Ummm... Yeah, that would make some think twice. There's something to be said for the good old fashioned way. (Why do I get this feeling that there "frustrated female gobbler" jokes and "masculine avian feelings of inadequacy" jokes starting to simmer?)

Time to go...

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/mmm_turkey.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/mmm_turkey.html Backyard Sanctuary Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:56:16 -0600 First, here's another quick screen shot of a turkey at ground level. (Forgive the blurriness... We're expecting the remnants of tropical storm Ida, and I placed a glass jar over the cam.)

And in order to truly automate the screen shots of a streaming video (I don't have frame-grabber software), I jury rigged our NovaBird motion-triggered camera such that it stared at a fluttering ribbon buffeted by a fan. (The ribbon curves gently in the bottom left of the closest monitor.)

For the life of me, I don't know why this kind of bird observation and photography guns my motor, but it does. There's something about the "remote", yet at the same being in the "middle-of the-action" nature of it. I guess that it's just one of those things that a person does for the good of the inner being...

Aside from the turkeys and the crows, there wasn't much happening today. (Ya know, those turkeys really are bullies. It seems that they don't hesitate to charge anything that they perceive as being a threat - squirrels, crows, big critter or small... Thankfully, I've found the secret anti-turkey weapon - the menacing, descending-from-the-clouds comfy deck-chair cushion. Oooh... Scary!)

Lastly, as mentioned before, we're working our way through the shards of Ida. Probably will be raining by morning. Looks like coastal Virginia took a pretty tough hit... Thoughts are with you...

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/ida_on_the_way.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/ida_on_the_way.html Backyard Sanctuary Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:29:40 -0600 Just stumbled upon the coolest "night-time hobby": Backyard Night Fishing, (BNF for short). BNF consists of bringing up our streaming bird cam at night and resizing the window such that it occupies a minimal amount of screen and yet is still viewable. Then go back to whatever, and from time to time restore the cam window and see if you've got any "hits". (That is, see if you've stumbled upon some creature of the night. See below...)

The fun of Backyard Day Fishing (BDF) is obvious. "How many types of birds did you see today?" But BNF is more sublime. The question becomes more of, "What kind of critter did you see last night?" The possum above is just one example. Here's a raccoon also from prior PM...

Not bad - two strikes within a single evening. But of course, the trick becomes that of actually recording the sightings. At first, I just kept the digital camera at the ready, and that worked out fine, except that should a visitor appear it was a hassle to fire up the camera, focus, steady and shoot. Nope, there had to be a better way. Enter the "NovaBird BNF Monitoring System" or "NBBNFMS" (or better still, the "NB²NFMS" - pronounced "en-bee squared-en-fims"...)

(Yeah, I need help...)

Just a quick wave of the hand, and the green, tripod-mounted, motion-activated NovaBird would come to life and the shot was mine. This is especially handy in a multiple PC/multiple monitor environment!

But there's one more avenue when it comes to optimizing the BNF experience... Introduce some sort of a trigger that entices the NovaBird to fire every few seconds. Behold the "Triggered NovaBird Backyard Night Fishing Monitoring System, or "TNB²NFMS" - pronounced... Oh never mind. The game plan here is to bring up the time.gov ticking clock and use it to regularly photograph whatever was on the screen before it...

(Yeah, I really need help...)

Anywho... This is just one more way you can have a blast with feeders, even if you don't have any... Just tune into ours... Now all we have to do is come up with some sort of BNF rating system. Let's see... five points for a raccoon, five points for a possum, 15 points for a fox, 15 points for coyote, 50 points for an owl, and 100 points for a bigfoot. Just be aware that I'm going to use every Rube Goldberg assembly to play the game. Just like in fishing.

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/backyard_night_fishing.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/backyard_night_fishing.html Backyard Sanctuary Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:26:41 -0600 Well, here's a nice way to start a post...

Nothing like a beautiful hydrangea to get the ball rolling. And let's keep it rolling with a cape rose...

It might seem a little unusual to have blossoms like these so late in the season, but on Cape Cod, you just never know. (BTW... You do know that there are over 1,000 images like the hydrangea and the cape rose in our library free for the taking... Makes for fine wallpaper. And if you can't find what you're looking for, just holler. We've got a pretty respectable selection of the local birds.)

Onward...

Once again, the turkeys didn't "play well with others", and one of the ruffians charged me again today. Now that I've seen this behavior a few times, I'm beginning to wonder if the creatures are actually charging, or on the other hand just rushing forward to be fed by hand. I certainly hope it's not the latter. It's one thing to put feed in feeders and then leave the wild animals alone; it's entirely another to try to make pets out of them by hand feeding. In any event, this is wearing thin. Thankfully, we keep a comfy cushion on the deck - it's as harmless as a nerf ball, but looks positively "turkey menacing" when it flutters down from on high. If I scare them away forever (yeah right), so be it. I'd rather they re-gain their natural fear of humans than have one of them (or a person) get hurt.

What else?

Hey! Real quick... Remember that killer pork recipe? Well here's something even easier that's destined for the grill. Mix up a quarter cup of A1 with a like amount of Italian salad dressing and set that aside. Next, take a one pound pork tenderloin and butterfly it. Plop the pork in with the A1/salad dressing melange in a vacuum bag and using one of those kitchen air-sucker gadgets, asphyxiate the whole deal. Refrigerate for a day. Grill 'til thoroughly cooked and enjoy.

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/fall_flowers_another_turkey_at.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/fall_flowers_another_turkey_at.html Backyard Sanctuary Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:24:41 -0600 Let's start off with big ol' Tom Turkey...

Beautiful creatures... they truly are. But note the toes and claws - not things to be taken lightly. This one by the way is just one of a rafter of seven that visit us almost on a daily basis. (Did you know that Ben Franklin preferred the turkey over the eagle as our national bird? Here is a link to a fascinating letter Franklin wrote to his daughter in 1784 arguing his case. The only input I might add is that a person doesn't have to be dressed in red to be attacked by one of these monsters.)

The next bit of business is a particularly silly USB experiment... Mrs. CCA and I got to wondering why the max USB cable length was only apx. 16 feet. (I'd looked at a ton of Web sites and got conflicting info. The issue seemed to be that of signal delay vs. signal deterioration. We figured that if we could get our cheap but colorful USB cam out back by the feeders, well then we'd really be "cammed up and streamin' large". After all, we could live with delay as long as the signal quality didn't suffer.) Sooo... We bought five sixteen footers and hooked them all together for a total of 80 feet.

(Why is it that you just know that this ain't going to happen?) And not happen it did. The computer wouldn't even boot. My guess is that the added resistivity of all those cables flummoxed the USB port, which in turn yacked at the initial hardware portion of the PC's boot sequence. We unplugged the mess and hooked it back to the way it was with the single short cable and all was well again... Sigh... And that leads us to the screen shot of the two cams below...

The live streaming puppy on the left is our eBirdseed.com bird cam. The one on the right is our front lawn USB cam. (If only we could have gotten the latter out back and outdoors... Dang!) Anywho, it's late now, and those cameras offer strange company. (Ok, so the USB rascal ain't exactly enthralling in the PM with the shade down and a motionless note.) But the one on the left is ghostly in its camaraderie. It's almost as if a creature will come hulking out of the woods in the background. Did you ever see the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"?

Hmmm... That's enough for tonight...

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/turkey_usb_experiment_and_cam.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/turkey_usb_experiment_and_cam.html Backyard Sanctuary Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:06:31 -0600 Forgive me if I can't be too peppy when writing about birds right now... As you no doubt know, there was a mass shooting at Fort Hood yesterday... and by an officer no less. If the motive is anything like the one Hasan Akbar had, I hope the verdict is the same as Akbar's - death.

Onward...

I guess the least I can do is provide a decent bird pic...

That's a nice photograph of a catbird that was taken last summer... At the time, we had been working out in the yard and some of the birds (including the fellow above) decided that we were no great threat. So at one point, Mrs. CCA pretty much walked up to the creature and took the picture. (BTW... We usually try to stay away from the birds for a couple of reasons... First, they are wild animals and can be dangerous. And secondly, whenever wild things become too complacent around humans, the critters are at risk.)

Onward yet again...

Believe it or not, the 2010 Cornell "Great Backyard Bird Count" is not that far away! So mark your calendars for Feb. 12 -15, 2010 and tell all your friends, co-workers, relatives... It's free, fast, and fun. Last year, I entered early and "won" a nice bird poster. (BTW... In general, the Cornell Web site is a treasure trove of birding info including insight for backyard birders. Use the link above or the ones below to check it out.)

Before I sign off, just a heads up concerning the weather here. It's raining, and that means that our streaming Web cams are going to be blurry. One cam is indoors...

Free video streaming by Ustream

And the other is outdoors and protected under glass here. Somehow I'm going to have to figure out a better system.

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/fort_hood_and_backyard_bird_co.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/fort_hood_and_backyard_bird_co.html Backyard Sanctuary Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:08:21 -0600 First things first... I ain't a bad guy. I'm not perfect, but I'm not a brute or a politician or anything nasty like that. I'll take a lot and won't react, but there are two things I will not tolerate... Physical attacks on my family, and attacks on me and mine on my property. Anyway... Take a look at the fellow below:

I'd tried to give this gobbler and his buddies time enough to eat and move on. Indeed, I thought they were gone when I went out to re-fill the crow tray with frozen sausage. Surprise! Two of the Toms charged me from out of the woods. I guess it was a territorial thing. Regardless, it was a huge mistake on the birds' part. (When I was a kid, we raised chickens, and I was attacked by a rooster. My damages were minimal, but my mother got slashed in the legs trying to protect me. Needless to say, when my father saw the wounds, we ate chicken for several nights after the event.) Anywho... I had the frozen sausages and they didn't and a firm underhand toss from three feet resulted with a thump on a birdie chest and a re-think of the entire battle plan. "Retreat!" said turkeys, "Damn the sausages... Full speed reverse!" In a way, it was almost comical... Nobody got hurt, and hopefully, the birds earned a bit more respect for bipeds. But imagine if a child was out playing... This ain't no game.

Onward...

Once the turkeys decided that there were other "less-confrontational" yards and moved on, the regulars returned. I wish I had a better photo of the image below...

Man, that's such a sight.

Before I sign off, check out this YouTube Web site of Mahalia Jackson. Wow... Just wow... Music to lay your weary head down by.

See you by those brawling yet typically peaceful 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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/turkey_attack_flicker_and_maha.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/turkey_attack_flicker_and_maha.html Backyard Sanctuary Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:36:48 -0600 Mrs. CCA took the week off and was determined to get in some serious nature outing... (King of the world Ma! Just look at that convoluted sentence!) Anywho... Picking up on the theme of amateur ornithology we started long ago, here's a bit more on primary bird feathers. First is the crow...

Next is a mallard drake...

Cool beans or what? Look at the shadow of the primaries on the duck's chest!

These snapshots were the result of a couple of days of "naturing". The first day, Mrs. CCA hit the Bank St. bogs and caught some fine Fall photographs, but it wasn't until she got home that she snapped the crow. The second image has a slightly longer story... Determined to make her "vaca day" a ringer we set out towards Brewster and Orleans. We found the end of Portanimicut Rd. and a congregation of ten ducks. With camera batteries already running low, she managed to capture the mallard. But the cool part was just tooling around the Cape in late October. We hit Rock Harbor, route 6A, Goose Hummock Sports Shop, and best of all "Land Ho!", a local cape eatery and landmark. (If you ever are on Cape Cod, you need to check out the killer burgers at Land Ho!)

Let's see... What else... Oh yeah... Halloween was eventful in a truly sinister way. As darkness was finally anchored, I looked out the picture window and spotted a large creature ambling down the road right under the street light in front of the house. I muttered a series of "uh oh's" and the wife rushed over to see what the problem was. Problem indeed. The coyote/wolf was huge. I saw it for the longest period of time - maybe 15 seconds. It most definitely wasn't a dog, but its hind legs sort of drooped like a shepard. I'd put the weight in the 50 pound range... I thought about calling the police in the hope that they could shine a spotlight on it and scare it away, but it was gone within seconds. (BTW... You don't see many pets running free on Cape Cod for a reason... Word to the wise.) Anyway, no one got mauled, but there's a lesson there - as we as a culture do more and more to protect wildlife, the outdoors becomes more and more wild. Let's be careful out there...

Gotta run,

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/outing_and_primary_bird_feathe.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/11/outing_and_primary_bird_feathe.html Educational Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:00:04 -0600 Man the weather has been stormy... (Read that, "Fantastic for clamming!") Unfortunately, it hasn't been fantastic for outdoor cams. If you've been trying to tune in to the eBirdseed.com bird cam, you haven't seen much beside what it looks like to be high and dry inside a blurry plastic bag looking out at a wet world. Now where's the fun in that? Anywho, Mrs. CCA came up with the brilliant work around of an olive jar... Should the clime turn ugly, we'll just plop said jar over the cam and keep on truckin'. Who woulda thunk?

Other stuff... For some reason, it looks like our birds have been way off the seed lately. Not sure what that is all about. Though the weather has been wet, it hasn't been too cold - maybe that's why. Then again, I watched what I thought (think?) was a hawk swoop by today, so perhaps hunger is the better part of valor.

Some time ago, one of our readers asked for more input on bird behavior... Well, here we go... While I'm no ornithologist (or any other "ist" for that matter), we have noticed one completely chilling tendency amongst the crows - that of watching us when it comes to food and eating. Earlier, I put out some old bread, and the corvids seemed appeased. Yet when we laid out our own Chinese food in the living room, the appeasement went south fast. The little dickens ignored the bread and instead glared at our MSG Special. (Oh great! Now we have crows with high blood pressure issues.) But this is no joke... It wasn't until it became apparent that we didn't have an extra pair of chopsticks that the crows went back to their bread. Remember... We're dealing with a 5th-grade mentality here... Oh goody...

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/uncooperative_cape_cod_weather.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/uncooperative_cape_cod_weather.html Backyard Sanctuary Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:56:05 -0600
Thought you might be interested in checking out a new streaming cam feed we've just learned about.

Remember that cheapie Chinese video cam we wrote about earlier this month? We discovered that it could be used as a streaming web cam as well, so we're testing it out as a secondary "spot" cam for the yard. Currently it is sitting in our computer room, focused out the front window toward the road. Not a lot of bird action, but we do see an occasional crow hop by in search of bugs and roadkill.

Free video streaming by Ustream

As we iron out the bugs on this one (and get a longer cable, as Mrs. CapeCodAlan will no longer allow USB cable taped across her kitchen floors and counters), we'll be giving updates, and if all works well, we may use this one to broadcast Squirrel-palooza.

And speaking of Squirrel-palooza, we are doing a dry run before the live broadcast, and are pleased to announce that watching squirrels try to eat corn off a cob attached to a bungee cord is as much fun as watching hundreds of circus clowns come pouring out of a tiny car. In fact, it's freakin' hilarious.

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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/new_streaming_camera_test.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/new_streaming_camera_test.html Backyard Sanctuary Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:59:19 -0600 It struck me the other day that those new to backyard birding and this blog might not be familiar with our two seed charts... These charts can help you decide what feed goes with what critter. Well, here's the first and second of the two.

Onward...

Now about that pesky bird cam... From the technical/electronic/computer/Web side of things, the bugger is working like a champ. Trying to keep it dry on the other hand has become a "Kludge Extraordinaire". The weather simply will not cooperate...

Yesterday, in a fit of "git 'er done!" I decided to simply embed the cam in a clear plastic tube and put that out in the wilds. One end was sealed, and the other sheltered the camera all the while giving the gadget all the light it could possibly want. Using the picture below and a little imagination, you can probably see the game plan. (Note that I've included the little Cobra USB video cam just to provide some perspective, and maybe even give a hint as to a future project.)

Unfortunately, the game plan went belly up because the plastic tube won't hold the requisite dab of epoxy needed to hold the current cam in place. So much for the brilliant but doomed "Git 'Er Done!". (Time for the "Acme Son of Git 'Er Done Kit!" I didn't watch all those cartoons for nothing...) So for the moment, the cam continues to be a fair-weather friend; and if you tune in and see darkness, that probably means that it's raining here on Cape Cod.

Onward yet again...

Stumbled across an absolute killer kitchen concoction the other day - this one involving pork tenderloin... Here's how to make it happen...

1. Get all the appropriate cooking gear... Crock pot, cooking thermometer, blah, blah, blah...
2. Buy a quality one pound pork tenderloin in a heavy air-tight bag. We use "Swift Premium All Natural". Also, pick up a large potato, a white onion, some carrots, and celery. Finally, snag a packet of "Crockery Gourmet Seasoning for Pork" by Superior Touch... And if you have a problem with salt, stop reading now.
3. Freeze the pork for several days.
4. Defrost the meat in the frig. (My theory is that the crystallization of the freezing process causes the pork to tenderize a bit.)
5. Clean work area.
6. Put pork in crock pot with peeled, diced potatoes, seasoning (directions call for two cups of water), and half the onion sliced.
7. Cook until the internal temp of the meat reaches at least 160 degrees F. (The lowest safe temperature for pork.)
8. Finally, dump in the carrots and celery and let simmer until the meat reaches 190 degrees. (Yeah, I know, I'm over-cooking the pork... Far better safe than sorry.)
9. Enjoy as part "meat and veggies dish" and part stew. And the next day, it only gets better.

Gotta' run... 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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/seed_chart_cam_update_and_pork.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/seed_chart_cam_update_and_pork.html Backyard Sanctuary Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:01:51 -0600 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 ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/hitchcock_grackles_and_the_cam.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/hitchcock_grackles_and_the_cam.html Audio Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:12:15 -0600 First off, check out our feeders at night. The top photo is that of a raccoon feasting. I give these guys an extraordinarily wide berth if for no other reason than rabies shots sound painful...

The next is a screen grab of our streaming Web cam. Obviously, no birds, but it has been action packed during the daytime. (Kind of meditative in a funny sort of way.)

And that leads us to our upcoming "Squirrel-Palooza"! This will be one of our live, free, stupid, gotta-do-it-for-the-good-of-the-soul events. What we'll do is tether a number of ears of corn off the ground via a bungee cord and then wait for the velociraptors, squirrels to descend and attack the bouncing maize. I'll set up the live cam, Twitter (CapeCodAlan) the start of the insanity, and you can watch the rodents go bonkers.

Of course, this doesn't have to be our only "Palooza" extravaganza. No... Not even close. Now that we can move the camera around the yard at will, we can have live stuff like "Crow-with-Popcorn-Palooza" and even "Big Foot-Palooza". Just be afraid.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/feeders_at_night_and_squirrel-.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2009/10/feeders_at_night_and_squirrel-.html Backyard Sanctuary Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:01:43 -0600