(We had about 4,000 on the first web camera.) As time goes on I'll experiment with ways to get the rig back outdoors and improve the image quality significantly without exposing the hardware to Mother Nature's wrath. (The plan is to have several video camera cables available for the single cam... One connection will be to the current backbone of our inside configuration, and another will function as our good-weather outdoor hookup... All we have to do is bring down the entire system, unplug the vid from one cable and hook it to the other, and then reboot everything. (Think of a single lamp that can either be connected to a 15' extension cord or to a one-hundred footer.) Whoopee! I get to play with a soldering iron and cables and jacks and stuff!

Putting the technical aside, Mrs. CCA and I went to a Super Bowl party tonight, and we struck up a most interesting conversation with a woman who had a rather strange encounter with a large bird. She said that she first spotted the creature when it was staring at her through one of her windows. She said that it was only about 8' away at the time... To make this more intriguing, she said that after she left for work, the same bird (or similar ilk) appeared two towns away at a traffic light. Her description was that it was big, and brownish in color... My guess was that it was a turkey, but she believed otherwise. She was of the idea that it was some sort of raptor - a hawk or even an eagle. That certainly is possible... In any event, the moment was too transfixing to warrant a dash for a camera... So we may never know. But it goes to show that even in the midst of a great Super Bowl, the topic of birds is never too far away...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed and misc. references

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/streaming_cam_back_up_strange.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/streaming_cam_back_up_strange.html Backyard Night Fishing Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:57:58 -0600 First, in case you haven't heard, the mid- and coastal-Atlantic region is facing a monster storm. Hope you're prepared...

Next, an apology for that last post... I'm sorry that I was so snippy... But simple fact be told, there's no reason why the public should be exposed to malware and viruses. We all work too hard for that garbage. Back when I used to teach in the corporate world, I used to advocate for the death penalty for sinister hackers... It's just a matter of time before their cyber hooliganism is going to kill somebody and they know it...

Not to worry... I'll fix my home machine, and all will be fine. In the mean time, eBirdseed.com remains as clean as a whistle, just as it always was. (Why, why, why, can't other companies run clean systems like eBirdseed.com???)

Deep breath...

And on a lighter note... Check out the tracks below...

Ya' know you've got turkeys on your deck when... Jeez Louise, look at the size of those prints! Of course, that does present a problem - when large animals like turkeys get close to humans, the results can be tragic (the toms have taken to attacking delivery trucks.) I guess we can just hope for the best.

Final thoughts... The wife saw a wren today on one of the feeders and there was even a sparrow checking out the birdhouse. Hope springs eternal...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed and misc. references

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/storm_apology_and_turkey_track.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/storm_apology_and_turkey_track.html Backyard Sanctuary Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:34:52 -0600 This may be my shortest post of all time... All I can say is thank heavens for eBirdseed.com and the security they use to protect you the customer from viruses and spyware.

Suffice it to say that I've spent the entire day trying to kill a virus on one of my home machines. (Yeah it's the one that runs our streaming kitchen web cam, but is completely removed from eBirdseed.com... Like I said... Thank heavens for eBirdseed.com!) I'm 99% sure I know where the virus came from, and it's a commercial site to boot. (Both the wife's and my machine collapsed after visiting that one site - NOT eBirdseed.com!)

Anyway... As always, you're safe with eBirdseed.com, and I'm tired.

Signing off now... There's a lot of work to be done.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. I believe Dante wrote of the nine circles of Hell... I hope one of those is reserved for people who write malware.

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/thank_heavens_for_ebirdseedcom.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/thank_heavens_for_ebirdseedcom.html Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:21:22 -0600 Well the title of this post pretty much says it all...

But that's it... Tough economy... Tough news... Tough, dangerous world... But for just a few minutes we got just a slight smile out of a picture of a bird... Stupid fun on a winter night... There are worse things.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/stupid_crow_shot.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/02/stupid_crow_shot.html Backyard Sanctuary Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:04:39 -0600 Taking a slightly different tack... That of the long-term role we play as handy-folks and backyard birders... Consider the shot below...

Just a couple of feeders, right? Well, yes and no. While they are just bird feeders, they also are pressure treated posts, carefully placed, leveled, and plumbed. And, as such, they may well outlast me. Let me explain... When I was 25, I built things to last, but I knew that I'd outlast them. No more. Take a look at the kayak the wife and I built , the trellis, and the hutch... Though I'm not "AARP age" yet, it's clear that with just a little bit of care, this stuff will be around when I'm ash. So what will the strangers (perhaps even unborn right now) think of the feeder posts and all the other stuff we've done with the yard and the house? Who knows...

Twenty five years ago I developed a sizable lump in my armpit and went to the doctor post haste. Obviously, he did the usual medical mumbo jumbo. In the week I spent waiting for the test results, I did a ton of soul searching, and one of the worst moments (setting aside family issues) was standing in my cramped shop realizing that strangers were going to scavenge my most treasured possessions - my tools... And they wouldn't even appreciate the history. Long story made short, the tests came back negative. But the lesson learned haunts me to this day - when we build things (be it shops or feeder posts), we never know who will inherit our handiwork. Consider the plane below...

That's a 19th-century Thos. Appleton coffin-sided smoothing plane with a Moulson Brothers blade. The steel is of such quality that I've only had to sharpen it once in the last decade. Though worth only $75, it is one of my most cherished belongings. What's it's history? How many before me have held that tool with great reverence? Gone. All gone.

I know this sounds a bit macabre, but as you make adjustments to your yard (including the feeders), consider those who will follow... It's just a matter of time...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/time.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/time.html Backyard Sanctuary Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:48:24 -0600 Well, that's the end of my 10 pound crawfish Christmas present...

I'm sure you're thinking the same thing I am... Paraphrasing the famous "A Christmas Story" movie when the Bumpuses' dogs devour the holiday turkey...

The heavenly aroma still hung in the house. But it was gone, all gone! No mudbugs! No mudbug sandwiches! No mudbug salad! No mudbug gravy! Mudbug Hash! Mudbug a la King! Or gallons of mudbug soup! Gone, ALL GONE!

It's a sad thing, but it was time to move on and stop grossing out the wife. None the less, keep in mind that legend has it that a few ghost carapaces still haunt this joint, and can make themselves known as (of all things) the embellishments of a cap. Woo! Scary!

Moving on... We fed the crows some bread today, and were pleasantly surprised that the seagulls didn't spoil the party. At this point, I'm pretty sure the crows communicate via a sentry system, but I can only guess at how seagulls spread the word. I do know that they (seagulls) keep watch from remarkable altitudes. Does the sudden change in height by one bird signal food to all the rest? Is there a call? Do they use a "round robin" routine to scope out the most likely areas? I'd like to study seagulls more, but their aggressive behavior will drive away the more traditional backyard birds, and that's not an option. Oh well...

Beyond the local crayfish extinction and the seagulls, it's cold here - about 11 F. Having lived in Caribou ME, I'm normally quite used to these temperatures, except when I'm profoundly stupid and dress inappropriately. So anyway, I went out earlier, and practically froze my hands off... Just a word to the wise...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/gone_mudbugs_crows_etc.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/gone_mudbugs_crows_etc.html Backyard Sanctuary Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:15:24 -0600 Thought we might take a brief break from the birds for just a moment and re-visit late December, 2006. Way back then, we spoke of the wisdom of organizing your birding photos and files. Take a look at it now...

That's over 5,000 files, and 16 Gigs worth of bird stuff... (Needless to say... If anyone wants an east coast bird photograph, and can't find it in our library, just let me know... Odds are that we've got you covered.) But there's a bigger picture here... Note the organization... All it takes to back up a boat-load of work is a few clicks in Windows Explorer, and everything is taken care of. (As a matter of fact, I'm doing that now as I type.) And in this day and age of DVDs, on-line backup services, and cheap ($100) terabyte hard drives, not having redundant backups is simply unforgivable.

So let's see... What else is going on?

For some reason, the birds seem to be off their feed - that is, they're not hitting the feeders as hard as normal. Why? The weather forecast doesn't look that bad... We haven't seen any hawks around... Ground-based predators don't really pose a threat... What do they (the birds) know that we don't? In a way, it's kind of fun to ponder the mystery, but in another it's kind of spooky... We make sure that the birds have food and water, and sometimes they splurge, and other times they go missing... Why?

Signing off, but watchful...

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

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/birding_technology_continued.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/birding_technology_continued.html Educational Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:22:21 -0600 Well there they are. (Not that you can see them - the birds are the little black dots...)

Just a bunch of birds in the rain. From what I could tell, they were robins and grackles. Kind of neat, even if it is messy outside. But that got me to thinking. Name an active (vs. passive) outdoor pastime that can be enjoyed for nothing (or as much as you want to spend), 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week, 52 weeks/year... What's more, you can have fun from inside or out, under any weather condition, and burn as many calories as you want to including zero. Add to that, this bit of recreation can involve no technical stuff, or it can be ideal for the geek... Better yet, you can partake, even at work. You know what? Aside from backyard birding and feeder watching, I can't think of a single avocation that is so versatile. (Don't forget, I include backyard night fishing (BNF) in this diversion.) Maybe, it's just me, but I have fun with the activity, soup to nuts.

Let's see what else?

Well, the hutch build goes reluctantly forward. But cherry being the obstinate wood that it is, twists and warps at will. So trying to truly square the beast up (let alone get some sort of decent grain pattern) is an exercise in trade offs.

Sorry to cut this short, but gotta run...

Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't have to run just yet... Don't forget the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up February 12 - 15... It's fun, free, informative, easy, quick...

Now I've really got to 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

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/birds_the_247365_hobby.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/birds_the_247365_hobby.html Backyard Night Fishing Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:52:42 -0600 Well, all the other cameras may have decided to go pining for the fjords, but the old NovaBird still hangs in there...

Now about that "horn" or spur on the front of the turkey's face... That is... That is... OK, I'll be honest, I have no clue as to what that thing is. Let me look it up. Hang on... That is (he says with his most authoritative sounding voice) the snood of an un-excited turkey. If the bird had been in a fuss, that protrusion would have been engorged with blood, deep red, and drooping over the side of the beak. (Thanks big time to Dog Breed Info Center.)

Onward...

And what have we here? Why nothing short of a Backyard Night Fishing (BNF) double...

On the left, a cat, and on the right, a possum. I kid you not... Obviously, I run the cam on the right for eBirdseed. But on the left is a camera I've brought on-line for a wine business. It just so happened that both streams caught these animals at the same time... And there you are. I know that this seems like a silly habit, but it isn't. Late the other night, I happened to glance up for just for a moment, and watched an owl swoop by the eBirdseed lens - absolutely beautiful.

And speaking of beautiful, take a look at the sky during sunrise...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/turkey_horn_and_bnf.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/turkey_horn_and_bnf.html Backyard Night Fishing Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:27:42 -0600 Once again, we've got several bird issues to address, so let's get right to it. First, there's a visit from the usual suspects... What a bunch of turkeys! Kidding aside, they're getting annoying. They're loud, brutish, and obviously don't know how to use a restroom, unless you call our entire backyard a loo. Hmmm...

Alright, it ain't pretty, but I guess we can live them guys. However, the chainsaw with wings below has become intolerable.

Any time we put food out for the crows on their tray, this beast and his brethren swarm, and chase away every living creature in their path. To make matters worse, once the seagulls find the food, they fight over it like Bumpus' dogs fight over a Christmas turkey. No, this horde needs to be discouraged. But how? Let's see, aside from their size, there's one glaring difference between the gulls and the crows - gulls have webbed feet (3 webbed toes forward and a very short toe pointing backward). I doubt that gulls can perch on a relatively thin smooth rod. So here's the plan... I modify the existing flat, open tray such that it is only accessible by small birds and birds who can perch like crows. Take a look at a rough drawing...

That's not a huge project and it's not an expensive one either... Things to think about...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/turkeys_crows_and_gulls.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/turkeys_crows_and_gulls.html Backyard Sanctuary Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:51:11 -0600 We've got a lot to cover, so let's get started...

First off, yet another camera has decided to stop playing nice with us. This time it's the Cobra video camera that exited stage left. Oh goody. It's not that the cam was pivotal, but it was a fun test bed.

Onward...

We've had a pretty good stint of backyard night fishing (BNF). (And you thought that only birds use those feeders and seed.) The first photograph is that of a possum...

Yeah, I know... The image isn't the greatest. But that's OK. I still bagged my possum. (I like to think of it as a "Catch a Snapshot and Release" program.) The pic below is much worse, but it is indeed that of a coyote. I watched for some time as the animal moved back and forth before hitting the "Print Screen" button.

Now about that UFO I saw way back when... This is what it looked like... Take away the trees, raise the light to about 30', and you've got it.

Obviously, this light was a spot from a neighbor's house, but the actual UFO I saw was at least three quarters of a mile away from the nearest facing building, moved rapidly, and then shot off... I still say swamp gas or, "I dunno."

And finally, there is the great hutch project...

and...

A long time ago, I used to be a cabinetmaker, and every so often I like to dabble in the pastime. This hutch has been years in the making, and is all cherry. (Note to self - never work in cherry again. It's so hard it eats tools.) But why cherry and why such solid construction? Because I'm not just building for the wife and I... I'm building for generations unborn and complete strangers. It's a weird feeling really...

I'm just going to be over here by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/another_cam_bids_adieu_night_c.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/another_cam_bids_adieu_night_c.html Backyard Sanctuary Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:54:52 -0600 Hi all,

I thought we might start this one off with a nice spring photo of a blue jay... This is from way back on May 5th, 2007, and was shot using the Novabird camera. It's fun to go back and look at old images on windy, rainy winter nights like tonight. (Take that, snow!) For some reason, I've never been a fan of the jays... They're really quite beautiful... Just ain't my cup of tea I guess. (Funny how folks take to some birds and not others... I like red-wing blackbirds and crows, but blue jays and robins simply don't gun my motor. To each his own I guess.)

Stop the presses! We just put out some crackers for the crows, and noticed a most unusual behavior... The crows seem to be using a sentry system to streamline and/or safeguard their feeding habits from the ever-increasing threat of seagulls. What follows is a preliminary observation, and perhaps just happenstance, but it certainly bears noting... Here's their routine as best I can tell...

1. They post a lookout by the feeders and the rest fly off, yet remain in "cawing distance". (Unless they use some sort of relay system, which is truly frightening.)
2. When food (like the crackers) becomes available, the sentry calls the others, but holds his position.
3. The "gatherer" crows respond and collect all they can, then fly off with the sentry trailing with nothing, even if that means leaving food behind. Soooo...... What does the sentry get? To me it suggests that in some way, shape, or form, they share as a social unit. Remember that piece we wrote about crow brains, the palliums, and social behavior?

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

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/_hi_all_i_thought.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/_hi_all_i_thought.html Backyard Sanctuary Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:16:21 -0600 Oh, you're going to love this one - determining bird size from a photograph. For the backyard birder, this is pretty easy as long as you have a known reference. (Though for a nature birdwatcher, I'd imagine the task is a bit more formidable.) Alrighty then... Where to begin? Well, how about at the beginning Beguine? Here's the pic and we want to know the length of the crow...

(Before we get to truly rocking and rolling, be forewarned that I'm using a digital microscope and a digital caliper, so if the following photograph strikes you as odd, that's OK. I'm just trying to introduce as much accuracy into the process as possible. There's no reason why you can't use a magnifying glass and a decent rule to perform the same steps...)

And away we go!

1. Right off the bat, we're going to have to relate the unknown length of the beastie to a known length in the image. Well, it just so happens that I built that crow feeding tray and know that the rail that goes around the top is .75" tall. So now we have a reference.
2. Next, I used the microscope and found the length of the bird in the picture.

   

   Hmmm... Looks to be about 31 mm

3. I repeated the step above and found that the .75" rail was about 1.4 mm
4. So what is the ratio of the image railing to the real railing? It's about 13.25.
5. Onward! To get the real length of the creature, we'll have to multiply the picture length of 31 mm by 13.25 and that gives us 410 mm, or about 16.125". That sounds right and looks right. Granted, the bird might be crouching or the snapshot angle may not be at a true 90 degrees... But close enough.

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/2010/01/bird_size_and_bird-brained_mat.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/bird_size_and_bird-brained_mat.html Backyard Sanctuary Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:25:07 -0600 Well, it's been a heck of a year for cameras around here... It took forever to get our streaming bird cam up and stable, but she's finally running like a dream now. (Oh! Dag nab it! I forgot to mention that some time ago Mrs. CCA spotted the classic owl claw marks in the snow which means that if anyone was watching our cam that night (we call it Backyard Night Fishing or BNF), they probably would have seen the ghostly sweep of an owl snatching up some poor mouse.) Anywho... (Where was I?) Uhhh... Yeah... We were talking about a tough year for cameras... Let's see... The Canon Eos took an unexpected salt-water bath and is now walking the streets of glory. Then the Olympus 2100 finally turned turtle after a decade and thousands of images. And lastly, the diminutive Vivitar morphed into a paperweight... But not to fret... We still have a scanner and those pesky plate reprints from the 1916 "Birds of New York". Check out this Coopers Hawk piece...

Not bad... But how about if we use our microscope to take a good look at the hawks head? (Fascinating to look at the print technology of 1916 up close.)

And who actually drew the original plates? Why it's none other than Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874-1927)...

But there's also nothing like the real thing...

So let the cameras knuckle under... We'll get by just fine! (Besides, we still have the Novabird remote camera, the flip video, the cell phone camera, and two video cameras...) Yup... Plenty of lens mauling yet.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/bad_camera_and_coopers_hawk.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/bad_camera_and_coopers_hawk.html Backyard Sanctuary Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:13:54 -0600

Well, I thought I'd at least start this post off on an upbeat note before bumming everyone out. The pic above is obviously that of a beautiful cardinal... Oh for the serenity of that summer day last year.

Watching the news now... It looks like the quake in Haiti has killed between 10,000 and 100,000 people... Fate's cruelty is stunning... What limited infrastructure that existed is now in ruins. The government building is rubble as is the UN. And the country is so poor that it doesn't even have the heavy equipment required to remove the debris. People are trapped, and many of those will die a painful, lonely, lingering death. The Red Cross has already run out of medical supplies. (For a more complete list of reputable aid organizations, check out this link). Anyway, if you have a couple of dimes that you can rub together... Oh man...

See you by those somber feeders,

CapeCodAlan

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

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eBirdseed.com bird cam ]]> http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/cardinal_and_emergency_relief.html http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/2010/01/cardinal_and_emergency_relief.html Backyard Sanctuary Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:17:05 -0600