eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi,

Rarely do I stray from the topic of birds, but tonight, I am going to. Earlier today, National Public Radio (NPR) fired long time contributor Juan Williams...

Photo: Pete Wright

I'll keep this short and on-topic... eBirdseed.com has always shown me considerable leeway when it comes to subject matter. I've always had pretty much free reign when it comes to content and images. So long as I didn't claim that the President was in fact an Idaho potato or display adult pics, my bosses have let me go. And that's how it should be. I get paid to write, tell the truth, and hopefully bring in a breath of common sense. I've talked about death, God, and economic disaster with nary the word, "Boo!" from the folks above. Not so for Juan; he got the boot.

Does the Juan Williams story have any place on a bird seed blog? You'd better believe it does. It really doesn't matter whether you write about birds or The Beltway (and I write about both.) The moment the "Powers At Be" shut you off because they don't like the truthful, high-quality content of your work is the moment that we have real problems...

Who on earth would ever have guessed that a birdseed company's "editorial management staff" would inadvertently (and oh so insignificantly) stand as mentor for NPR? Wow... Just wow...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

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Posted by CapeCodAlan at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi all,

Looks like a bit of explanation is in order both to the regular readers of this blog, and to a bunch of new readers who will be accessing these posts via Amazon's new Kindle, (a wireless reading device that dynamically supports books, magazines, newspapers, and about 300 blogs). Where to begin?

Well, first for you old hands with this site, not much is going to change. It's still free for everyone using their home or work PC. We still discuss all things birds (especially the local-feeder ilk) and then some. If anything, the discussions will take on more of a "Sunday-morning, kitchen-table" feel. And we still offer our Flickr library site with over 1,600 photos no charge.

Now, as for you folks new to this blog (whether you're using a Kindle or not)... Ummm... This is me and us.

That out of the way, these posts are a horse of a different wheelbase... Obviously, we talk about backyard birding, and feeders, and suet, and seed, and all that stuff. But it doesn't quite end there. Nope... Not even close... Almost every entry is roughly 300 to 400 words long (give or take), holds at least one photo (typically of a bird), and then covers some pretty unusual stuff such as:

• "Questions for the Future", (a 2057 report from the moon concerning the ethics of genetically engineering extinct birds from scratch)
• Emily Dickinson poetry
• Strange contests
• Ornithology, (as in crow brains)
• References for Backyard Birders
• Fiction
• Cooking
• The existence of God Parts 1 and 2
• Kayaking
• The Universe
• Community service

Getting a feel for things? We only have a few guidelines:

• Readers' comments/questions are greatly desired. (You can use the "Comment" button or email me directly at: capecodalan@ebirdseed.com.) That being said, see bullet points below.
• Everything is rated "G".
• This ain't the place for mean spiritedness.
• We don't want to lose track of the backyard birds altogether. Once again, think of this blog as a kitchen-table chat on a Sunday morning and we're looking out at the feeders. Whole lot of family "mulling over" going on.

Speaking of Sunday family mulling... Today is Super Bowl Sunday! Can Brady et al clinch perfection? Will the Pats dynasty escape the dreaded asterisk? Will the Super Bowl have the usual killer ads? (For you non-fans out there... It might be wise to tune in the game anyway - folks will probably be talking about this one for the next 50 years.) Kickoff is at 6:17 ET... This should be interesting.

Let's see... What else? Guess we should touch on birds...

Noticed a strange behavior here on Cape Cod... A lot more activity from the Downey woodpeckers

(For those not familiar with this blog, the camera we used for this shot is the NovaBird.)

Couple the bird activities with spiders coming out of the woodwork, and we might just have an early spring!

See you by those syndicated feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. Normally we talk a lot more about birds, but these are weird days...

Posted by CapeCodAlan at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)