The Washington BirdBox, a new service for birders sponsored by the
Washington Ornithological Society, is up and running since Saturday, April
1. The BirdBox is a voice mailbox that can be accessed from any touch-tone
phone. It is designed principally to serve as a rapid, responsive means of
communication among birders, to report sightings of rare and unusual birds
and help others find them. The telephone number is 206-454-2662.

To use the BirdBox, call the number and follow the prompts. To exclude
accidental callers and discourage nuisance messages, there is a screening
feature that asks you for the number of species of chickadees resident in
Washington. Enter this number on your telephone keypad. If you have given
the correct number, the next prompt asks for the area code from which you
are placing your call -- to help understand use patterns. Then comes the
main menu: enter 1 to listen to messages in the BirdBox, 3 to leave a
message of your own for others to hear, 5 to leave a private comment for the
system administrator (for example, problems encountered with the system
itself) or 9 to exit the BirdBox.

When you enter numbers, press firmly and deliberately. The system sometimes
doesn't catch the tone if you have just grazed the key quickly.

The most recent message is presented first, the second most recent next, and
so on to the twelfth -- the maximum number the BirdBox is set to save. When
the thirteenth message comes in, the oldest one falls off. This feature is
designed to limit the amount of time the occasional caller might spend
listening to the entire contents of the mailbox -- the system accepts only
one caller at a time, and if someone is already on the line when you call,
you will get a busy signal. If you want to pause in the middle of a
message, press the # key. This allows you to stop and write down directions
before continuing (for example), and avoids the need to call back several
times to make sure you have got all the details.

Another feature is the toll saver. If the BirdBox has not answered by the
third ring, this means that no new messages have been left in the mailbox in
the last 24 hours. This may enable you to save toll charges by hanging up
before your call connects. (If there are new messages, the BirdBox answers
on the first or second ring).

When you record a message of your own you have the opportunity of editing or
re-recording it before saving it in the BirdBox. Press # when you want to
interrupt recording, and then follow the prompts. It is best to keep
messages short and to the point, allowing listeners to get in and out of the
system quickly.

The software for the BirdBox was developed by Bill Principe and other
birders in the Los Angeles area. It is in use for the LA BirdBox and the
Northern California BirdBox. Ours is the first BirdBox to offer state-wide
coverage.

Bob Morse instigated the Washington BirdBox project, finding a donor to
finance purchase of the necessary hardware and software and presenting a
proposal to the WOS board who agreed to pay the monthly telephone line
charge. The system runs from a 386 computer with 4MB of RAM, a 70MB hard
drive and a special voice card. It is installed in Medina at the home of
Hal Opperman who serves as system administrator.

The BirdBox phone number will be published in the April issue of WOSNEWS
which goes to the printer early next week. We have about one week more for
a shakedown period. So, please, use the BirdBox, put it through its paces,
note any malfunctions and report them to the system administrator. You may
do this either by leaving a message directly in the system administrator's
private mailbox in the BirdBox, or by telephoning me (206-543-1224 home,
206-649-3337 work). Thanks, and enjoy the BirdBox!

Hal Opperman
halop at corbis.com