tweeters:

One of the new features of the upgraded Washington BirdBox, which went on
line yesterday, is the Information Menu. From this menu you can listen to
a series of announcements about WOS activities, reporting your sightings to
Field Notes editors, and area rare bird alert tape -- and also to a Users'
Guide to the BirdBox. Thinking that it might be handy for the many
tweeters who also use the BirdBox, here is Bob Mauritsen's text (Bob wrote
all the code for the new system):

"The following information may help you use the BirdBox more efficiently.

1) The shorter the reports you leave, the better. Short reports mean that
other birders listening to the reports will not tie up the line as long. If
you leave an unusually long report, the Birdbox will remind you.

2) You can interrupt the playing of most system notices of a routine
nature, and any date/time stamp and its associated report, by pressing the
pound key and moving ahead. Menus and prompts that require specific caller
feedback in order for the program to proceed, are not interruptible.

3) You must actively save your recorded reports and comments by pressing
seven, or they will be deleted. This is done to cut down on the number of
so-called "dud" or blank reports.

4) Please exit the BirdBox by pressing nine at either the Information Menu
or the Main Menu, rather than by just hanging up. This will allow the
BirdBox to reset much more quickly for the next caller.

5) You can enter your reponse to a menu while the menu is playing. All
menus are played twice, and if no response is detected during that time,
the BirdBox will hang up.

6) If you press the telephone keys too fast, the BirdBox will not be able
to interpret them. It is best to press the keys firmly and at moderate
speed.

7) Reports are stored in reverse chronological order, with the most recent
report first.

8) The BirdBox keeps the last 18 reports, or all reports from the last
seven days, whichever is greater.

9) The system administrator will review the recorded reports and comments
on a regular basis. This may be daily, but will probably be every few days.
During vacations, it may be longer.

10) Your first stop when you enter the program is the Information Menu,
which allows you to listen to announcements on a variety of topics, or to
access the BirdBox Main Menu. However, once you have moved ahead to the
Main Menu, you cannot return to the Information Menu. So if you want to
listen to any of the announcements, you should do that at the beginning of
your session.

Please feel free to leave a comment for the system administrator regarding
any problems you may have encountered with system performance, or features
that you would like to see implemented in future versions. We hope you
enjoy your visits to the BirdBox and that you will find it useful in your
field work!"

As a reminder, the BirdBox number is (425) 454-2662. It was nice talking
to Gary and Greg who called me on the incorrect number I posted this
morning, but they were the only ones. The correction seems to have taken
hold immediately. Sorry for the mistake!

Hal Opperman