Dear birdJammers...

Hard to believe, but fall is upon us! We know because the hummers are zooming around the feeders here in Georgia, and a few early migrating warblers have made an appearance. We hope you have a very productive Fall Migration season!

birdJam Says "Ribbit"

We've finally taken the leap (yes, that is a pun) by creating birdJam Maker for Frogs and Toads. Based upon Lang Elliott's "The Calls of Frogs and Toads" book and CD, birdJam Maker for Frogs & Toads formats and organizes the 42 species found east of the Great Plains. F&T_logo

As you'd expect, we've removed the narration and added great photographs.
We've been having a ball listening to the variety of calls that include advertisement, aggressive, release, rain, distress, warning and hybrid, along with countersinging and mixed species choruses. There are more than birds out there singing and making sounds. Don't get fooled again! birdJam Maker for Frogs and Toads is $9.99 and Lang's "The Calls of Frogs and Toads" is $19.95.

Festival Appearances

If you want to catch us this fall for customized demos, individual help, or just to say hello, we'll be at the following festivals, and we'd love to see you:

A Big Pocket for your iMainGo Speaker

Many people ask us about the best way to carry an iMainGo speaker into the field, and we generally mention the included carrying strap or suggest looking for a waist or back pack to meet individual requirements.

Here's another option: If you like vests, you may wish to consider a BigPockets vest. Yes, it has big pockets, many of which would conveniently hold the iMainGo speaker with its birdJam iPod snugged inside. You may have already thought of this, but we wanted to mention it in case you hadn't.

Support Legislation to Conserve Migratory Birds

Several staffers of the American Bird Conservancy are also birdJammers. They thought you might be interested in a campaign to support legislation to conserve migratory birds. If you go to their Web Site you'll find a link to an "Act for Songbirds" which you may wish to support by sending a message. They've made it easy with automated links, etc.

Julie Zickefoose Saves Baby Wren with birdJam

Julie Zickefoose is a writer, naturalist, NPR commentator, watercolor painter, gardener, etc. She also recently saved a baby wren by using a birdJam iPod to call the wren parents back to take charge of this apparently forgotten fledgling. Head over to NPR to hear her story: gardener.

New Peterson's Field Guide Podcasts—Free!

You may know that Houghton Mifflin has just published the updated version of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America". The beautiful new volume covers both the East and West, has new paintings and maps, and has a website with more than three hours of video Podcasts for you to download—for FREE!

Download the Podcasts that were created by Bill Thompson III (editor of BirdWatcher's Digest) and Jeff Gordon (the birder/naturalist—not the race car driver). The Podcasts are an excellent learning tool to accompany the field guide, and are great new content for your iPod or to view in iTunes.

birdJammer Finally Re-installs birdJam to her iPod

For those of you who order pre-loaded iPods, you know that we include prominent instructions about how NOT to overwrite the birdJam content on your iPod when you plug it into iTunes. Here is a story about how one birdJammer managed to do just that, and then after much procrastination, re-installed the content herself. It is a straightforward process and we've got step-by-step instructions in birdJam Maker's Help Menu to walk you through the process. And, If you need our assistance, just send us an Email.

Turning an iPod Touch Off and On

We've found that the easiest way to turn an iPod Touch on and off is to let it automatically do it. You can control how fast it will turn itself off as follows: Select Settings on Main Screen, select General, select Auto-Lock, and then select the amount of time until the iPod Touch turns itself off, anywhere from one to five minutes, or never. If you select two minutes, for example, and don't use any controls during that time, the iPod Touch will go dark. Note that the longer it stays lighted, the more battery that will be used.

Once the iPod Touch goes dark, just press the Home Button (center button on the bottom front face) to wake up your iPod. When installed in the iMainGo2 speaker, using the Home Button on the face of the iPod Touch is much more convenient than the Sleep/Wake button which is on the top edge and inaccessible when zipped in the iMainGo2.

Signing Off...

Time to get out there and re-fill the hummingbird feeder! In any case, that's it for now from birdJam! Have a great fall, and please, keep in touch.

With many thanks!
Denese, Jay and Charlie