Dear Frank and birders,
I have a Garmin IQue M5 which is a pocket PC combined with a GPS. It is not a
cheap option but works very well. I have 1 Gb card in the device and it holds
the complete Garmin maps of Australia (very good for cities but rather sparse
in the bush); all 10 CDs from BOCA plus some other bird call material; and a
beta version of BirdInfo program for recording bird sightings. In addition It
can do the ususal tinkgs like taking dictated notes, calculations, storing
pictures etc.
The BirdInfo data can be transferred to my PC and sent directly to the birds
Australia atlassing project. Two difficulties I have come across are that the
GPS will not provide its coordinates to the birdinfo program (I have to jot
down the GPS reading and re-enter it. Secondly the GPS cocordinates ate in dd.
mm.mmm format rather than the dd.mm.ss format required by the atlas.
For playback I use a very small Fumiyama FSP-505 powered speaker that I bought
at Singapore airport. I have no idea of the frequency response of this speaker
(though I suspect that it is rather limited). I have had some success with the
calls (Mangrove honeyeater, green backed honeyeater, little kingfisher for
instance) and some dips - though I stree that I have not used it all that
often. At the moment it has been used more in the mode of "I wonder if it
works?". I have also used it only in areas where there would not be a risk of
habituation of the birds to mechancal calls.
The GPS has a tracking function which I have found useful on pelagic trips as
it will show the whole course of the voyage as a track on the map.
In summary an expensive toy that I am enjoying using!
Regards
Peter Marsh
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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