It is WAY too hot to go outside for most of us. So stay inside in the air conditioning, open up your Thayer birding software and try something new and different!!

1. Go Birding By Ear

Click the Blue Quizzes button. Click the Quizzes tab and expand the Christmas Bird Counts list. Now click on the area nearest you. Click Next at the bottom of the screen. Select Flash Cards and click Next. In the middle of the screen click Sound. Set the timers at the top of the page for 8 seconds and 4 seconds. Click Next. For Shuffle, select Yes. Click Run Quiz. You will not see any images -- but you will hear the sounds. See if you can identify the bird within 8 seconds before the name appears at the bottom left portion of the screen.

2. Compare Bird's Ranges

At the top of the eField Guide, select Taxonomic rather than Alphabetic. Next click the yellow Side-by-side button (the one with two ducks on it). On the left side of the Side-by-side comparison screen, use the drop-down arrow next to the bird's name to scroll to your favorite bird. Click on that bird. Just to the right, click on the arrow and scroll down to "Range Map Detailed Map" and click on that. Now move way over to the right side of the screen and select another bird -- maybe one that is closely related to your favorite bird. Select "Range Map Detailed Map" here as well. Do these two birds live in the same area? Why is that? Play around selecting different birds. Try look-alike birds like Northern Cardinal and Pyrrhuloxia. See if you can find two birds where there is no overlap in ranges at all.

3. Liven Up Your Quizzes

Click the blue Quizzes button and select your favorite quiz. (I like "Fun Quizzes: Songs-Weird".) Click Next. Select Pick One. Click Next. Select Picture and Sound. Click Next. Now, down at the bottom are Sound Effects. Click Yes, use sound effects. Then click the binocular image so you can go search your hard drive for more "interesting" sounds to play for correct and incorrect answers. These need to be wav files. You can find some interesting sounds on the Internet by searching for "Free wav files". To restore the original files, just scroll to C:/ProgramFiles/Thayer Birding Software/eViewer 4.0.