While I'm not a fan of the I-pod (my kid has one and I think it's 
*blanketyblank*) I do love the idea of having the sounds as an immediate 
resource. A couple of years ago I bought a $60-$70 mp3 player at Staples 
for just this reason, it's only 1gb but does have an fm radio built in 
for lawn mowing day. I use a free mp3 ripping program (CD-DA X-Tractor) 
that's pretty straight forward. I ripped my Stokes 3 cd set and 
organized them in folders for easy access. The files are in the same 
order as the cd, just divided by bird types. Something small but 
important to keep in mind is to number the folders so the mp3 player 
keeps them in the order you want, mine are like this: 001_water_ducks, 
002_raptors, 003_uplandgame_gruiformes. If you just give them names most 
players will organize them alphabetically. My player (made by MuVo) is 
only 1gb but holds the 3 Stokes cd's and 7 or 8 other music cd's with 
some room to spare, I also left out the mp3's of birds I'm least likely 
to see in the area's I visit (no Puffins around here!), that saved quite 
a bit of space. I also have a $20 portable speaker that I plug into the 
player so I can call owls. It all fits in my coat pocket and didn't cost 
me an arm and a leg like the I-pod.

Hope this was helpful, contact me off-list if you have a question about 
my set-up.

Good birding all!
Chris Ordiway @ Hard Bargain Farm