1979 Ronald L. Mumme Melanerpes formicivorus Buckeye Hastings Reservation 26 June "Tried" to watch the nest that Walt found here yesterday, but had a tough time of it. The details are on the back. Basically the problem was that the birds didn't stay outside the hole long at all, so you had to be ready. Unfortunately, the small observation point on the portable hide meant you had to lean far forward to get a view of the birds coming, and that meant it took time to move over to the scope when the birds came. The bottom line is that I missed a lot of visits. 27 June Another not watch day. Given the problems I had yesterday I started the watch from a rigged up half blind that afforded a better view of the nest. It became obvious that this was scaring the birds, so I broke off to move the blind to a better spot, and resorted to using it. The two halves of the watch are summarized on the back. 28 June A pretty good afternoon watch here. Still no ♀ for me to see, but some interesting things: ① ♂424 did much feeding and was the only ♂ to remove fecal sacs (He also roosted the last two nights, according to Walt and Larry). details are on the back of the following page here. Another interesting thing was on the initial feeding of the watch ♂424 entered the nest, stayed for a minute, then flew out carrying a large grasshopper! No fecal sac, that. Tough to figure that one out. ♂424 would often enter the hole for extended periods of time, sometime removing a fecal sac, sometimes not. I returned to Buckeye in the evening to watch