1976 Walter D. Koenig Melanerpes formicivorus Haystack-Blomquist Hastings Reservation √ (17 March) The count: 786. (all from Blomquist tree). 1255. 3 birds sitting in lower perch tree when I was walking back, ♀♀yellow #176 among them. "budding" 1256. ♂247 flew to the sap tree (now a Valley Oak) coming into and began sapsucking. 17 April 1345. Walked by. Nobody. 20 April 8246 involved in a minor revolt at Road 1 (!) See Road 1 notes. 3 May 1350. One ♂ downhill in perch tree, but I saw none else until some noise led me to look at the '75 nest tree, where a bird was checking out the old hole. Presumably this is or soon will be their nest. 1445. ♀♀Dark/Orangish #247 sitting preening in the storage tree on my way back. None in the nest hole. 4 May 1300. Went up and reopened the '75 nest hole - not so easy inasmuch as the formerly 2 foot deep hole is now about 2½ ft. deep, necessitating a further sawing. (In any case, there are no eggs inside yet. 6 May 1000. Walked by-nothing. 1030. On the way back, I heard some wakas down the hill out of sight, then ♂247 flew in from behind me up the hill and landed in the storage tree before flying down to the perch tree. About the same time, ♂170 (Ch RW) from lower Haystack landed down in the next tree over and down from the storage tree, then flew to the same perch tree where the adult was. 8 minutes later the 'intruder' ♂170 was still in the tree (eating oak flowers); I did not see the adult ♀.