1976 Walter D. Koenig 7 Melanerpes formicivorus School Hill Hastings Reservation (8 May) 948.3? Maure/Maure #86 here hawking also. 1000. 8256 flew to and went into the '95 nest hole - a likely choice for the nest. 1010. Same 3-4 birds (possibly both 9? here) are hawking in the lower area. Still notably absent seem to be any of the 1st year birds. 1015. One bird just flew to the trough of the saddle (where the birds had been on 6 May). 1020. 9? flew to '95 nest hole; dipping inside. 1023. The 9? (ub) returned from the nest hole, greeting 8256 in the storage tree. After 10 seconds of sitting, the 9? took off and went into the nest hole. Definitely looks promising. 1028. Somebody just got aggressively displaced from the top of the storage tree. An intruder, it would appear. 1035. Birds still hawking down (below). I'm off to check upper area, etc. 1615. Opened hole: 4 eggs. Not only that, but 3 were notably smaller than the 4th. Also nobody was incubating, so egg- laying is probably not complete. Once again this group has a sanitation problem: eggs 3 and 4 were covered with shit, as it were (seems to me the same thing happened last year), egg 2 was clean (meaning that it was most likely laid this morning), and egg 1, the big one, was semi-dirty (in between 2 and 3-4). I suspect that both 9? are deed laying again. 9 May 1515. Well, it's not as conclusive as I'd hoped for - only a 5th egg has appeared, another small one. (goto p.9)