1978 Walter D. Koenig 17 Melanerpes formicivorus San Geronimo, Marin Co, Calif. 7 March This morning Pam and I went to the home of Jane (+John) Tyler up on a small ridge above the San Geronimo Valley. This area is quite beautiful: tall, beautiful Douglas Firs, with an understory of Tanoak, Live Oaks, and some Redwoods as well. There are many snags, and Acorn Woodpeckers love it. The trip was made to see the birds which come to these people's feeder, some of whom have quite yellow crowns. And indeed they do- it's quite a large group, 10 or more birds - and we were able to pick out 288 and 1 who have distinctly yellow crowns. Though their origins are obscure, apparently several are babies, as they do produce babies with Yellow Crowns. In any case, the group has at least 2½ large Douglas Fir snags to store it, and lots of Tanoak acorns stored. While I watched one of the Y-C 88 in one of these granaries, we flew off to a nearby Fir, hung for a few minutes on a branch, picked a cone, and flew back to the granary with it - proceeding to stick it into a hole or crack somewhere about ½-way up the tree! Looking carefully, I saw one crack nearby with 10 or more cones in it, and a few others scattered around, stored. During the next 45 minutes we followed this bird and saw him (always a Y-C 88, presumably the same one) pick and store 6 more cones, which were fresh and common on the Firs in the area. This was even more of a surprise than the Yellow-crowned birds, though the very small seeds of these things makes it hard for me to believe that they are a real good food source. But who knows - I collected several cones for future dissection.