1980 Walter D. Koenig 3 Melanerpes Famicivarus Read 1 Hastings Reservation 19 April Lots of news from here: in brief, Ron saw a bird, apparently $383, removing an egg from the nest this morning; checking the nest this afternoon, I found only 1 of the eggs from yesterday plus 2 new eggs! The possible implications of this are almost mind boggling! In any case, see Ron's notes for details. Although we don't know everything we'd like to, the implications include: (1) Egg-tossing does occur, even among sisters (2) $383 took out $269's eggs prior to the nesting of the former (?) This is opposite to the Ani situation. (3) This is why 2♀ sets are smaller than 2×1♀ sets. (4) Tossing is cryptic and eggs do not end up near the ♂ nest. 24 April 1430. Now that the rain has stopped and the birds here are incubating, we went back up to find 8 eggs, a new record. All 3 of the eggs still marked on 19 April are still here as well. Also, the eggs broke down fairly well into 2 size classes, with the 1st♀ having 5 eggs and the 2nd 3. 4 May 1530. Went up to check the nest, finding 4 babies and 4 (!) unhatched eggs. The babies were young, but were marked with dye and returned. 12 May 1920. Watched roosting here, but needed a decent flashlight to identify who did it. Unfortunately, I didn't have one. 14 May 1930. After 2 failures in a row, I got the bird who roosted here: ♂ 486. 25 May 1250. Went up and banded the babies - all 4 of whom are fine.