1980 Walter D. Koenig 2 Melanerpes fomiticivorus School Hill Hastings Reservation 29 April Ron finally found the nest up here, which is in the upper enclosed Valley Oak. Unfortunately, the eggs have already hatched. 30 April 1730. Climbed up and opened the hole after flushing out 2 birds. Inside were 5 young (babies 2-3 days), lots of eggshells, and no sign of any unhatched eggs: thus, it's fairly safe to conclude that the clutch was 5 and that all hatched. I put bands on the 4 largest (which may fall off) and weighed them all before returning them. 2 May 1130. Went up to check the babies, all 5 of whom are still ok. I measured them and returned them. 9 May 1545. After getting bad reports re this nest from Sandy for the past 2 days (no feeding, no one roosting in nest, etc.) I went up to check and found the 4 larger babies, all cold, in the hole, but no other sign of predation or other foul play. The babies were not obviously wounded or otherwise harmed. This is indeed perplexing - these birds had no excuse to fail! (But, they did almost the same thing last year, no?) Again, possibly we (Sandy) scared the birds at dusk a couple nights ago and so nobody roosted here and they died. But that seems rather unlikely. For whatever reason, they just blew it. 23 May See Ron's notes for details on the reesting of this group (he's been watching up here religiously). The 1st egg was laid on the 18th (by 9:260 for sure) in the '78 nest hole. Today at 1100 I went up and checked the hole to find a 6th egg laid; but incubation has already begun, so I suspect that will be all.