1991 Walturd Koenig Melanerpes formicivorus Middle PHF HINHR (22 April) 1530. Opened the hole where the birds were looking this morning: empty but nice. Might be worth watching tomorrow morning! Also: there are several pieces of dog food from Marnie's artificial granaries/feeders up in the tree nicely stored. 23 April 620. Watching the hole. Just checked it to confirm that it's empty. 720. No sign of any interest at the moment. None even came by to look. 27 April 800. Watching here for mate-guarding. 843. Just saw a ♂ fly off with part of an egg-shell! Egg-tossing has already started! 900. Well, this is pretty discouraging from the mate-guarding viewpoint. Best I could tell there was essentially no mate-guarding 5 days ago. Today they are definitely hanging out together, but it's simply too hard, even with my marks (most of which are very faded and hard to see), to identify all the birds together at a time with any real confidence. And now egg-tossing has already started, and I'm not even sure what hole they're using. Sort of a disaster all around, I'd say. I guess I'll watch early tomorrow and at least figure out where, and perhaps get some egg-tossing information. 28 April 615. Watching. Checked the hole I think they're probably using; it's empty. 630. Going to the roost hole in last year's nest tree; a starling is also. ♂ Starling in the hole. ♂(613, ♀1535 came and looked only. 640. Starling finally left.