1988 M. Stanback M. Formicivorus (the curve oaks) (19 May) 8 birds to leave the tree - quickly, en masse, and in the same general direction (downhill). After these left, there were still at least 3 birds remaining in the tree or an adjacent one. Thus there are at least 11 birds foraging in this single tree. (I have since found another fruiting oak just up the road 100m) As I may have said yesterday, particular acorns are visited repeatedly and by different birds. It's probably my imagination, but there seem to be more 99 than 83. Flights from perches are flycatching sorties. Flying insects do seem to be predominantly low flying (i.e. just above grass level), perhaps due to the continual strong wind. 0900 Woodpecker activity here at the curve oak has ceased. 0915 The birds are back, but still not as active as before. Most of the acorns on the ground (practically all the larger ones) and many of those still on the tree have split open, in one two or three places. The splits are widest on the sides. The acorns are not germinating - no hypocotyl (?) is emerging from the apex. The woodpeckers use these splits as an entry point into the acorn. In some of the acorns (I found on the ground) there was no woodpecker damage to the shell of the acorn, yet part of the acorn meat had been removed by woodpeckers through the split. (Had the acorn not fallen, the birds probably would have widened the opening to gain access to more meat. 0945 Watching ravine birds. They (seemed to) chased a small very green toucanet out of larger live ravine tree (karrating)