Whilst out in the garden last weekend I found an egg on my back lawn. It had a small hole in it and the yoke could just be seen. At first I thought our cat's might have raided a nest because they're winning 3-0 against the birds this year, with a further two of the ones they've caught surviving at least for a while after I released them. But I'm not sure that cats are interested in birds' eggs and so I now think a Magpie or a Crow might have dropped it whilst flying over the garden.
Then a day or so later my wife Sarah was giving the grass it's first cut of the year (she wanted to, honestly!) and she found another egg, this time completely intact. She was certain it wasn't there when she started, although the grass was a little long in places, and so we presumed it had fallen out of the sky, favouring the Magpie or Crow scenario.
At around 4cm long, the eggs are larger than most common eggs I've found in and around my garden over the years, and they are also a smooth featureless white colour. They might not even be both from the same bird as the broken one on the left is a little longer and a bit more pointed at the ends than the one on the right, which is ever so slightly pinker in colour.
My best guess at the moment is that they belong to a Wood Pigeon, or perhaps a Collared Dove but I'm open to suggestions for correctly identifying them.
If you've any ideas to which bird these eggs belong and how they ended up on our back lawn, we'd be interested in hearing from you - just click on 'comments' below this post and, after writing your message, use the 'Anonymous' identity to log it for speed if you like.
Hi Martyn
ReplyDeleteI think these are too large for Collard Dove, probably Wood or Feral Pigeon. Also, I don't think a Magpie's mouth is big enough to carry an egg of this size, so most likely dropped by a crow or one of the larger gulls.
Tony (Derby)
(Reposted from the Manchester Birding Forum)
Thanks Tony, Wood Pigeon and Crow seem right to me.
ReplyDeleteHi Martyn,
ReplyDeleteLooks like Tony is right with Wood Pigeon's egg. I have been looking through a few books I have and it's the right size, colour and shape for Wood Pigeon.
Cheers, Steve (Burke)
(Reposted from the Manchester Birding Forum)
Yesterday I found half a completely white egg on the lawn about six feet from the front of the house. The whole egg would have been the same as that mentioned in the original article. The inside showed just a thin coating of the yolk. Living in an area surrounded by forest we have a large number of pigeons of various types and also collard doves. Going from the above comments it might well therefore be the egg of a wood pigeon.
ReplyDeleteglad i found this as this morning i found a similar , whole egg deposited outside our back door . As the yard is concrete and it was in tact I am ruling out that it was dropped by a gull and as, lying next to it, was the corpse of a tiny shrew I am looking closer to home for my culprit!
ReplyDeleteMy cat has brought a few wood pigeon eggs home. The latest is now in the airing cupboard as it was close to hatching and I couldn't bear to let it die.
ReplyDeleteSo, possibly yours are down to cats too.