Unnatural History
The commies once destroyed an entire *SEA*! For all that I sometimes regret it, I have indeed lived through an age of wonders.
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A broken egg that I found in the grass today. Unlike the last egg in the grass, this was no accident. You can plainly see where somebody stabbed their beak into it to kill it, then carried it out into the middle of the lawn to drop it. Note that it's plain white (few bird's eggs are), and that whoever stole it didn't eat it - the yolk is still inside. That narrows down the possibilities.
I'm pretty sure it's either a Cardinal's egg, or a Cowbird's. If it's a Cardinal's, then a Cowbird did it. They're obligatory parasites, laying their eggs in other birds' nests. Often they'll dispose of one host egg, so that an extra egg doesn't suddenly appear. That fools the host a surprising amount of the time.
The other possibility is a Cowbird. Their eggs are normally pale tan with spots, but pure white ones aren't rare, especially early in the season. If it's a Cowbird, then Robins probably found it in their nest and disposed of it. Robins are very hard to fool that way.
It was lying in sight of this strange-looking nest which Robins have built on my foyer window ledge, and which I have dubbed "the Volcano". My working hypothesis is that the hen built it that way on the theory that predators seldom look for delicious baby Robins inside a volcano. I hope it works for her.
She's got four eggs in there as of today, and ought to start brooding soon.
The other possibility is that I have a Cardinal's nest in the nearby shrubbery, which I rather suspect might also be true. I need to search and see if I can't find it, and whether it has a Cowbird's egg in it. At any event, my interest is piqued. I checked a few hours later, and the egg was gone, probably eaten.
Original posted at https://rain-gryphon.dreamwidth.org/79719.html
*****
A broken egg that I found in the grass today. Unlike the last egg in the grass, this was no accident. You can plainly see where somebody stabbed their beak into it to kill it, then carried it out into the middle of the lawn to drop it. Note that it's plain white (few bird's eggs are), and that whoever stole it didn't eat it - the yolk is still inside. That narrows down the possibilities.
I'm pretty sure it's either a Cardinal's egg, or a Cowbird's. If it's a Cardinal's, then a Cowbird did it. They're obligatory parasites, laying their eggs in other birds' nests. Often they'll dispose of one host egg, so that an extra egg doesn't suddenly appear. That fools the host a surprising amount of the time.
The other possibility is a Cowbird. Their eggs are normally pale tan with spots, but pure white ones aren't rare, especially early in the season. If it's a Cowbird, then Robins probably found it in their nest and disposed of it. Robins are very hard to fool that way.
It was lying in sight of this strange-looking nest which Robins have built on my foyer window ledge, and which I have dubbed "the Volcano". My working hypothesis is that the hen built it that way on the theory that predators seldom look for delicious baby Robins inside a volcano. I hope it works for her.
She's got four eggs in there as of today, and ought to start brooding soon.
The other possibility is that I have a Cardinal's nest in the nearby shrubbery, which I rather suspect might also be true. I need to search and see if I can't find it, and whether it has a Cowbird's egg in it. At any event, my interest is piqued. I checked a few hours later, and the egg was gone, probably eaten.
Original posted at https://rain-gryphon.dreamwidth.org/79719.html