Here's some I'd like ye to have a look at. Mate of mine sent me this shot. We're both fully aware that possession of such eggs is totally illegal and bang out of order anyway. (Yes, I know. Pheasant and Pigeon don't count. Let's not get fucking facetious!).
He never possessed them anyway. He just happened to be around when they were discovered, out of an attic. He took this photo of them and transcribed the names given them in their original state. This is where you come in.
See; I can see that most of these eggs appear correctly identified. Only, a few don't sit right with me. " Hedge Sparrow " is what we always called a Dunnock. That's no Dunnocks egg. Anyone over forty and male should be able to see that at a glance. Right? So, I'm figuring it's either a House Sparrow, found nesting in a hedge, as they will do. Or could it be a Tree Sparrow? I've not seen a House Sparrows egg in decades. Simply never seen a Tree's.
Hawfinch? Please, no! I don't want to think about it. Now, as I said to my mate; All these birds are lower nesters. We have reason to believe a young girl found them. Figures then that she'd have been searching without climbing trees much. Only, I thought Hawfinches nested high? Might that not be a Greenfinch?
And finally; Woodlark. That one really puzzles me. Look at the size of the thing! Surely no Woodlark could lay that and survive?! Yet, according to my written reference? The colour and so forth is dead right. WTF?
So, there ye go then. Just a small item of curiosity. Only, these sort of things fascinate me :-)
Now bring me the likes of OTC and JD. Let's get some opinion on this shit, please.
As you thought pretty much Ditch ~
ReplyDeleteThe hedge sparrow is a tree sparrow without doubt, the hawfinch actually looks right to me, but as for the wood lark ~ that one has me stumped.
Whilst wood larks are not common I know that they are similar in size to sky larks and that egg is far too big to be associated. But that said, I really don't know what it is for certain! I have seen those types of eggs in nests before - they look like the usual ground base colour with a dusting of colour at one end. I have seen them in blackbirds, robins, crows and magpies but never one that looked like that. My best guess is a mistle thrush variant, or a red backed shrike but neither look quite right to be a 100% match.
I hope this helps
OTC
Cheers, mate. Yeppers; I've heard back from the original guy, today. Seems the Woodlark might be explainable .....
ReplyDeleteSome of the eggs ~ look at the Chaffinch! ~ were in fact damaged. He never made a note at the time and now the eggs are probably dust anyway. But, it does seem entirely possible that what we're looking at there (once we click the shot, to open it up fully) is a Woodlark egg which Looks so big because it's been 'split and opened out', if ye know what I mean?
Damn shame to hear they Are the eggs of Tree Sparrow and Hawfinch. Fuck me, these birds could do without being further depleted, just for a bit of craic :-(
Come to think of it? Taking eggs is just so fucking selfish it's beyond the pale these days anyway. I hunt for them. Sure. But I get my kicks out of first finding them, then I get the added bonuses of maybe managing a photo. Then, most importantly of all, I record the data and send it in.
My finding a nest Helps the birds! ;-)