My dog brought me a present this lunch time - found somewhere in my garden. Unfortunately it is a bit chewed.
Please can anyone identify it for me, and is it likely to be this years, or could it be an old one?
It is white with no marks or speckles. The membrane under the shell is a sort of grey colour. The shell is clean.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Pigeon/ Dove most likely. Do you have wood Pigeons nesting in your garden each year.
For viewing or photography right place right time is everything. I'd rather be in the right place with poor kit than have the best kit and be in the wrong place.
Thanks John,
I have no woodpigeons at all visiting my garden, but I do have collared doves and feral pigeons.
My garden isn't huge and there are no trees in the back where the egg was found. It is mainly evergreen hedges and shrubs. The house was built in the 1980's and is brick.
This is my first year as a garden bird watcher and I haven't yet had my first nesting season!! So I don't know what may have nested in previous years.
Hi Sparrow, shame about your egg. As John has alreay mentioned it looks like Pigeon / Dove. You have mentioned you don't get Wood Pigeons so that rules them out.
Collared Doves & Feral Pigeons are two species that actually nest all year!!! and can have upto 3 broods and sometimes more.
Without having the egg in the hand for closer inspection, it could well be a egg from the back end of last year or a remote possibility that is was from the begining of this year before the extreme weather started.
I would be inclined to go with Collared Dove, as Ferals prefer ledges on buildings, cavaties and derelict buildings . Again this is going off the info you have provided.
Regards Buzzard
Nature Is Amazing - Let Us Keep It That Way
I forgot to say, the egg measures about 4cm by 3cm. The length is right at 4cm but the width could be distorted due to it having been chewed!
I am now wondering if it could have been dropped by another bird.
Thanks both of you.
I will go with collared dove, but goodness knows where the nest was.
Oh you could have other eggs / babies on the way sparrow. Are you going to be an Auntie or Foster Mum?
Hi Sparrow
Interersting find with the egg
It is not everyday you see that at all.
Regards
Kathy and Dave
Quite a few of us have had baby wood pigeons, you may be the first to have a winter baby collared dove on the forum Sparrow.
I would love to think I have a collared dove nest, but looking in my books as to where they nest, it doesn't seem likely. It says "Platform nest of dry twigs and roots, usually in a fork in a tree or bush but also on and in buildings". My collared doves sit in next doors apple tree when not in the garden.
Lola the dog found the egg in our back garden, which has no trees. Unless there is a nest on the roof of the house, I can't see where it could be.
I was very "eggcited" when Lola brought it to me, but have since thought it could have been stolen by another bird and dropped during a fly-over.
Do you have Collared doves in your Garden, Sparrow?
I am sure I have read somewhere about the lack of Collared Doves in your garden
Still thought it could be an egg brought in from elsewhere by a Magpie, or another bird of sorts - not to exclude a Squirrel
Susan H said: I would love to think I have a collared dove nest, but looking in my books as to where they nest, it doesn't seem likely. It says "Platform nest of dry twigs and roots, usually in a fork in a tree or bush but also on and in buildings". My collared doves sit in next doors apple tree when not in the garden. Lola the dog found the egg in our back garden, which has no trees. Unless there is a nest on the roof of the house, I can't see where it could be. I was very "eggcited" when Lola brought it to me, but have since thought it could have been stolen by another bird and dropped during a fly-over.