The unusual egg with breakfast

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 26 June 2008 13:14

You never know who’ll drop by at breakfast.

Sue Henderson of Redding and her husband “were enjoying our breakfast coffee in the dining room earlier in the week when a wren landed on the edge of the table on the deck just a few feet away from the sliding doors we were overlooking.

“She nodded and bobbed her head a few times, then she jerked her tail upward and launched away in flight. We realized in that jerking motion, she had laid a tiny beige speckled egg on the table! Do birds lay random eggs out of a nesting environment? Quite a surprise!”

Surprise, indeed! It certainly doesn’t seem to be normal behavior, even if it were a House Wren, which is famous for building false nests. Laying “false eggs” seems a bit much.

House Wrens are prolific egg-layers. The average clutch is six eggs, but this species has been know to lay as many as 12 at a time.

A check through several ornithological tomes produced nothing about this kind of behavior.

Perhaps this bird was interrupted during egg-laying by a predator. Studies have found that between a third and a half of all bird nests are attacked by predators, such as squirrels, snakes and other birds.

Another possibility is its nest was destroyed during the egg-laying period, perhaps in a storm, and the poor mother simply had to get rid of her load. A sizable number of nests fail each season simply because they were poorly built or located, especially when the builders are young birds that are first-time parents and constructing their first nests.

Is anyone else familiar with this phenomenon?

Vanishing hummers

Jere Ross, also of Redding, has had some hummer behavior this year “that I had never seen in all my years of feeding. They filtered in as usual in early May — three or four birds — and then, around mid-month, they vanished. I was treating them no differently than I always had, and went from baffled to worried that some new evil was abroad.“

Then about a week ago (say, June 5), back they came, looking for all appearances just like the usual suspects. The only thing I could think of was what seems to have been an especially explosive output by the rhododendrons hereabouts, but I’m no scientist. Strange.

“Have you or your readers had a similar experience?”

We have noticed periods when the hummingbirds disappear for a few days, but then return. I had always assumed that it had something to do with child-rearing since we invariably had almost only females at our feeders — and males do not tend to nests. Newly hatched chicks, for instance, may require the mother to seek food close to the nest — young are fed regurgitated insects and nectar.

Or it could have been just what Jere suggested: An abundance of natural nectar near the nests made the trip to the “artificial flowers” unnecessary.

Seed prices

Noting the recent column on the high cost of sunflower seeds, especially hearts, Jon Elkow of Ridgefield reports: “For those who occasionally travel to the Cape, we bought 50 pounds of sunflower hearts for $54.95 over the weekend at our favorite birding store: The Birdwatchers General Store in Orleans. Pretty far for a special trip, but if you’re there.... A side benefit — we filled up the car on Sunday for $3.999/gallon.”

YouTube Blue Jays

Julie O’Connor of Weston had a Blue Jay family that “very cleverly built a nest just outside our dining room window. From May 14th until June 3, I photographed them. I edited 30 still photographs into a digital slideshow, set them to music and uploaded it to YouTube.”

Called “20 Days with a Family of Blue Jays,” the presentation had been viewed more than 130 times by Monday. It’s well worth seeing.

To watch, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=O447MM5V6qQ (no hyphens or spaces). Opt for the “high quality” version.

Coming Up

Brunch and Birding, on Connecticut River aboard RiverQuest, Sunday, June 29, 9 to noon, from Essex, $65, Connecticut Audubon, 860-767-0660

Copyright (c) 2008 by Jack Sanders. Send sightings or comments to: jackfsanders [at sign] yahoo.com, or to Bird Notes, Box 1019, Ridgefield, CT 06877; or call 203-438-1183, extension BIRD (2473), and leave a message with your report, spelling your first and last names and telling us your town. If you need help identifying a bird, try your local nature center. If you find an injured bird, call wildlife rehabilitator Darlene Wimbrow of Redding, 203-438-0618, Wildlife in Crisis of Weston, 203-544-9913, or Wild Wings of Greenwich, 203-637-9822. The columnist’s website is www. sandersbooks. com.