The daisies could not take the heat any longer! The plant was fairly large and has been in the ground for about two years.
I have stared preparing the flower beds for fall plantings and just finished pulling out the fried daisy plant. I was surprised to see these eight eggs underneath. I screamed dropped the plant and ran! All I could think of were snakes!! After I ran into the safety of the house and caught my breath, I felt pretty stupid. After all, I'm big strong farm girl, for heavens sake! So I waited till my husband came home to go back out and take another look. He seems to think they are a little large to be bird eggs. But then again, we are both "egg-norant" and don't know anything about eggs except chicken eggs. I would certainly have noticed had a chicken been in my garden! The only other bigger birds that come around here are coots, but they leave in the spring. Unless they layed the eggs at night, I'm sure I would have seen them.
Two were intact and six were cracked opened.
My planter is about 4 feet high and I'm not sure if a bird would nest here. I am not sure what they could be and I'm asking for help identifying the eggs. Maybe quail? They are about the size of dove eggs, maybe a tad larger with dark brown spots. The plant was at the edge near the light fixture. Some were under the soil, the cracked ones were just lying on top of the soil. I'm not sure if or what kinds of ?birds lay that many eggs 
6 comments:
They definitely look like quail eggs, but quail would not lay them there, or partially bury them... it's far more likely that you found a hoard of eggs that had been gathered by some sort of rodent, then eaten a few at a time.
Claude--I never thought about it being a rodent hording them. You are so smart!
Claude--I never thought about it being a rodent hording them. You are so smart!
It occured to me that it doesn't have to be a rodent, ravens and sometimes crows will hoard food like this too... If it is a rodent, it is most likely a pack-rat. If you can get past the rat part, they're actually kind of fascinating creatures... they are a native species, and an important part of the ecology in your part of the world. Not that you'll ever see them, they're nocturnal and pretty secretive. To find out if they're around, leave some bright, shiny pieces of metal beside the wall of your house, they tend to run along the bottom of walls. Or some cheap, bright blue plastic beads... they seem to like blue. If they're gone after a few days, there's a pack-rat in the neighborhood. After you know they're there, you can figure out what to do about them, if anything.
claude- I just checked up on coots- they lay 8-12 eggs,buff colored with brown spots. They could have gotten up there. I will get the beads today- we did have a rat under a large boulder in the yard.Maybe........Thanks!
WOW...Claude is a genius! Amazing information, eh??? Well...good luck with this mystery! Wish I knew about the eggs. Sorry. Let us know what happens!
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