Egg from a BIG Bird???

[WVBill]

I live in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, near the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. I have a pile of hardwood bark mulch that I have not disturbed since it was delivered from the nursery about 6 weeks ago.

Yesterday I was scooping up some mulch with my tractor and spreading it from the tractor loader with a pitchfork and I found an egg in the loader bucket among the mulch.

The egg is white and is 3 3/4" long. It is intact except for some small cracks and one small chip out of shell - the internal membrane is intact. I could feel no movement in the egg but it is fairly weighty so it isn't empty. I put it back in the mulch pile for now.

Can anyone give me any idea what kind of bird/animal might lay a 3 3/4" egg in a mulch pile in northeastern West Virginia??

 

[looch]

A duck or goose? Was the shell kind of waxy-looking/feeling?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The only thing I can think of would be an ostrich. Or an emu maybe. I thought they laid their eggs in the sand or soil, but I do know that mulch creates warmth when it decomposes so it would be the ideal place to lay an egg that wasn't going to be 'sat' on.

Crack that baby open and let us know! No. Put it back in the mulch and see what happens or candle it!

 

[Bird]

What size eggs would a wild turkey produce? I don't recall ever seeing a turkey egg, so don't know what they're supposed to look like.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I just looked at a standard 35 mm photo which is 3.5 X 5.0

So this egg is smaller than I was thinking. I think goose or turkey would be more accurate.

See if this helps...

 

[WVBill]

The egg is not waxy - it's pretty much the texture of a chicken's egg, maybe a little rougher.

I tried to candle it with both a halogen desk light and a 60 watt bulb close up but niether was strong enough to give any shadows of what's inside.

Cindi - Thanks for the reference page. I looked at all the pictures on that web page that seemed like they were possibilities. "My" egg is 95mm and the closest I could find there were the Canada goose at 87mm (see them flying by a lot) or a trumpeter swan at 111mm (don't think there's any swans around).

Two possibilities, I guess, are wild turkey (I've been told there are some in the area though I've never seen one) or peacock (I have heard their call close by but never seen one). I've looked but haven't yet found their egg size on the internet.

 

[TerryinMD]

There is another possibility....

It could be from a turtle or a snake. Since the mulch pile is probably warm, it would be a perfect environment to hatch eggs.... or at least in the mind of one of the forest creatures.

Terry

 

[riptides]

My bet is with Terry.

Snake egg. They have a habit of laying in mulch piles around here in Central VA. Makes for quick work when the mulch man comes. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Is it sort of on the long side like a cylinder shape?

-Mike Z.

 

[WVBill]

SNAKES !! YIKES !!!

Snakes lay eggs almost 4" long and 2" wide!!!???

Here's a picture I posted on CBN. The dirt on the egg is mulch.

I hope it's not or you'll never get me or my wife near the mulch again - sorry but we can't STAND snakes. Hair's standing up on the back of my neck just typing this.......

 

[riptides]

After seeing that, I change my tune to bird.....

SNAKE eggs, are a little more cylinder shaped. Or of course you have the live bearing species.....

BIRD, and a BIG one at that.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif