pheasant egg

[Acipiter]

I found a pheasant egg on a sparrowhawks p/post this morning, its about a foot off the ground. The egg had two large holes on each side of it, who do you think was the most likely egg thief. Four legs or two?

[The Woodman]

Possibly crow or other corvid.

From your previous posts and concerns, all I ask is that eggs with holes in prominent places are treated with great caution. I'm not wanting to scaremonger or cast aspertions but I have known infertile pheasant eggs to be laced with poison and used to control corvids in particular and ground vermin.

[Acipiter]

I must admit that was furthest from my mind, but this p/post is in a well hidden part of the wood. Which is"not a prominent place." Your poison suggestion is still not completely out of the question of course, My first thought was a magpie, but why carry it from the nest on to a fallen tree? Is poisoning in this way not Illegal.

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by Acipiter

I must admit that was furthest from my mind, but this p/post is in a well hidden part of the wood. Which is"not a prominent place." Your poison suggestion is still not completely out of the question of course, My first thought was a magpie, but why carry it from the nest on to a fallen tree? Is poisoning in this way not Illegal.

Yes this form of poisoning would be illegal as it is totally unselective.

[Acipiter]

Since reporting on this some time back now, I have found lots more eggs in the same place, this time w/pigeon eggs. I did pick the pheasant egg up for a closer look at the time, and I am still in the land of the living. Since I am now finding w/ pigeon eggs, can I conclude that there is nothing sinister going on. I am now fairly sure this could well be the work of a bird. All the pigeons nest around here always seem to be fairly high, so can I rule out Weasel stoat rat or squirrel. In other words is it more likely to be a member of the crow family.

[RKB]

Originally Posted by Acipiter

Since reporting on this some time back now, I have found lots more eggs in the same place, this time w/pigeon eggs. I did pick the pheasant egg up for a closer look at the time, and I am still in the land of the living. Since I am now finding w/ pigeon eggs, can I conclude that there is nothing sinister going on. I am now fairly sure this could well be the work of a bird. All the pigeons nest around here always seem to be fairly high, so can I rule out Weasel stoat rat or squirrel. In other words is it more likely to be a member of the crow family.

Sounds like Carrion Crow. They characteristically take eggs to a preferred 'processing' spot, and eat them there. You'll often find a large collection (I found something like 40 eggs of 5 species at one spot). The two holes are from each mandible where they hammer at it with an open bill - often there's a hole shaped like a figure-of-eight where they've then brought the mandibles together to make a single hole.

The deep woodland sounds a bit wrong - they usually take them to somewhere a bit open, like a path within a wood or a clearing of bare ground.

[Acipiter]

This part of the wood has the trees quite close together, and the undergrowth is quite thick. I too would have thought not right for c/crow. there are a few pair of jays plus magpies about, so unless someone has a theory as to what it may be, I am going for magpie. "Maybe"

[Acipiter]

I had another look this morning ,what I found was something straight out of jack the ripper. I will not go any further with that, but I think you get the idea. From what I could tell from the remains it was some kind of vole. I decided to wait, guess what, the black and white peril MAGPIE. Case solved.