Remember this lovely bird and her sweet little nest of five eggs? Right in front of our house Mrs. Chipping Sparrow had her nest of four eggs, plus a little gift from Mrs. Cowbird.
Well, the other day all of the eggs disappeared.
We kept checking the nest throughout the day and one by one they sadly vanished without a trace. Poor Mrs. C.S. seemed so distraught as she sat chipping nearby. Eventually she left as all of her future hopes and dreams of offspring had drifted away. It was very sad. And frustrating. What happened to the eggs? They disappeared during the day, so it wasn't a hungry coon. I couldn't imagine a snake climbing that little tree right in front of the porch without anyone noticing. We are unfortunately familiar with the destructive habits of house sparrows and wrens, but there weren't any smashed eggs or shell bits around. What happened?
I wanted to know! My stubborn determined, demanding inquisitive nature insisted on finding out. But there were no further hints to the mystery, no trail of clues to follow. How to reconstruct the scene of the crime...
How does that picture look? My only hope of solving the C.S.I. was to try to have the crime reoccur. Those five eggs are really candy malted robins' eggs - a bag leftover from our Easter treats.
They all disappeared without a trace! The next day I put five more eggs out. They sat in the nest most of the day, and then suddenly on the next nest peek we found two had gone missing. Did I mention I'm a little stubborn? I sat myself on a stool in front of the window to watch that nest. I settled Kateri in for a nurse, and I waited. And waited. Finally I had to leave my perch, but I got Lydia to take over my post. And on her watch the truth was revealed...
It was a Blue Jay! (A Thieving Magpie?)
I had never even seen a blue jay in our yard before, but the girls told me they had heard their chatter at times. And the bird must have quite a sweet tooth, too!
Naughty thief.
