Stomp!

I found a robin's egg on the driveway yesterday morning. It had a small hole so I could see that there was yolk inside and no chick. I do not know how the egg got down there but there is a robin's nest over one of our outdoor lights so I figured that something had knocked it out somehow. How it survived the fall with such a small hole confounded me.

I showed Elsy the egg, and how sad it was to be on the ground, and she proceeded to step on the egg and stomp on it. I was quite shocked that she would do such a thing! I asked her why she did it and she gave me some non-nonsensical answer. Well, what do you expect from a four year old? Still, I thought she was the gentle type but.. maybe she has some mean streak?

In any case, I reviewed my camera footage and found out that the egg did not in fact get blown out of the nest. A robin flew into the nest, picked up the egg, and brought it down into the ground where it looked like it was taking sips from the yolk. It was a strange sight to see since I did not expect robins to be cannibalistic. Then again, if you are hungry, you do what you need to do.

The nest itself seemed to have been abandoned for days so I think the eggs are dead. We did have freezing temperatures last weekend so that may have been the egg's (and possibly) the mother bird's demise.