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Yes, it's an egg. But what wild bird species laid it?
I came across it on Switha in June 1992, but that isn't much of a clue.
View Large VersionPicture added on 10 June 2016 at 09:55
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Mystery places or things or people
Mystery places or things or people
You seem to be the only one willing to chance your arm David. Sorry to be so slow in responding.
Yes, the lack of a size-comparison is a drawback, but your diagnosis isn't a bad one, albeit an incorrect one. The small feathers around the egg don't look as if they came from a Shag, and in fact it is an unpigmented egg from a Herring Gull. Pigmentation is about the last thing to be acquired by a bird's egg before it is laid, and occasionally the process fails, I don't know why.
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Yes, the lack of a size-comparison is a drawback, but your diagnosis isn't a bad one, albeit an incorrect one. The small feathers around the egg don't look as if they came from a Shag, and in fact it is an unpigmented egg from a Herring Gull. Pigmentation is about the last thing to be acquired by a bird's egg before it is laid, and occasionally the process fails, I don't know why.
Added by Ian Hourston on 24 August 2016
Other South Isle
Dave