The Mystery of the Stolen Eggs

by James Wallace Harris, 6/24/24

We had a Carolina wren build a nest in a metal pitcher on our front porch. The pitcher stood on a stand that was about three feet high. I knew it wasn’t a safe place to build a nest. One morning I discovered the metal pitcher knocked to the ground. The eggs were gone, not even broken shells. And there were no feathers or any sign of a struggle. I assume the wren flew away, and some animal ate the eggs.

But the event wasn’t caught on my security camera. My camera catches bugs, birds, cats, squirrels, and other small animals, why didn’t it catch the attacker? I asked my friend Mike who is a birder, and he said a fox can steal eggs. But how did the attacker get by the camera? We had a fox living in our neighborhood years ago. Maybe if the attacker moved slow enough it could have fooled the camera. I don’t know. The nest was under the camera, so out of range. But to get to the nest the attacker would have had to cross the porch and the field of the security camera.

This got me to wondering what kind of animal might be living in my yard. I bought a cheap trail camera on Amazon. Here’s what I discovered on my trail camera video.

According to this site, raccoons do eat bird eggs. So, I might have solved the mystery. I’m disappointed it wasn’t a fox.

It might also explain why my neighbor’s dogs love to get out of their fence and run around my backyard. I caught the dogs many times on the trail cam.

I also know I have a possum living in my yard too, because it came up to my back door to look at me and my cats. I’m hoping to catch it on the trail cam too.

There’s a line of trees on my block that separate the two sides of the block. My neighbor behind my house put up a privacy fence but didn’t come all the way to the property line. There’s a bit of land that’s gone wild between three of the houses on my side of the block, and two of the houses on the other side.

I wonder what else lives in that bit of wilderness?

JWH