According to my copy of "Nests, Eggs and Nestling of NA Birds"

The description matching both Steller's and Western Scrub Jay's.
Jays are really the only species with eggs the size and shape
you describe that would be on eggs right now and the habitat
strongly favors Steller's Jay.

Shortly after the eggs hatch, the parent carries the egg shell
out of the nest and discards them some distance away so as not
to provide any clues to predators. Discarded shells tend to be
more complete than predated shells. I think you've got a shell
discarded by a parent.

When American Robins start hatching chicks (within the next couple
weeks) the observant naturalist is very likely to find robin's egg
blue half shells on pathways for the same reason.

---- original message ----
Subject: egg ID
From: Squeakyfiddle AT aol.com
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 00:35:51 EDT

On my regular walk through Seward Park this afternoon I came across a
partial
(about 1/3) eggshell on the path under a fairly heavy canopy of doug
fir,
big-leaf maple and madrona. It was robin's egg blue with heavy brown
streaks/speckles and perhaps half again the size of a robin's egg. The
interior
was creamy

colored.

Interestingly, the inside was still wet with albumin. There was a puddle
of
wet next to it, but no definite yolk nor any sign of an embryo.

Anybody out there have any ideas about 1. species, and 2. how it might
have
landed there? Sloppy laying technique? Fratricide? Parasitism?

Any suggestions for books that describe eggs?

Thanks,
Catherine Alexander
Lakewood Neighborhood
South Seattle


--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

Half-a-bee, philosophically must ipso-facto half not-be.
But half the bee, has got to bee Vis-a-vis its entity...
d'you see?
But can a bee be said to be or not to be an entire bee
When half the bee is not a bee due to some ancient injury?
-Monty Python

http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html