A couple of months or so ago, in a largish eathenware pot (where I'm growing an olive tree) in the garden, I noticed what I first thought was a largish round white stone slightly protruding from the soil.

I excavated it from the relatively soft earth to find it was a large white egg.

At a guess a duck egg (a neighbour a few doors down keeps ducks).

Now how did the egg get in the pot, who or what buried it, and why?

Hmmmm!

I kinda forget it, until lifting some shallots from the vegetable plot today, I discovered another one, just below the soil, again with the end slightly protruding.

The garden does get visited by field-mice, rats, hedgehogs and foxes (and cats!), Oh! and magpies and a variety of other birds.

So, anyone able to clear up the mystery?

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My guess is a fox taking advantage of a glut of food and making a larder for a 'rainy day'

fox as well but squirrels will bury things as will crow type birds ,for later

Very true but I would guess that squirrels and birds would eat an egg fresh. Also they are a bit big for a squirrel to 'squirrel' away. A fox will return to eat eggs, birds (the contents of the chicken run that it emptied months before.....not killing for fun but for a rainy Day!) and anything else it buries months later when most animals wouldn't dream of eating it!

I once watched a fox throw up a blackbird and a duckling to gorge itself on higher protein (pound for pound) stag beetles during an evening flight. It was leaping into the air to catch them before biting the heads off and consuming the rest. It ate dozens. A few hours later it came back for the blackbird and duckling!

Yup, I was recently watching a magpie take bread from my neighbours garden, then fly onto the roof, and stuff it inbetween the roof tiles.
I've seen them bury it before, but never this. I makes you wonder what else they could have taken up there to rot.


John.

Early in the morning at this time of year I often walk around a local golf course that has a wood on one side. It is not unusual to find golf balls fifty yards or more into the wood, quite often semi hidden under bracken etc. but equally often out in the plain open where anybody can see them.

Now I am no golfer but I cannot see how most of these balls get to where I find them just by being hit by a golfer nor how they cannot be seen by anybody looking for a lost ball. I know that there are foxes, and red squirrels in the wood as well as stoats etc and have come to the conclusion that the local wildlife are mistaking the golf balls for eggs and carrying them into the wood to eat at a later date. When they try to gnaw into them and discover their mistake they are discarded. Just a theory but who knows?

weasels

http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photos-images/1654R-11305

Jays will bury acorns. That's how oak trees get planted.