Monday, April 07, 2008

Overheard at the bird observatory

An egg story to rival Delia's:

"Hello? Is this the Audubon?"

You can assume this means trouble at 10 am on a Sunday morning.

"We had a bunch of dead trees cut down in our yard..."

Uh oh. Why don't people know enough to do this in the Fall?

"and my husband was cleaning up the stump grindings and found this egg..."

Oh dear.

"buried about four inches down in the dirt."

Huh?

"It's huge! And I know it's an owl egg because my neighbor is one of those people that's into all that nature stuff and she looked it up on the Internet and she says that owls burrow down, you know, to make their nests and..."

The bird observatory is located in NJ. The person was calling from NJ.

"and the egg must weigh at least a pound and I think it's still alive so I put it in a basket.."

Wasn't Easter a couple weeks ago already?

"and filled the basket up with dirt and buried the egg again and it's been out on my deck for the last couple days.."

In the sun, I hope.

"and I'm not sure what I should do because I think it's alive and it's so heavy and could I bring it to you and you'll tell me what it is and maybe take care of it or whatever?"

Sure... bring it on over. We'll sit on it and hatch it for you.

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How do you think I handled this particular phone call? With patience? Did I cackle in this woman's ear or take the rare opportunity to educate?

No. I asked her if she was certain it wasn't just a really big rock.

Or a dinosaur egg, maybe.

13 comments:

Susan Gets Native said...

Good grief.
So what was it? Was it really a rock?
How can someone think something is a egg, when it's not an egg? Delia? Want to answer that one?

; )

John B. said...

I'd like to know how this one turns out.

DK & The Fluffies said...

Well, I thought owl eggs were half purple and half pink also... ;0)

Anonymous said...

Seriously . . . a buried egg that would be okay on your deck for a few days while you figured out what to do about it. Hmmmmm. I'm dying for the next installment.

Or was it a rock.

KGMom said...

My favorite part--"my neighbor is one of those peoploe that's into all that nature stuff . . ."

Well, is there a next installment?

Jayne said...

Oh HOW funny Laura!

Patrick B. said...

I'm glad I don't get calls like this! I usually get the, "We have a robin in our yard!!!" calls.

robin andrea said...

An egg that weighs a pound? Wow. That must have been laid by an owl as big as a Buick. I remember finding a freshly dead Great-horned owl one day on a hike. I picked it up. It was the lightest thing I've ever held.

dguzman said...

Oh dear....

It's a rock, isn't it? A really round rock.

I actually have such a rock, though it doesn't weigh a pound. I tell everyone it's a fossilized dino egg. And then they don't believe me. And then I just say it's a rock.

I think I probably would've told her to hold it up in front of a lamp, so she could see inside it, like on Bugs Bunny.

Carolyn H said...

Doesn't it really "weigh a pound" or is that just more hyperbole??

Carolyn H.
http://roundtoprumings.blogspot.com

Cathy said...

Oh, my . . .. I mean . . uh, what if . . .I mean . . . maybe it's a Bigfoot egg or . . . maybe . . well - maybe you ought to take a little peek ;0)

Susan Gets Native said...

I just re-read Patrick's comment and laughed even harder.

We have robins in our yard! That kills me.

Rurality said...

Too funny. I would make her bring it in just to see what it was!