The disappearing Pauraque eggs

Martyn, Nigel, Sataish and I took on the task of searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack this morning.

That is, hoping that the ovenbird, after being caught in a net and having his feathers plucked would still be around.

Needless to say we did not see him – he wasn’t as dotish as we thought he was.

But something else had us baffled though. On the trek in, we saw a Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis) fly off leaving eggs on the forest floor. Martyn marked the spot with a stick so on our return trek we would be alerted before we approached the Pauraque.

However, on the return we saw the stick but not the eggs – they had mysteriously disappeared! Someone suggested the rastaman, and then the scrawny dog who was on the track. But there were no signs of either. There were no other suspects until Sataish jumped like a madman – nearly stepping on a Pseustes poecilonotus polylepis Dos Cocorite Snake (which was id’d by Carl Fitzjames later).

Ah well, Birding took a different turn this morning..! B R. Kamal