READER Ivan Cullen was about to tuck into his breakfast last week when he got a cracking surprise.
The 75-year-old Poleglass pensioner enjoys two boiled eggs and toast every morning to set himself up for the day. But when he broke one of the shells he was stunned by what he found inside – along with the white and the yolk was another egg!
This one was much smaller – “About the size of a starling’s egg,” said his son Thomas, with a darker brown shell which was lightly speckled.
Ivan had bought the box of 10 mixed-weight free range eggs from a supermarket and the egg which contained the smaller egg looked no different from the others.
Ivan said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t know what to do. It looked too small to crack so I still have it. Have you ever heard of such a thing Dúlra?”
He hasn’t, so Dúlra had to look it up. The phenomenon is called counter-peristalsis contraction and it’s as rare as, well, hens’ teeth. It’s surely a good luck omen – you’ve more chance of winning the lottery than finding an egg inside an egg. Maybe, Ivan, you should shell out a few quid on a Lotto ticket this week – it could be an eggs-cellent idea!
• Another reader, Brendan Rice, certainly sees the benefits of moving out of West Belfast for a life in Fermanagh. The pensioner was in his kitchen this week when he was startled by a visitor to his back door. He ran to get his phone and take this picture – without it, Dúlra wouldn’t have believed there was a pine marten trying its best to get in!
VISITOR: The pine marten at Brendan’s back door
“Thank God I got the photo before it left,” he said. “There are plenty of trees around here at the edge of Lough Erne but I’m not sure why it was at the back door.
“The only thing I can think of is that it’s feeding on fallen apples in the garden – there are plenty of them here.”
Pine martens – cat crainn or tree cat in Irish – were on the brink of extinction in Ireland just half a century ago, but they’ve dragged themselves back and are now even found on the Belfast Hills. They are perhaps our most secretive animal – but not in Fermanagh, it seems!
• Dúlra scattered a few handfuls of mixed seeds on the back garden path this week, as he does every morning – the half-dozen chaffinches who devour it chirp hungrily from the holly tree as soon as he appears.
A few minutes later and back in the kitchen, he glanced out the window to see if the birds had landed yet. But instead of a wee flock of colourful birds, he saw the neighbour’s cat bolting along the path and out through the bars of the gate. Just as it disappeared from sight, he noticed a bird’s wing hanging from its mouth.
Dúlra ran out after the cat, but it had already vanished around the back of its owner’s house, presumably to present her with the dead or dying bird by leaving it as a trophy at the back door, which most cats do.
“It’s just nature,” some people might say. Cats will hunt mice and birds, while dogs will chase cats. Cats are beautiful pets, but unlike dogs they are an invasive species against which Irish birds have no real defence. They’ve never faced such a deadly killer.
A few minutes later another cat bolted through the garden at full speed – chasing a grey squirrel. Two invasive species in competition! It took a few hours before the chaffinches returned to feed on the path. Dúlra could’t spot the cat hiding in the undergrowth, but it will surely return to pick off another bird which has managed to make it this far through everything that winter can throw at them and that are on the verge of pairing up for breeding.
It got Dúlra thinking – is it fair to attract these forest finches to your garden where there are so many cats? Or should he stop feeding them?
• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.
