(Note: it’s illegal to sell actual bird’s nests on eBay, or anywhere else). I also learned that it’s worth about $100 on eBay. Fortunately, the community of NestWatchers identified it as a baldfaced hornet’s nest, the largest and most aggressive of the wasps. I suspected it was an insect nest, but I wasn’t certain what kind of wasp had made it. This nest was submitted by Steve DeGeest of Minnesota. Photo © Steve DeGeest Danger Dome On Deck Ishwarya and I shared a chuckle, and the mushrooms were left to their own devices.ĭanger! This is no bird’s nest. Ishwarya exercised excellent caution, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to bird’s eggs. However, the next day, the wind had blown some leaves away, revealing a cluster of mushrooms growing in the yard after some rainy days. Ishwarya Thirunarayanan of California submitted this photo of what looked like eight or nine eggs nestled in the dry leaves, but what species could it be? Was it a Wild Turkey or a Mallard nest scratched into the leaves? Not wanting to disturb the “eggs,” Ishwarya didn’t approach too closely for fear of leading predators to the nest. Photo © Ishwarya Thirunarayanan Mycological Mystery This nest of eggs hidden in the leaf litter turned out to be fungal in nature. It turns out that these moths also imitate birds in other ways: moths in this family often have large “eyespots” on their wings, which are thought to look like owl eyes (thereby scaring predators). We asked around, and our colleagues agree. After further searching, Carla discovered it may be the cocoon of a silk moth (perhaps Antheraea polyphemus). We were amazed by its stunning resemblance to a Baltimore Oriole nest, but the dimensions were much too small. Photo © Carla Weiss Burnetta Looks Just Like an Oriole Nest!Ĭarla Burnetta sent us this photo from Kansas, along with the note that it was one to two inches long. Is it an undersized oriole nest? Or a seed pod? No, it's a silk moth cocoon, probably made by a polyphemus moth. Here’s a collection of my five favorite “nest” queries we’ve received from participants. Occasionally, though, we get a stumper question, and it turns out to be something other than a bird’s nest. Most of the time, we can help out and identify the mystery nest so NestWatchers can start monitoring them. It’s that time of year when NestWatch starts to get numerous daily questions about nesting birds. L-R: Colleen Keays, Carla Weiss Burnetta, Steve DeGeest by Robyn Bailey, NestWatch Project Leader
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