I was in Longreach late August and took a series of photos of these Brolgas. It was only during the subsequent processing I saw what was in the mouth of this Brolga. I was photographing at a good distance from the birds. So if it is an egg, would in be the Brolga's?!
Mike
If you Google "brolga eggs" there are some photos there of a brolga with its eggs. In the photos shown on the website, the brolga eggs look a bit bigger to me. I may be wrong.
They could well be their eggs. I just looked up in my books, it says creamy colour and 6cm x 9cm. Hard to tell though, the birds are rather large and the eggs looks small in relation to the bird? They also seam to arrange them on the ground?
Someone will know.
M-L
They look like Chook eggs to me, maybe a camper gave them some eggs or they stole them?
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
I doubt whether Brolgas predate other bird species' eggs so it's probably safe to presume the eggs belong to the Brolgas in your photos, Mike.
Brolgas are known to lay their eggs on the ground with little protection. Both parents incubate the eggs so I reckon this pair might be moving their egg(s) to a more suitable location where there is at least some protection in the form of a few sticks &/or stones.
I do like mysteries -
Morecombe's app shows a mottled egg, your pic looks like a cream egg (can you crop more?) and
the app says 96 x 60 mm, that is a big egg, the egg in your pic looks smaller
can you crop pic#3?, is the foreground bird trying to pick up a 2nd egg?
Peter
In pic #3 it looks like the brolga is trying to pierce the egg with its beak.
Thanks everyone for your comments. I have attached a few more photos including that closeup as requested.I have plenty of the bird carrying the egg but I don't think they really help at this point.
I am interested in what the "jury" thinks. Thank you.
Mike
I have to agree with Shorty and say that it looks alot like a chicken egg to me
Where they in an area when people might, say, camp? Or visit often? I just wondered as there is what looks like a hat in the backround
I can't wait to see what it turns out to be, i've never seen a Brolga egg before so i'm definitely not an expert
I still think the eggs are theirs. In pic 2 the egg looks big enough, my nook says they can be cream coloured. To me it looks as if the birds are arranging the eggs on the ground. In the last pic I think the bird is just rolling the egg, as all birds do, they have to rotate the eggs from time to time. Not bying the tourists left eggs theory.
M-L
Not my photo but it shows the colour and size of the egg in relation to the bird.The colour is about right but the size looks a bit small compared to this photo. I can 100% conclude that this probably has not helped at all.
Samford Valley Qld.
Thanks everyone. I think the jury is still out! The location was close to town, caravan park and two motels! I was amazed to see at least two Brolgas there evrey day. The actual paddock was arable but not worked. I was was camped on the boundary ans was able to watch at my leisure.
Again my thanks,
Mike
It would be lovely to stay in a caravan park and see Brolgas everyday!
Did you see them with the eggs again while you were there? It would be so interesting to find out that they were their eggs