Walking home after dark one night from the grocery store we saw something small scuttling ahead of us on the side walk. "Is that a rat?" Joey asked. Curious, it looks like a very big, very fat rat and slow moving too, I thought. But having no previous encounters with israeli rats I could not be sure. If the rats here are to survive all the cats, I would hypothesize they would either have to be tiny and stealthy, or enormous and full of bravado. Maybe this was a huge Israeli warrior rat, unafraid as he swaggered through cat territory? Upon sneaking up for closer inspection (as biologist, strange animals require closer inspection. It is part of the job description) we were delighted to find that it was not an enormous rat, but a hedgehog! I wanted to take it home and keep it, but Joey said no. I guess someone has to have some reason around here. He was adorable and completely ignored us as he went on way.
A few days ago we were doing a nest check at Hoquq and Inbal told us that she had found a new nest. She said that there was something odd about the nest because it had eggs in it, but not barn swallow eggs. It is not uncommon for other birds to reuse old barn swallow nests for breeding and I have seen swallow nests many times with house sparrow eggs, red start eggs, phoebe eggs, and so on. We were expecting something like this and I was betting on a red start as I had seen several flying around. The nest Inbal had found was located in the abandoned bathroom of a concrete bomb shelter. It was clearly a barn swallow nest by construction, but when we checked it with the nest check pole we found something truly strange. The nest was filled with eggs shells. They were tiny, round, and white, each egg was about the size of a large chickpea and something had clearly hatched out of them. There must have been over 30 eggs in that nest and we had no idea what they where. They were too small and to numerous to be avian, but they had hard brittle white shells, which ruled out reptiles which have leathery shells. What on earth? We were totally stumped.
After much internet searching (google image search: "tiny white round egg shells"), I think I have found the answer. Snails. Thats right, snails! Israel is home to a giant land snail, which you have seen and tasted if you have ever eaten escargot. These snails lay eggs in crevices, under ground, and in rocks. The eggs are small, round, and white and are the closest match to our mystery eggs. This may be the first evidence of snails using barn swallow nests. Should I be publishing a paper on this?
After much internet searching (google image search: "tiny white round egg shells"), I think I have found the answer. Snails. Thats right, snails! Israel is home to a giant land snail, which you have seen and tasted if you have ever eaten escargot. These snails lay eggs in crevices, under ground, and in rocks. The eggs are small, round, and white and are the closest match to our mystery eggs. This may be the first evidence of snails using barn swallow nests. Should I be publishing a paper on this?