A mystery worthy of Agatha

A few days ago, when we were still having the gloriously hot weather I collected some eggs from the chicken house. For some reason I got distracted, and ended up leaving them on top of the small wall by the chicken house. When I went back later they were gone! Something had taken them.

One of Mum's Christmas presents was a small camera trap, the sort they use on wildlife documentaries, but less hi-tech. You set it up and a motion sensor activates a camera, it even has an infra-red light for night time snaps. This was a mystery that needed solving, and we had the perfect tool to use!

We put another egg out as  bait, and went about our normal day. Most of the photos feature chickens. Chickens crowing, chickens running across the lawn, chickens investigating eggs in odd places, chickens chilling out, you get the picture!

Chicken bums also feature strongly.

The date stamp is wrong by the way. We've never been able to get the date changed on the camera, so as a result it thinks it's in 2011...

We also got a shot of one of our Yellowhammers, comonly referred to in this house as Budgies!

Mr Pheasant showed an interest, but left the eggs in place.

Finally a more likely culprit! But then, camera fail at critical time, we didn't catch him/her in the act.

The Camera went back up, and was left overnight. We caught another possible suspect on video.

But the eggs remained.

Finally, early next morning the crow returned, and this time took the egg. Unfortunatley the camera had shifted in the night, and the short video clip finishes just before the egg gets taken. We shall have to try again, there's no shortage of crows, or eggs!