Not An Egg

Day 223: It's the time of the year when birdies are nesting, and predators (squirrels and larger birds) looking for an easy lunch know it. It was not surprising, therefore, when I saw what I thought was an egg on the ground, bits of its broken shell right beside it. I knelt down for a closer look, planning to make note of any distinguishing feature so I could look it up in one of my favourite references, "A Field Guide to Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds," and that was when I noticed that the shell was abnormally thick. It took a second or two for my mind to change gears from birds to mushrooms (kinda like shifting from second to fourth) as I realized I'd been fooled by Mother Nature. The "egg," slightly larger than that of a robin, was leathery and somewhat brittle: a cup fungus, one of the Pezizas. Without a microscope and tissue stains, that's the best I'll manage. Peziza is a large genus, and most members are nondescript, occurring in various shades of translucent brown or tan. Most are considered "inedible," which is to say they're not poisonous, but neither are they particularly desirable.