Well I never knew that...

[Dicky99]

On Spring Watch just now Megan McCubbin was showing examples of Guillemot egg markings and explaining that the markings are unique to the bird and reproduced each year like a personal bar code to aid egg recognition when returning to it. I always assumed the speckles and splodges were completely random. How amazing is that

[Urbandreamer]

On Spring Watch just now Megan McCubbin was showing examples of Guillemot egg markings and explaining that the markings are unique to the bird and reproduced each year like a personal bar code to aid egg recognition when returning to it. I always assumed the speckles and splodges were completely random. How amazing is that

Far be for it for me to doubt, but the markings can be unique and recognizable by the mother, without being repeatable. I'd like to see two identical eggs to argue the point that she made. Once upon a time it was legal to collect such eggs and many such collections wound up in museums, along side shrunken human heads, mummified bodies and stuffed examples of quagga etc. I take it that she produced just such a pair.

Strangely I can't find much to support her statement using a web search.

[Mike4]

On Spring Watch just now Megan McCubbin was showing examples of Guillemot egg markings and explaining that the markings are unique to the bird and reproduced each year like a personal bar code to aid egg recognition when returning to it. I always assumed the speckles and splodges were completely random. How amazing is that

Even more amazing is the eggs the cuckoo lays in the nest of a reed warbler, supposedly mimic the bar code of the eggs of the host bird.