We've just been down to the allotment as is our wont on Christmas eve to
pick sprouts(good) and dig parsnips(ok ish) and the baby new
potatoes(disappointing).

But the strangest thing happened. When I put the fork in to start digging
parsnips, I dug up an egg. Yes, an egg. It looked like a hen's egg, brown. I
don't know whether any other birds eggs can be mistaken for a hen's egg. Do
any animals bury eggs?

I brought it home and it sank rather than floated, which would suggest it
was fresh rather than stale, but I don't know whether being buried would
have affected this. I broke it open and it didn't smell bad, but I'm not
brave enough to eat it. There are no chickens nearby as far as I know, and
we have the allotment furthest from the road, so unlikely to have been
brought in for a prank. I would regard it having been put there by another
allotmenteer as not beyond the bounds of possibility, but extremely
unlikely.

The soil it was in was dug up a couple of weeks ago when I last dug
parsnips, so it was loose, and also very wet this morning. The egg was
completely buried, so it must have been deliberate, rather than having been
dropped.

Any ideas?

Steve