Finding a bird egg
Finding a bird egg on the ground in spring is common: most such eggs have fallen or been dropped, and few will hatch. Keeping native birds' eggs is illegal across the U.S., and English lore warned against taking nests.
What it may mean
An egg in the grass looks like something that needs saving, and the hard part is that it most often cannot be saved. If incubation stops for long, the embryo dies, and U.S. law forbids keeping native birds' eggs without a permit. Old English lore urged the same restraint for reasons of its own. A Sussex poem of 1770, quoted by Brand, has its speaker leave a robin's nest and a wren's brood alone, lest a friend should die, while a neighbor who took a wren's nest lost his mother within the year. Finding an egg in the grass is an occasion to weigh helping against simply needing to do something, and to remember that looking and leaving is sometimes the kinder choice.
Depending on how you saw it
A blue robin's egg
American robin eggs are a clear sky blue, and a broken half-shell under a tree in spring often means a chick has hatched rather than that something went wrong. Which ending of yours turned out to be a hatching?
An egg on bare ground
Some birds, such as killdeer, lay their eggs directly on the ground on purpose, and parents may stay away from the nest for a while to avoid leading predators to it. Where have you mistaken someone's careful distance for neglect?
Egg collections of the past
Collecting wild birds' eggs was once a common hobby, and the legal protection exists partly because of it. What did you gather as a child that you would leave in place today?
Why it happens in nature
Eggs end up on the ground when a predator or a storm disturbs a nest, or because some species, such as killdeer, nest on the ground. A parent may also stay away from its eggs for a while to avoid drawing predators, so an unattended nest is not necessarily abandoned. Federal law in the U.S. also makes it illegal to possess native birds' eggs without a permit.
What folk beliefs say
England (Sussex)
A poem by George Smith of Chichester, Sussex, printed in 1770 and quoted by Brand, has its speaker never take away a robin's or wren's nest, nor try to catch the old birds, lest a friend should die; a neighbor who took a wren's nest from his cottage side lost his mother within a year.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (1849), vol. 3, p. 194. View the page
To reflect on
When you see something fragile in trouble, how do you tell helping apart from just needing to act?