Mecanno: Rodent Edition.

[Bushwhacker]

Went out looking for owl pellets at the weekend and managed to find nine in a very short time, all in one spot at the base of a stand-alone oak.

I took them home to have a better look at what they've been feeding on.

Here's the pellets that made it back (the other 3 were dissected in the field).
The one near the lighter is a fair old size and contained 6 skulls on its own!

A good soak in a tub of water and some careful picking apart revealed what they contained.
ID is easiest when you look at the skulls and the teeth. They all consisted of vole and shrew (pygmy and common).

 

[Tony]

That's cool, it's amazing how much they actually eat, i'm surprised more don't choke on the bones

 

[Bushwhacker]

That's cool, it's amazing how much they actually eat, i'm surprised more don't choke on the bones

They swallow their prey whole.
This one's got a frog in his throat!

The amount of fur that comes out of those pellets is quite something too - when the bowl of water was sieved through there was gert lumps of the stuff!