owl pellet?

[EdS]

just found what looks in size and shape like an owl pellet, but it consist of insect and veg matter. The veg is mostly berries like unripe tomatoes (they grow wild around here)

I know little owls mostly eat insects (there is a lot of little owls here) but do they eat berriers?

So no picture as I've not got a dig camera.

 

[Rhoda]

Really hard to tell without a picture. What does it smell like?

 

[British Red]

Ed,

There are a lot of droppings round here full of cherry stones right now (all the wild prunus varieties are full of woodies and several other bird types). Many of the bird droppings are surprisingly owl pellet like

Just a thought

 

[P Wren]

Ok it's very many years since I did this, but I was once shown how to identify an owl pellet.

Take the pellet and drop into a shallow container full of water. Once submerged it should start to break apart and if it is an owl pellet it will contain the crushed bones and fur of the small mammals that it predated.

Do a search on Google and you'll turn up lots of sites on the subject.

 

[Buckshot]

I was filling the feeders in the pheasant pen last night ready to receive the birds this morning when I noticed this on one of the feed stations.

You can see the location of the pellet on the pallet in this pic (bottom right)

What do you think?

Cheers

Mark

 

[stuart f]

Hi Buckshot,the pellet looks like an owls because the are a lot of bones in it,this is because owls swallow their prey hole unlike birds of prey which tend to tear the prey to pieces before swallowing,also birds of preys digestive juices can dissolve bone unlike owls.

 

[Buckshot]

That's exactly what I thought Stuart, didn't know about the digestive juices though - thanks for that

Mark

 

[fred gordon]

It seems to me that it could be the droppings of an animal like a fox. It could well contain the things you mention. If you can have a look in a book in the Collins 'Guide to' series. The Guide to animal tracks and signs has lots of pictures of droppings and pellets(page 192 in my edition). Hope this helps

 

[Buckshot]

Def not fox Fred. Shape, size, content, location are all wrong for fox. Perhaps the pics don't show it clear enough - :sad6:
I'm pretty sure it's an owl but not sure which. We have all sorts here up to Tawny

Cheers though

Mark

 

[fred gordon]

Buckshot. OK I feel stupid! Bad example, what I should have said that it might have been an animal rather than a bird. From the picture I think it is an owl and, as you suggest, most likely a tawny. The Collins book's still good though!!

 

[Buckshot]

Ah I see what you mean...
I have a couple of tracks and signs books but not if Collins is one of them - I'll have to check

Cheers

Mark

 

[swyn]

I milled some Sycamore six years ago and end stacked the timber in a shed. The remainder of this is now one of a Barn owls roosts. Apart from the amazing mess he/she has left on the pile there is now a considerable amount of pellets.
I had never thought of dissolving untill reading this thread. So now perhaps I should either dissolve or dissect one to see what is inside. Another thought was to give some to the local school to do the same, although some teachers may not be happy with this idea! Swyn

 

[Tantalus]

I had never thought of dissolving untill reading this thread. So now perhaps I should either dissolve or dissect one to see what is inside. Another thought was to give some to the local school to do the same, although some teachers may not be happy with this idea! Swyn

Today, class , we will be studying owl vomit..............................

actually it is a good way to find out more about your owl, if you can find out what it has been living off by identifying the bits in the pellets, you can get a better idea of where it hunts etc etc

interested to hear what you can find out , keep us posted

Tant

 

[Montivagus]

just found what looks in size and shape like an owl pellet, but it consist of insect and veg matter. The veg is mostly berries like unripe tomatoes (they grow wild around here)

I know little owls mostly eat insects (there is a lot of little owls here) but do they eat berriers?

So no picture as I've not got a dig camera.

EdS it sounds like fox scat to me, though without a pic it's of course hard to be certain;owls don't usually eat mice and salad. Buckshot's pic is a good owl pellet example. Foxes often leave bone, hair, insect casings and noticeable veg matter and are oflen long and thin as opposed to the more short and fat owl ones.

 

[amott69]

buckshot i'd put my money on it being a tawny owl.Is the bird feeder in woodland? and had it been raining over night?

 

[amott69]

just found what looks in size and shape like an owl pellet, but it consist of insect and veg matter. The veg is mostly berries like unripe tomatoes (they grow wild around here)

I know little owls mostly eat insects (there is a lot of little owls here) but do they eat berriers?

So no picture as I've not got a dig camera.

It sounds like it could be a pellet from the crow family

 

[Buckshot]

Amot, the feeder is in a pheasant release pen inside a wood.
Seems the concencus is it's Tawny then. Cheers for that

Mark

 

[Silverback]

Almost certainly a Tawny and I am guessing that feeder was where he was sitting when he barked that one up. The feeder is probably a rodent hot spot after dark and I wouldn't mind betting that some of the bones in that pellet probably belonged to a visitor of that hopper when it was alive!

Scat with veg/fruit stones is likley to be Fox and sometimes Badger although badgers tend to use one spot for their business (commonly referred to as a latrine). A fox will very often deposit scat on a raised object like a stone or log as an extended and more permanant way of marking out a territory.