Pellets or Poo

[21st century pict]

On a track that leads up to an old peat cutting we found lots of bird pellets and some very large pellets?. Apart from the spinal colum and ribs, the fir and bone fragments seem to lie at random in a compact mass of fur. The pellets are so large I am wondering if they may be from an animal, are this large pellets normal for birds of prey. There's lots of Buzzards and the occasional Osprey in the area, but walking across a peat bog the only tracks we could find were of Red and Roe deer and surprisingly for the exposed position 300m a Badger track.
.
.6 inch scale..

There were also lots of smaller pellets that composed mainly off Crowberry and Blaeberry possibly Grouse?
..Look familiar to anyone ?.

 

[Bushwhacker]

The first two look like Charlie to me. I'm not that well up on birds for the other one. Did you place it on the rock or was that how you found it?

 

[21st century pict]

I just stuck it on the rock to dissect and photo it, they were lying around at random all over the track with little purple stains under them when we found them.
There’s a large area of soft flat peat on the hill where I found the Badger track so I’m going to poke some oxo cubes in to the peat to try and tempt the Pine Martins to have a nose around They are fairly common around here but I’ve never seen a live one in the wild just road kills.

Charlie ? ...........

8 inch foxtrots OUCH I reckon i would of heard that one. Mustve been a full moon.

 

[scottallan]

im no expert, but if the first two where a bird of prey, the bones would'nt be there. i own a harris hawk and a gyr x saker falcon, when these cast pellets they consist only of fur & feather. i too believe the first two are fox. as for the last photos, i think you are right with the grouse shout. but maybe ptarmigan?

 

[21st century pict]

Sorry my mistake! Went and entered the last post twice, gave it the old accidental Cru de Gra, double tap there.ignore this page .

 

[21st century pict]

Sorry but Eagle pellet analyses (Scotland)
Clearly shows Deer bones Bird skulls Grouse beaks and the remains of Sheep and hedgehogs in pellets.
See Google images Eagle pellets or Animal tracks ,trails and signs by Brown Lawrence and Pope Buzzard pellets page232.
The other problem was there are literally dozens of pellets all over the place and no Fox tracks.
But there are loads of Buzzard there. We even broke some open and gave them a sniff and they had very little smell so I still think they are pellets ,The bird expert here's first words were Osprey or Buzzard because he knows the area very well ,the other option is Snowy owl but very very unlikely.
As far as i am aware, poo when passed throw the intestines for example a dog, because of the length of gut the remains become aliened laterally .In birds pellets the bone and hair fragments lie in random.
Don’t know if this image helps?

Fox castings are normally 5-20cm.

I just don’t know with this one?
But that’s the fun of tracking, the mysteries. It’s easy when you know how, it’s the knowing how that’s hard.