Skip navigation.

exploreopera

| Help

Sign up | Help

UK Wildlife

Exploring the fauna of Britain

Owl pellets

Wednesday, 23. July 2008, 14:06:19

, , , , , , , , ,

On monday for a school visit we looked at the contents of barn owl pellets. For those who are unfamiliar with owl pellets, they are the undigestable bits (fur, bone etc.) that the owl coughs up after a meal. By breaking these up and looking at the contents you can find the bones of their prey, usually small mammals. Here are a few things that were found:

A probable field vole skull

and lower jaw

The following belong either to a mouse or a vole

a shoulder blade

Pelvic (hip) bones

A rib

A leg (probably thigh) bone

Two pelvic bones with a tibia/fibula (lower leg) bones in the middle

And last up a mystery bone, possiblt a broken leg or breast bone
Anyone have any ideas?

Havering council - bad park managmentCommon and ruddy darters (with a small red-eyed damselsfly)

Comments

avatar
Interesting and I have no idea either. :smile:

By Dudley, # 23. July 2008, 16:13:49

avatar
Thats interesting, i think you are right at most of them. :smile:

By Flying Red Fox Blog, # 23. July 2008, 21:00:46

avatar
No idea, but a wonderfully fascinating post :up:

By Words, # 26. July 2008, 00:26:00

avatar
Fascinating. I would have thought that the last bone is a legbone but I'm not sure.

By SittingFox, # 26. July 2008, 07:47:25

avatar
Thanks everyone for your kind words and input :smile:

By Ukwildlife, # 26. July 2008, 23:03:25

Write a comment

Comment
(BBcode and HTML is turned off for anonymous user comments.)

Please type this security code : 228bc1

Smilies

Photos

red eyed damselfly pair .jpgsmall red-eyed damselfly close up.jpgred eyed damselfly pair - female flying.jpgscorpion fly .jpglesser marsh grasshopper.jpgcommon darter.jpgegg laying female emperor dragonfly.jpgfroghopper.jpg

My sites

Other cool sites

Other Opera Wildlife blogs