But she's at work so shhhh... She doesn't have to know.
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| Tawny chicks being they're usual laid back selves. |
I was given the pellet by a friend (I have those kind of friends) from some of the many she finds whilst walking the local wood that sustains a healthy population of Tawny Owls that I have had the fortune to be able to ring.
Speaking of ringing, yesterday morning gave me the chance to get back out for the first time since January. And what a morning it was! We were at the same wood as the Tawny's (and could hear one at one point), ringing at a feeding station. We got an astonishing 85 birds in total with some of the highlights including two Treecreeper, 5 Nuthatch and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
The woodpeckers had been drumming all morning and if we hadn't been as busy then I would have been tempted to try the old "hitting a tree with stones" trick to lure them in for a closer look. However it would have probably resulted in me looking like an idiot when I was completely ignored.
The wood has been rung consistently for years and this gives us great information on the lifespans and movements of the birds within the area. There was yet more evidence of how poor last years breeding season had been for the tit species, with almost all of them caught being older that last summer. Fingers crossed for a better season this year.
I also had the pleasure of seeing Chris Packham giving his talk on Saturday night. He was brilliant.
Oh and I also made a YouTube video of the owl pellet dissection if you'd care to have a peek: http://youtu.be/bX_VQkqZHCc
Below are some of the things I found in the pellet. Nothing extraordinary apart from the scaled skin at the bottom which I'm still miffed by. If its a reptile then I can only think it would be a Grass Snake.
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| A small bone |
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| Another bone |
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| A third bone |
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| Oh look! A bone... |
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| Some hair |
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| The scaled skin. The hair on it isn't attached, it was just sat on there. |
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