The dark pellets belong to a Tawny Owl that I believe uses the tree as a roost site. Tawny Owls are occasionally seen on the site, I have been lucky enough to see a young owl a few years back and last, June was fortunate enough to catch a failed kill on camera.
As you can imagine dissecting the pellets took some time. I used a dry method waiting until the pellets were completely dry before working on them by teasing them open with gloved bare hands.
Each pellets length and width was measured and its weight recorded. I then separated out the bones and reweighed it giving me a bone mass and a fur mass. I used skulls and jaws as my main counting method to determine the number of prey per pellet.
The results were very interesting I was amazed at the high number of Shrew prey in the pellet, far more than I ever expected. It is unclear how long a time period these pellets represent and until the bridge reopens and I can collect any new pellets the timeframe is unknown.
What is interesting is the amount of available small mammals in the area. I regularly record Wood Mice on the trail cams, Bank Voles I see if baited out in the late afternoon and Shrews can be seen or heard in the summer, but bear in mind that the Tawny Owl isn't the only predator in the area, I have recorded Weasel, Stoat, Fox, Kestrel, Buzzard and Grey Heron on the site, all of whom would prey on these mammals.
I hope to supplement these observations with some small mammal trapping and follow up pellet analyses ( if the same tree is still being used).
The main data:
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