whooodunnit?....

[ex-member Raikey]

hey everyone,..

got asked at work today to investigate "an infestation"

we have an old dwelling onsite and it looks like above these seats is a nice perching spot for something,,,,

obviously theres no pest issue only a regular visiter who gets rid of his pellets here,....

its not a quiz as i,m not sure what they belong to,..but they are mostly fur and small rodent bones,

sorry for the rubbish pics for now

anyone ID this?....i,m gonna try and get some decent shots of the visitor ,....


IMG00495-20120321-1641 by Raikey1, on Flickr


close up.


IMG00494-20120321-1639 by Raikey1, on Flickr

cheers


Stu,..

 

[ex-member Raikey]

its a UKPK for scale,...there were 50 or 60 of these here ,....

 

[Robbi]

that would be an owl, but no idea what sort.


( hell ! wish i'd twigged the title wasn't a spelling mistake first ! )

 

[woodspirits]

well its keeping the rodent community on their toes! all good

 

[JonathanD]

Dissect the pellets. It's fun and you will soon find the main prey items, which will in turn point towards the owl species. Owl pellet dissecting is great fun for kids. Do them dry though, with tweezers. Wetting them makes a mess.

Either Barn or Tawny looks about right.

 

[ex-member Raikey]

i stay late most nights and sometimes park my car here,....and have never seen or heard owt,....

i,m gonna try and listen out tomorrow,..

 

[Barn Owl]

Could be Kestrel.

 

[lou1661]

twit........

 

[ex-member Raikey]

Dissect the pellets. It's fun and you will soon find the main prey items, which will in turn point towards the owl species. Owl pellet dissecting is great fun for kids. Do them dry though, with tweezers. Wetting them makes a mess.

i,ve been waiting for you!! ...

first one i opened i found a tiny jaw full of teeth,...much to the disgust of the guy watching, (some folk will never get it,..lol)

i,m gonna take a few to my desk and open them up on some white paper,......

 

[JonathanD]

Could be Kestrel.

Could well be. The knife in the foreground could give a false perspective though and gives a distorted view of scale. A good pic would be at a 90 degree angle from above with an average pellet right next to the knife.

 

[ex-member Raikey]

jeeez,...some folk are so demanding,....

i will try harder in future.

 

[JonathanD]

i,ve been waiting for you!! ...

first one i opened i found a tiny jaw full of teeth,...much to the disgust of the guy watching, (some folk will never get it,..lol)

i,m gonna take a few to my desk and open them up on some white paper,......

An owl pellet will usually contain several skulls, jaws and loads of leg bones, ribs etc. A Kestrel has much less content per pellet.

Post a pic of the pellet next to the UKPK and then the contents of that one pellet. We'll be able to ID the bird and the prey species then.

Me and the little one spend hours dissecting pellets. She loves it. Emm is grieved that we have more fun on those days than we do on Xmas morning.

 

[JonathanD]

jeeez,...some folk are so demanding,....

i will try harder in future.

Well, you know what us geeky scientists are like.

 

[ex-member Raikey]

An owl pellet will usually contain several skulls, jaws and loads of leg bones, ribs etc. A Kestrel has much less content per pellet.

Post a pic of the pellet next to the UKPK and then the contents of that one pellet. We'll be able to ID the bird and the prey species then.

Me and the little one spend hours dissecting pellets. She loves it. Emm is grieved that we have more fun on those days than we do on Xmas morning.

there is a lot of Kes activity here,....and they are mostly fur,....but they look too big,....

tomorrows mission is set,....

and i will bring one each home for the kids and have a proper light box set up.....

cheers matey,...i,m officially enthused