Wildlife Group Gallery
On Monday 26th January, eleven members of the wildlife group gathered to see
what owls eat.
I had procured some Twenty owl pellets form my neighbours and some barn owl and kestrel pellets from the Aylesbury owl box project.
We all sat round my big dining table, (complete with christmas extension). We soaked the pellets and then picked them apart with cocktail sticks. There was always lots of fur which appears black and it is quite easy to see and pick out the white bones, much harder to clean off the black fur. We found skulls, pelvic girdles, pectoral girdles and lots of limb bone. We think all the bones came from rodents but we couldn’t see if they were mice or voles. Those of us who had done it before all thought that our eyesight had got worse and only after everyone had left did I realise that last time there were fewer of us and we worked in the kitchen where the light is much better.
Click on a picture to see it slightly bigger.
I had procured some Twenty owl pellets form my neighbours and some barn owl and kestrel pellets from the Aylesbury owl box project.
We all sat round my big dining table, (complete with christmas extension). We soaked the pellets and then picked them apart with cocktail sticks. There was always lots of fur which appears black and it is quite easy to see and pick out the white bones, much harder to clean off the black fur. We found skulls, pelvic girdles, pectoral girdles and lots of limb bone. We think all the bones came from rodents but we couldn’t see if they were mice or voles. Those of us who had done it before all thought that our eyesight had got worse and only after everyone had left did I realise that last time there were fewer of us and we worked in the kitchen where the light is much better.
Click on a picture to see it slightly bigger.