The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Found a fresh Barn Owl pellet in one of the farm barns this morning, and had to open it up to see what had been consumed. I was happy to see three small mammal skulls (2 vole sp. and 1 shrew sp.), showing that the bird in question had fared well during such a horrendous night of strong winds and rain. Nothing unusual up to now you would quite rightly think. It wasnt until i examined the skulls and bones more thoroughly that i found what i hadnt expected, still attached to what looked to be the hip/pelvis joint area on two separate bones (from same rodent or 2 different ones) was chunks of flesh, also inside one of the vole skulls was left its tongue and more flesh. Now the purpose an owl regurgitates a pellet is to remove any undigestible parts from its system i.e bones, teeth and fur. So for the bird to expend the energy to hunt and catch its prey, swallow it and then waste some of that valuable food (especially at this time of year) seems bizzarre. Perhaps as there was 3 prey items in the pellet showed that the owl was fit, and didnt need all the nutrient this time, or maybe just an error in the process of digestion.
Does anyone else try to decipher the language of the pellet?

George.

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George Rutter

Hi George,

I am not an expert on the digestive process of Barn Owls, but I think that the key to your discovery is that the pellet was very fresh. Normally when pellets are examined, they are a few weeks or more old, and therefore less likely to contain fresh looking flesh. As each pellet can contain up to five prey items or more, one can assume that some prey items are subject to the digestive process for much longer than the last victim and it may be that the flesh you discovered may have been from the last victim to be consumed, and hence had not been inside the owl for long. It may also be that the digestive juices may continue to work on flesh to a small extent after the pellet has been ejected, and therefore it may be quite normal for flesh to remain on a very fresh pellet.

Alan

Thanks Alan, your idea sounds plausible. Interesting nonetheless.

George.

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George Rutter

A caution - this from Wikipedia

The hair, bones and other body parts (such as limbs, skin fragments, and even faeces) of rodents found in owl pellets may carry viable rodent viruses and bacteria. It is therefore advisable to sterilize pellets in a microwave oven before study. This is particularly important when using pellets at school. Recently, Smith et al. (2005) described two pellet-borne outbreaks of Salmonella typhimurium in public schools. Not surprisingly, rodents tend to avoid owl pellets, apparently due to their infective potential (Sike & Rozsa 2006).

John

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Thanks John.
Fortunately in this instance, i was wearing thick gloves (from farming in the cold/wet). However, i would imagine there is a vast assortment of bugs and bacteria that can be caught from the natural world. Personally i always get stuck with anything i find, but it is certainly advisable to take precautions when examining things of this type.

George.

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George Rutter