royk13

By royk13

Dem bones dem bones...

Except that in this case the thigh bone is no longer connected to the hip bone.  This is an owl pellet MrsK found in our wood and, rather touchingly I thought, presented to me as a gift.  My grandbairns sometimes buy what appear to be chunks of chalk, or plaster, which have fake dinosaur fossils concealed inside.  They scrape away the plaster to reveal the fossil.  So much more satisfying, I think, to dismantle this pellet to see what the bird had for supper.

Watch this space.

For anyone who doesn't know: owls tend to swallow their prey whole and, inside the stomach, only the soft tissue is digested.  The non-digestible parts - principally hair and bones - form into a pellet in the bird's gizzard, which is ejected through its mouth before it next eats.  In smaller species, such as little owls, which eat mostly insects, pellets will contain legs, wing cases, etc.

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