Here’s recent some good news from the hills. During one of our volunteer days at the start of March, an owl pellet was found on top of a fence post. Owl pellets are composed of all the parts of an owl’s prey that cannot be digested – mainly bones and fur. As these cannot pass through an owl’s digestive tract, they are instead regurgitated as a neat package. This may sound a bit disgusting, but it tells us 2 very interesting pieces of information – the first one being that an owl has been using the hills, and the second one being what it has been eating! We are uncertain of the species of owl but it is likely to be a Tawny Owl, or possibly a Barn Owl. Tom from the Wildlife Trust dissected the pellet to discover what the owl had eaten, and found that it was a vole species. He was able to reconstruct almost its entire skeleton – see the photos below.
I have heard an owl near the beacon an the end on east avenue a couple of weeks ago.
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That’s great, thanks Jason! Was it a hooting call? It’s most likely to have been a Tawny Owl, they make the classic ‘twit twoo’ sound and are the most common in urban/suburban areas.
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Yes twit twoo.
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Saw an owl sitting on one of the fence posts about two years ago near dusk. It was regularly in the area for a few days but didn’t return after that. The weirdest thing I’ve seen is a roe deer during an early morning walk back in 2014! Haven’t got a clue how it got there or where it went!
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