I wasn't planning on making a post today, but... I found these extraordinary owl pellets, and couldn't resist. Actually it was Evvy that found them. We were at the top of a hill, the wind was "blowing stink". There were no trees up there, and we were passing through an opening in some fencing. There on the snow at the bottom of a post, I saw several owl pellets. It was as though this post was a frequent eating spot for a large owl. It may have been a Barred, or a Great Horned Owl, or may.....be a Snowy. Wouldn't that be cool?! Whichever owl it was, he was eating creatures that were bigger than mice. Check out the bone below the pellet to the right. The left end is an epicondyle of a leg bone. You can tell because there is a capitulum and a trochlear surface, like on the head of a tibia. Those surfaces are the articulating surfaces of hinge joints, like your elbows and knees. The little bone in the picture looks to have been about 1 1/2" long, maybe a rabbit? what do you think?
I have found owl pellets in the past, but these were by far the largest.
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