What could it be?

[dannydee]

Hi folks,
I went along to Vane farm nature reserve (Loch Leven, Fife, Scotland) yesterday and along the woodland trail, on the grass edge were these pellets. I don't have a picture but they were kindda the shape of fox droppings. They all were made up of hair and one of them contained the jaw bone of a small mammal and a small bird's toe/claw.

I've seen owl pellets before and they were move oval shaped.

What was strange was the fact that they were all the way along the path. Does anyone have any idea what could have been producing them? I would love to know.

Cheers

[Tracey.A]

Hi Dannydee, you're talking about my reserve! Fantastic isn't it! I've been up the woodland trail so often, that I'm guessing it was fox droppings. Did you sniff the droppings? Owls pellets are not like fox droppings at all. Were the droppings twisted at the end? If you go back to Vane they have in their shop plastic coated information sheets on all sorts of things, the one that you want to look at is a guide to 'British mammal tracks and signs'. Just ask in the shop, you don't have to buy it, (all though I did), but it will tell you what animal the dropping came from.

Welcome to WAB by the way

Tracey

[dannydee]

Thanks Tracy, just another wee question though: Are fox droppings made up of just hair??? Initially I thought they did belong to a fox but I found a very fresh one and it had a kind of mucus coating it, which made me think it could have been regurgitated.
Vane farm is great, I'll be there again this Sunday and I'll be sure to pop into the shop.
Thanks again,
Dan