Results of owl pellets from Chew Valley Ringing Station

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig Dissecting an owl pellet at WWT Slimbridge
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig Dissecting an owl pellet at WWT Slimbridge
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

In 2015 some owl pellets were collected from Chew Valley Ringing station, which is based on a nature reserve. The owl pellets have now been dissected and examined and the results are listed below. The most interesting are that there are moles, harvest mice and water shrews in the pellets. There were lots of starling feathers but no starlings.

Field Vole 262

Bank Vole 37

Common Shrew 87

Pygmy Shrew 51

Water Shrew 2

Wood Mouse 37

House Mouse 8

Brown Rat 8

Harvest Mouse 7

Whitethroat 1

Wren 1

Mole 2

Dung Beetle 1

Small Beetles 2

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig dissecting an owl pellet at WWT Slimbridge
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

It was really interesting to see these results and know what animals are around for the owls to kill and eat.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Ed Drewitt
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Thank you to Ed Drewitt BSc MRSB from University of Bristol, Senior Teaching Associate, School of Biological Sciences.

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter