I came across an intriguing pile of pellets recently that looked nothing like any owl pellets I have ever seen.  So, I'm hoping for some ideas as to what kind of bird or critter might have produced them.

I'm used to owl pellets looking very gray and everything all mushed up in a jumble.  The pile that I found had at least 12 pellets and they all seemed to be made up of a brown/black furry mammal.  I imagine many of our finest city rats could be compressed into such a form.  In some cases, it was like the tail was intact and easy to make out sticking out of the end of the pellet.  They were about the size of my thumb (I'm large boned), and perhaps a bit longer 2 1/2 - 3 inches long.  They seemed to be encased in something that reminded me of a thin sausage casing.

I didn't take any of the pellets with me, as I was in a National Park.  There were no large roosting trees above, but there were certainly branches where a raptor could perch.

Any ideas?

Denise Ryan
Washington, DC
Denise_ryan at lcv.org

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