in the bracken, in the branches
Last night after I had set down my book &switched off my reading light, I heard a soft, low, hoot hoot-hoot which sounded quite near my bedroom window. I have since determined it to be a Great Horned Owl, possibly a male, with the aid of this page of owl sounds.
I wish I had gone to the window to see if I could find him perched in the darkness, but it was such a comfort to be lulled to sleep by his hoots & coos. I lay there remembering how, when I was younger, I had found owl pellets to be most interesting. A friend of mine had shown me a project of hers where she had dissected a pellet and pieced together the bones of the small animal the owl had not digested.
"Owl pellets are masses of bone, teeth, hair, feathers and exoskeletons of various animals preyed upon by raptors, or birds of prey. Pellets are produced and regurgitated not only by owls, but by hawks, eagles and other raptors that swallow their prey whole of in small pieces. Owls feed feed early in the evening and regurgitate a single pellet approximately 20 hours after eating. Unlike snakes, the protein enzymes and strong acids which occur in the digestive tract of raptors do not digest the entire meal. The relatively weak stomach muscles of the bird form the undigested fur, bones, feather etc. into wet slimy pellets. In this process even the most fragile bones are usually preserved unbroken."
--from this site
I wish I had gone to the window to see if I could find him perched in the darkness, but it was such a comfort to be lulled to sleep by his hoots & coos. I lay there remembering how, when I was younger, I had found owl pellets to be most interesting. A friend of mine had shown me a project of hers where she had dissected a pellet and pieced together the bones of the small animal the owl had not digested.
"Owl pellets are masses of bone, teeth, hair, feathers and exoskeletons of various animals preyed upon by raptors, or birds of prey. Pellets are produced and regurgitated not only by owls, but by hawks, eagles and other raptors that swallow their prey whole of in small pieces. Owls feed feed early in the evening and regurgitate a single pellet approximately 20 hours after eating. Unlike snakes, the protein enzymes and strong acids which occur in the digestive tract of raptors do not digest the entire meal. The relatively weak stomach muscles of the bird form the undigested fur, bones, feather etc. into wet slimy pellets. In this process even the most fragile bones are usually preserved unbroken."
--from this site