#hawk pellet

[korva-the-raven]

Extra tiny bottle of bones. The tiny bones are from a Red Tailed Hawk pellet, I dissected.

[reluctant-gardener]

Hawk Pellet Dissection

While watching the cardinal fledgling, a hawk stopped in the norway maple and was being bullied by some smaller birds.  He coughed up a pellet which landed just beside where we were sitting.  Man, it has an odour when fresh... kinda like a cat's fur ball but not exactly.

We quickly got to work examining it and trying to figure out what it ate.

At first we figured it had been a mouse... but from the size of the tooth and claws we're thinking probably a squirrel.

We've done a dried owl pellet before at the Nature Centre, but never a fresh one.  Some of the cartilage and connective tissue was still fresh and moist.  

Cool!

We took some video too.  Will try to update the post later when I have that uploaded.