[Tweeters] Crawdad shell in owl pelletI believe Bent mentions that Great Horned Owls, at least, eat crawfish, and some other aquatic critters. I just checked Bent for Barred Owl, as their habitat preferences would lead one to think aquatic items might be on the menu, and they are: "frogs, crayfish, lizards, small snakes, snails, slugs, salamanders, flesh of a terrapin, perch, hornpout and other fishes, ..."

Kristin Stewart
Olympia

-- Original Message -----
From: Guttman, Burt
To: Denny Granstrand ; TWEETERS at u.washington.edu
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 7:51 AM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Crawdad shell in owl pellet


Denny Granstrand wrote, "I found an owl pellet in the Tahoma Cemetery on S. 24th Ave. in Yakima last
week that had a crawdad shell in it. Wide Hollow Creek runs along the south end of the cemetery. This is the first pellet I have found with something other than a rodent in it. From the size of the pellet, and other pellets I found near it, I think it is from a Barn Owl."

When I was a kid in Minneapolis back in the Paleolithic, I found an owl pellet that was entirely crayfish skeleton near a pond. I wondered how an owl would catch crayfish; I suppose a hungry bird learns to catch whatever is available.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503



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