Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Do herons cough up pellets?
Date: Jul 19 15:11:50 2014
From: Martin Muller - martinmuller at msn.com


Terry P asked if herons cough up pellets (after seeing the video of a Great Blue Heron spearing and devouring a gopher).

I can just hear my mom?s reaction (starting some 50 years ago): well, there?s one good way to find out. Look it up!

So I did. Birds of North America online (subscriptions start at $ 42 a year):
Vennesland, Ross G. and Robert W. Butler. 2011. Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/025doi:10.2173/bna.25

In the Food Habits section: Drinking, Pellet-casting, And Defecation.
[?] Mammal hair is cast in pellets, and bones are digested [?].

For another fascinating piece of heron trivia you should go to BNA (subscribe) and read the sentence after the one quoted here?..

Martin Muller, Seattle
martinmuller at msn.com