[obol] Re: Mystery pellet/poop/?

  • From: "Deirdre Padilla" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ("dogpack22")
  • To: woodenappleturner@xxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2022 23:11:11 -0700

It’s likely the scrub jays, as they regurgitate up pellets.
Deirdre

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 2, 2022, at 10:25 PM, Mark Rudolph <woodenappleturner@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Obolists,
I have a little mystery I hope someone can shed some light on. Under our black oil sunflower feeding tube we have a tray on the ground to catch most of the chaff and rejected seeds from the feeder. A couple of days ago we found something on the tray that I have no explanation for. There were about a dozen "mini pellets" for lack of a better term. They have the consistency of an owl pellet, that is dry, but slightly compressed in density and well formed. They are ovoid in shape, 15 - 20 mm in length, 10 - 12 mm in width and slightly compressed in thickness. (See attached pic.) They appear to be made of finely ground sunflower hulls or possibly other finely ground plant matter.
This is the only time we've seen these things. The two primarily users of the tray are the resident squirrels (Douglas?) and scrub jays with an occasional visit from a morning dove. The primary consumers of the sunflower seeds are house finches and scrub jays, with less frequent visits from black-headed grosbeaks, red-breasted nuthatches as well as a few other species.
Does anyone have an idea of what this is,  who produced it and how?
Thanks!
Rudi

PNG image

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