Wildlife ID - Bird Pellets

SHREW

Very faint, with five toes on the front feet (mice and voles have four.)


    

MOUSE

This is a wood (field) mouse: the house mouse is only about half this size!

 
    

VOLE

Rather like a mouse print, but broader – they also have shorter tails which may not show in soft mud or snow.

 
    

BROWN RAT

Like mouse trails but much larger. Often found in dust in warehouses.

 
    

HEDGEHOG

Five toes on each foot but often looks like four because the thumb is faint. Front foot much broader than the hind foot.

 
    

DOMESTIC CAT

The track is almost circular with four toes showing and no claw marks because they are retracted when walking.

 
    

RABBIT

Pointed foot with springy patches of hair rather than pads, so usually not very clear. Trails often double back then disappear! But how?

 
    

SQUIRREL

Squirrels move by hopping, so the prints appear in groups with the front prints behind the back ones! Trails nearly always start and end at a tree.

 
    

FOX

Similar to the dog but usually narrower with longer claw marks.

 
    

DOG

Like the fox above, but can be any size, and the pads are bigger.

 







F = Front footprint
H = Hind footprint
All prints shown are actual size.

SPARROW

Small birds like sparrows usually hop, so their prints are in pairs.

Actual size

PIGEON

A walking, rather than hopping bird, so that the prints are alternate, and face inward (they really are pigeon-toed!)


Actual size

CROW

A perching bird, so a strong backward pointing toe. Crows have rough feet and leave a "jointed" print.

About half actual size

GULL

Webbed feet and pointed claws. The webs may be faint.


 
    

DUCK

Like the gull, but with claws and inward pointing tracks.


    

Actual size

COOT

 
Difficult to confuse with anything else - coots have lobed, not webbed, feet.


 

About half actual size

SWAN

Large webbed feet so couldn't be anything else except a duck in snow shoes.

 
   
About quarter actual size

HERON

Large and powerful. Although a water bird the foot is not webbed.



About half actual size
 

GULL

Pellets vary depending on the type of food. This one's recently had a meal of beetles.

 
    

TAWNY OWL

Grey cylindrical, slightly pointed. Contains the remains of small birds, mice, sometimes shrews and insects.

 
    

CROW

Usually oval and containing plant material especially grass, insect remains, and small stones,

PINECONES

A pine cone eaten by a squirrel becomes frayed. They are nearly always found out in the open.

 
    

A cone eaten by a mouse has more tidily gnawed scales and the cones are found in sheltered places.

 
    

A cone attacked by a woodpecker. The scales are split longways.

 
    







HAZELNUTS

An adult squirrel gnaws a small hole in the top and levers the nut open with its teeth.

 
    

A young squirrel gnaws all over the nut until a hole appears.

 
    

A mouse usually attacks the side of the nut.

 
    

Mostly nuts eaten by birds like the great tit show beak marks on the smooth brown surface.

 
    

An acorn and a horse chestnut (conker) eaten by a field mouse.

 
    

An almond eaten by a house mouse.

Squirrel droppings:
    

Mouse droppings:

 
    

Rabbit droppings:

 
    

Brown rat droppings:

 
    

Hedgehog droppings are shiny, black, and cylindrical and contain mainly insect remains.

 
    

Fox may contain anything from bones to berries. Droppings are often left on raised areas like tree stumps to mark territory.

This is called a key. Its an easy way of identifying small skulls found in owl pellets, on the ground, or in thrown away milk bottles. At each stage you need to make a decision between which of the two descriptions the skull is most like. Then you go to the next stage. Each stage gets you nearer the type of animal it is.

Image: Wildlife ID by David Kaspar