Owl Pellets

Son decided to go check out the deer blind the other day to see what the condition was. We've never used it much. In fact the only times it has been used was by Hunter when he had a deer feeder out one year. We have known that parts of the ladder are rotted. But it seems owls have set up house inside. There are two sets of sliding plexiglass windows on each side that were open. So I guess they thought it would make a nice nest.

It was a mess. Just a big mess. There were lots of feathers and owl pellets. It will need to be cleaned out.

I was interested to learn more about the pellets he found. Not poop as I had assumed, but more like fur balls.

Indigestible material left in the gizzard such as teeth, skulls, claws, and feathers are too dangerous to pass through the rest of the owl's digestive tract. To safely excrete this material, the owl's gizzard compacts it into a tight pellet that the owl regurgitates. The regurgitated pellets are known as owl pellets. -- from carolina.com

They are used by researchers and students.

The composition of an owl pellet leads to many discoveries. What the owl eats, and the biology of his digestive system, the biology of his prey, food chains and the significance of inter-relationships between species are revealed. Distinctive qualities and changes in environments and ecosystems can be monitored through owl pellet examination, sometimes revealing a species new to the area. -- from animals.mom.me

And a quick search online finds that you can buy/sell pellets for about $2 each.