Whose poo!

[Weedon]

Apologies if you are tucking in to a sandwich.

I had to get onto the roof of my house yesterday to replace a couple of slates and spotted some, I think old, poo in the space between the slates and the insulation.  It was about 2 to 3 inches long, about the thickness of your little finger and slate coloured.  Having opened each of the three pieces (there may well be more elswhere in the roof space) they seemed to consist of little feathers from small birds.  I have loads of barn owl bombs in my barn which consist of bones and tiny skulls etc. (cos I've looked) so I don't think it's owl stuff in my roof space, although a Little Owl very often sits on the roof at dusk.  What do other people think has or is in the habit of eating small birds and leaving these little parcels?

weedon

[Cat]

Could it be fouine (stone marten) poo Weedon?

I've pasted a link rather than the photo, just in case anyone is still tucking into that sandwich [+o(]  It looks quite fresh, and copious, so if the stuff you found has dried out you'll have to use a bit of imagination.

http://www.community-forum.net/brittany/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0

 

EDIT, I've posted a different link as the first didn't work

[Weedon]

Thanks for the link Cat.  It certainly looks like that could be the stuff.  I have never seen anything like the animal in question though, Beech Marten/Stone Marten/Fouine, although I note from descriptions of the animal that being nocturnal they are rarely seen.

[Ford Anglia]

Little owl will take other small birds, and usually regurgitate the bones etc as a "pellet" Could that be what you found? I don't know of any animal which would be able to pass bones through it's gut, and out through the numerous sphincters, without damage to it's guts?

[Weedon]

FA, there were no bones in the bits I found yesterday.  I mentioned bones and little skulls in the pellets I found in my barn which I am certain come from the Barn Owl perched high up in the roof trusses so I know what a Barn Owl spits out.  The things I found yesterday consist only of little feathers that haven't decomposed at all, these are contained in dried ick[+o(]

[chris pp]

It's 99.9% certain to be a fouine by your description (as been said), this time of year when there are no fruit or nuts left the majority of their diet is smallish birds and micro mammals. The birds are pounced on and taken when roosting for the night.

Chris

 

[Punch]

I concur with Chrispp that it is definetely fouine poo. I come across it almost on a weekly basis in lofts and when we uncover roofs for renewal. The worst thing is that when a fouine finds a nice cosy loft to settle in then tend to deffacate in the same spot and you find piles of the stuff 10 inches high sometimes, but the worse is the smell of their urine - it's awful!

I once had a customer who called me out who had maggots dropping down from the ceiling in her bedroom. We had to cut a trap in the ceiling as there was no access . We found the remains of a rotting cockrel together with several smaller carcasses and fouine poo everywhere!

 

 

[Pads]

we have a buzzard that sits on our fence his poo sometimes has feathers in it?

[Weedon]

Thanks to everybody who replied especially to Punch for that last tasty description of what could be lurking in my roof space.

I am thinking it could be a Fouine who inhabited the roof space during the period the house was empty as I have not heard anything scampering about during the last couple of years or so.  Had the little chap/s still been here I think I would have heard it.