Owl pellets

Your Little Owl pellets contained a number of the necessary bits which allowed me to confirm my original suspicions of your leaf beetle – it is Chrysolina oricalcia. The species is afforded the national status of Notable B – occurring in between 31 and 100 10km squares of the national grid. Other species in the Little Owl pellets were:

The ground beetles – Nebria brevicollis (F.) , Pterostichus madidus (F.) and Pterostichus nigrita/rhaeticus, a scavenger water beetle – Helophorus sp., a dor beetle – Geotrupes sp., the dung beetles – Aphodius sphacelatus (Panz.) and Aphodius fimetarius/pedellus, and a ground dwelling weevil – Barynotus obscurus (F.).
The beetle in the Long-eared Owl pellet was Catops tristis (Panz.). This species, along with most others of the genus, are to be found in rotting detritus – anything from dead mammals/birds, stable refuse and grass heaps – damp owl pellets are ideal. The species is common, so much so that in the mid 1970s a pit fall trap in North Dean Wood, Greetland was overflowing with specimens – they had
pilled in after the remains of a shrew which had inadvertently fallen into the trap.
Many thanks to mike Denton for this information...
The Tawny Owls have had another frog a couple of Birds and another 6 Field voles..