Scat Central

 
The second most exciting thing about our trip to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, after the fabulous birding, was the plethora of scat sightings.  If you have read this blog for a while, you know that I am someone who always brakes for scat (animal poop).  After all, your chances of seeing the actual animal, are fairly remote, but if you come upon some scat at least you know the animals been there.  Perhaps you will even be able to make a fair hypothesis about what they were eating.  All part of the “nature detective” work we curious naturalists revel in.

And if you have followed this blog over the years you will also know that I have been vocal in my disappointment of a lack of scat here in my area of TX.  I have been prone to blame dung beetles for squirreling it all away before I had a chance to see it.  Or perhaps I should just admit that where I walk, raccoons and deer scat are always going to be the bulk of what I see.  I was simply spoiled by my walks on the Cape, which more routinely produced a wider variety of droppings. 

But hold the phone!  Aransas was like scat central!  We walked one patch of road, which had to be the main marking spot for the local coyotes.  They like to mark their territory and often place their scats by the side of the road where they won’t get squashed by cars, and also at trail crossings.  This one bit of road produced scats that showed what omnivores they really are: some  were full of seed, some with fur, and some showing a switch in diet over the days.  

Now, I am always just making my best guess, and can be wrong, but this very long one might be coyote, but the pointy ending often points to fox, so the jury is out on this one but what a great specimen, whatever it is.   Armadillos had rooted their way along so many of the trails, but again, their scat seems rare as hens teeth, or perhaps I just don’t know it when I see it.  I did read recently that they often bury it like a cat, so maybe that is why even though there were wall-to-wall armadillo signs; I didn’t see their scat.

Ditto on the feral hogs.  They had rooted through many of the paths, the parking areas, the fields, the dry ponds, and we saw their tracks everywhere, but I missed the scat that must have been there.  Drawn away by family members who aren’t really as excited about this as I am.  HAD I seen some, this is what it would have looked like.

 This picture isn’t a scat but, I believe, it is a Kestrel’s pellet, the regurgitated remains of the mice and voles it ate.  It looks like scat; only it is solidly fur and bones.   There must have been a dozen pellets on the top of the observation tower and we had been watching a kestrel hunt right in front of us there.  The owl pellets I am used to seeing always have rounded ends so this pointed one intrigued me.  Like coyote scat only no coyote would be climbing on the ledge of the tower to relieve himself.  Looking online, the Kestrel seems to be the only one with this pointy end, and with the bird right in front of us, it seems a logical conclusion.    

I suppose, there is a remote possibility that you readers might not find this as fascinating as I do, in which case I should end now.  “Always leave them wanting more”, isn’t that the saying? Ah, but one more mention than we will shut down the computer. 

I have been entertained in my neighborhood by noticing that the omnipresent raccoon scat, often, now that winter is here, shows signs of a seed diet that switches to a purloined, cat chow diet.  The first half of the scat being comprised of seeds, but the second part, tootsie-roll like, similar to dog scat that shows a processed foods diet.   With so many feral cats in the area and these cold temps, many of us leave cat chow out for, we think the cats, but clearly from this evidence, the raccoons are also appreciative:  another “scat sleuthing” deduction. 

See what fun it can be?  You’re hooked aren’t you and now you can start making deductions of your own.  Old Irish Blessing, “may the scat rise up to meet you…”