The Lincolnshire Bird Club

travelling home from a few days at my daughters in nottingham last wk between market rasen and binbrook. the stretch of road binbrook side of tealby on the bad twisty bit i saw a tawny owl fly up off the road to perch above the road, the bird was clearly feeding on a dead rabbit, well squashed. never heard or seen this before. always thought owls fed on live prey only has anyone else ever witnessed this before ????.

terry whalin

British Birds Volume 38 1944 P.56

TAWNY OWL TAKING CARRION.
ON April 24th, 1943, I found a nest of three young Tawny Owls
(Strix aluco sylvatica) in a hollow ash tree in Lincolnshire.
A number of pellets found at the nest contained the fur and bones
of small mammals, but two consisted entirely of lamb's wool
indicating that the parent birds had been feeding on a carcase.
Since then, a local gamekeeper has informed me that he has, on
several occasions, found Tawny Owls in his traps baited for rats with
the viscera of rabbits. E. L. ROBERTS.

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that is new info for me, ta much

terry whalin