# Random identification question



## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

Apologies for the subject matter, but thought I would post this amongst the bird experts. We're trying to identify what has been visiting our garden since the snowfall over the weekend. We're finding a large amount of droppings (30 odd yesterday and as many, if not many more, today) all over our garden table, in the snow, on the top of a low fence... those on the ground are surrounded by no track/footprints (in the untrodden upon heavy snow) and are mostly near the bottom of the fence, hence we assume bird (and not a levitating mammal).

The odd thing is they don't look like any bird droppings I've ever seen and are dog turd shaped; cylindrical (about the diameter of a pencil) up to 1" long, orange/brown in colour and have no odour whatsoever.

We're just curious... any ideas please?


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## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

A pic with something for size comparison might help


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)




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## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

A Thrush?...


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

Absolutely no idea. They look very much like a small mammal's droppings in size/shape but can't be due to the location(s) of where we're finding them. I always thought bird droppings were a bit of 'splat' ... obviously not


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## mydog (Nov 16, 2011)

rat droppings?


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## AlexArt (Apr 25, 2010)

Maybe a mistle thrush or some similar sized bird that has been eating hawthorn berries by the look of it, hard to say without a track as well, they will travel in flocks in winter so do alot of poop wherever they go!
They're not mammal droppings though - rats tend to have a point at the end of the poop and be much better formed as they have a pretty efficient digestive tract so it can be hard to tell what they have eaten and also be in one place on either a well worn track or a vantage point to mark their terratory - not like these which have alot of the berry still in it owing to their short digestve tracts and are scattered all over the spot with no tracks near them.


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