Sorry… that was supposed to be funny. My bad.

No worries. That’s what I figured too. Looks like we both forgot our “joking” emoticons conveying the “tone” there. Which is unusual for me.

Besides it gave me a chance to mention my two fave “ex-constellations” so all good.

@ 40. dragonet2 : *Only* the pellets?

I have seen: deer, raccoons, opossums (duh), foxes, skunks, a wide variety of birds including raptors, and things like tree frogs inhabit our neighborhood.

When we first moved here, I thought it would be good to feed the feral cats that we had a lot of then. Until I came home late one night and the ‘world’s fattest opossum’(tm) was chowing down on the bowl. When I yelled at him, he showed all 50 bazillion teeth, I got the broom that lives on our porch and shoved him off the porch. and stopped putting cat food out.

At our own house, in the Hyde Park part of KC,MO, we have a barn owl that uses the corner of our house as a perch some nights. We find pellets and poo on the deck under that corner and I’ve examined the pellets.

Really kewl.

Hey, there’s no reason the BA can’t post about *both* cats & owls – perhaps even in the same article with sufficent ingenuity. (Eg. owl versus cat?)

Sorry… that was supposed to be funny. My bad.

MadScientist:

Just don’t invite Adam Savage over or the next thing you know they’ll be polishing the owl pellets.

Now that was funny!

Sounds like a hoot.

Good one. LOL.

@ 14. Woof Says:

Dagnabbit (!) BA, this is a travesty! It doesn’t matter that this is YOUR blog. I come here on Caturday to see CATS, not some silly over-evolved ex-dinosaurs. You wanna do OWLS, you can damn well do it on another day.

Hey, there’s no reason the BA can’t post about *both* cats & owls – perhaps even in the same article with sufficent ingenuity. (Eg. owl versus cat?)

Incidentally, both the owl and cat are “ex-constellations” : star patterns that were proposed and used breifly but didn’t make it into the eventual 88 official IAU listed ones. Which is a shame really methinks.

See :

http://www.pa.msu.edu/people/horvatin/Astronomy_Facts/obsolete_pages/noctua.htm

& http://www.pa.msu.edu/people/horvatin/Astronomy_Facts/obsolete_pages/felis.htm

The latter link incl. probably the weirdest looking cat drawing I’ve seen in a lo-ong time.

BTW. Off topic but I’ve finally finished reading Lovell’s Apollo 13 & have just read that 13 things that saved Apollo 13 linked & noted the other week :

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/04/08/13-things-that-saved-apollo-13/

.. &,well, I was wrong Nunki (or Sigma Sagitarrii) & the spotting thereof was NOT one of them after all. Oh well – great article & thanks for mentioning it BA. I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.

Once, One of them had 14, But Only 11 Survived The First Day, to Later Grow to Adulthood!

Speaking of Which, Most Raptors Lay Either 2 or 3 Eggs …

So, Even Money Says; If there’s Two of them, Now, they May ALREADY have a Dead Sibling!

This is an astronomy blog.

No, no. For astronomy you want the Bad Raptor blog. Please update your browser bookmarks.

P.S. I was just using this opportunity to test if HTML tags work on this host.

No, this is Phil’s blog. He just happens to talk about astronomy occasionally.

I was joking

(Unless of course, you were joking too, in which case disregard this )

I think it is SO awesome that you did this with TLA. Everyone should have a dad as cool as you.

As someone who’s taught this lab to college freshmen, the gloves are simply because most students are disgusted at the thought of touching an owl’s indigestible meal remnants. There’s really no reason you need to wear them.

Jeez, and my little sisters thought they had it tough.

No, this is Phil’s blog. He just happens to talk about astronomy occasionally.

I’ve never found them in the wild, though. Awesome for your daughter!