Owls Regurgitate It, But It's Not Wasted -- Bird Pellets Enrich Often-Sneaky Collectors

BELLINGHAM - Not even the birds want the stuff, but sneak thieves are slipping into silos and bluffing their way into barns to pilfer an unusual booty: owl vomit.

Barn owls, after dining on a mouse, regurgitate a compact ball of fur and bone, the parts of the rodent they can't digest. Because it's possible to reconstruct a mouse skeleton from owl "pellets," the balls of waste are in demand as science-teaching tools.

Students find them neater and quicker to dissect than preserved frogs. They can tease apart the pellets and reassemble the bones, learning about birds, the food chain and bone structures.

The pellets can fetch $1.50 each on the retail market. And such easy pickin's on the barn floor has produced a new class of scofflaw:

The regurgitation rustler.

Authorities in mostly rural Whatcom County say some pellet collectors have lied to farmers about working as researchers for Western Washington University or the state to get into buildings where the owls nest.

"If you have a barn in Whatcom County that has an owl, you are a target for a pellet collector," said Joe Bailey of Ferndale, a legitimate collector. "For every one who knocks on your door, three have been in there. If you don't have a padlock on your door, they'll get in there. They'll lie to your face. They'll do whatever they can to get in."

The unscrupulous few are spoiling it for everyone, legit collectors say.

"Farmers don't want to deal with the hassle, so they say, `No one else is going to collect here,' " said Dave Carter of Mount Vernon, who has been collecting pellets for 11 years. "And that hurts all the collectors."

Harm also can come to the owls, which require seclusion while rearing their young.

Bill Brown, a farmer in Laurel, said about five collectors a year approach him.

"They'll tell you why they should take the pellets for the good of humanity," he said. "I used to toy with them, ask them questions. They don't know a thing about barn owls.

"It's just annoying, more than anything else. And I don't like the idea that people are rummaging around in my barn when I'm not around."

Some farmers have asked authorities to intervene.

"We're aware of it and it's something we deal with periodically," said Whatcom County sheriff's Sgt. Jeff Parks.

Earlier this year, the Bellingham Herald ran an article on pellet gathering. That set off the gold rush, if gold is the right word.

"It has reached something of a critical mass, in no small part because of that article," said Brett Gaussoin, owner of Bellingham-based Pellets Inc., which sells more than 200,000 pellets a year. "We had people showing up at our door with bags of pellets."

Longtime collectors blame the Johnnies-come-lately for besmirching the business.

"Most collectors that trespass, lie, use deception, collect part-time," said Carter, acknowledging that he buys pellets from part-timers. "They don't need to be honest. They're in it only for a short time and they don't need to care about their integrity."