Pellets found by Theo Tamblyn in Colchester, Essex, England. Date: June 11 and July 2 2008.
Photo by Maria Fremlin.
It is well known that all members of the Corvidae family feast on stag beetles. Magpies in our area leave behind characteristic corpses without the abdomen. However what is rare is finding their regurgitated remains as well, and this find proves that these birds are also eating whole stag beetles through the season; Theo found altogether three pellets during his stag beetle monitoring from May 21 till July 15 2008. His sightings were 73 males (18% dead), 18 females (33% dead), and 20 unknown (85% dead); the pellets aren't included.