Anybody Know What This Is?

Need some help from you nature-lovers out there. I'm trying to identify the round object in the center of the photo. Judging by the flowers, this thing, sizewise, is probably between that of a nickel and a quarter. It looks like chewed-up corncob. Either I or my nine-year-old son took this photo, while hiking on the Twentymile trail out at Hell's Half Acre, in Idaho's Lost River Desert. A friend of mine suggests it looks like an owl pellet, but it's a bit small, and a lot less grey, than the pellets I'm used to seeing. Feel free to chime in with your guesses.