Nothing says fun… like dissecting owl pellets…
Pellets are the undigestible remains of the food eaten by the Common Barn Owl, which are regurgitated as a compact mass of hair, bones, teeth, claws, bird’s beaks, and insect remains.
Colson’s third grade class has been studying birds in science so we decided to let the boys and a couple buddies dissect owl pellets tonight. Our “all boy” dinner conversation (Laura spent the night at a friend’s tonight and Lydia is no help because she thinks they are hilarious) teetered on the edge of bodily-function-talk all throughout. So–we followed the main course with owl pellet dissection.
I’ll admit that I started out pretty tenuous…but it was actually very very interesting.
 |
| The boys starting the dissection… |
 |
| The pellets are compact masses of hair and bones…a hunt for hidden “treasures” |
 |
| Finding several vole bones |
 |
| We found many claws and femur bones |
 |
| I made them wear gloves…yuck. |
 |
| Several more radius/ulna bones. |
 |
| A better look at an owl pellet before dissection |
 |
| Cavan found a whole shrew skull |
 |
| The shrew skull |
 |
| Right before the “bone trading” began… |
 |
| “I’ll trade you my claw for your mandible” |
 |
| I love having boys! |
facebook 
twitter 
email 
pinterest 
