This past week we studied owls. Who knew those adorable little birds were so interesting? I took care of the books and cute owl craft portion of the lesson; husband handled the owl pellet. And I have to say, even though I was far too grossed out to touch it, the whole experience was pretty neat.
Princess was absolutely fascinated. It totally appealed to her meticulous personality, and since Husband has been teaching her all the bones in the body for the past couple of months, she loved picking out all the different types of animal bones in the pellet. Trouble was interested for a while, but eventually got bored–it took a couple hours to make it through the whole pellet–and wandered off to play Legos instead.
For those of you wondering what an owl pellet actually is, it is a bundle of undigestible animal parts (mostly bones and feathers) that an owl regurgitates after eating a whole animal. Owls don’t have teeth to chew, so they simply swallow their prey whole, then get rid of the parts they can’t digest. Our pellet had FOUR separate animals in it! So gross, but pretty cool too! (You can buy a kit of your own here for around $6. Totally worth every penny!)
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Have you ever dissected an owl pellet?
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I love the idea that some entrepreneur had the good sense to collect these and sell them at a reasonable price. Talk about recycling!
Ok… first chicken mummies and now owl pellets?? lol I learned something new too!
(and I am thinking about Boarding School as opposed to Home School so I don't ever have to do this… hahaha).
xo,
Claire
Oh how cool! My son would love this!!! We will try later in the year. This post reminded me of all the pellets I have to rake on our wonderful ranch in CA. It seems yucky, but I sure do miss being home. The military moved us across the country just shortly after we happily purchased our dream home...The beautiful tress provide homes for the owls there and we find plenty of free pellets. Can't wait to plan our move back!
What an interesting project! I learned something new haha :)
Glad I could provide a little education! :-)
My kids would LOVE this! Ordering now!
Let me know how it goes!
I don't think I would be able to do that one either but they look really into it! Your husband does too. That is so neat that he can do that type of stuff with them.
I love that he loves doing it!
I loved reading her recap: "I want to do it every day." I think she liked it! What a neat project.
Oh she loved it! She has asked every day since if we can do it again, and she is keeping all the little bones & skulls in a plastic bag in her nightstand (ew!)