Owl Pellet Experience

A year of adventures for this year of schooling. We are excited as this week's adventure/experience was dissecting an owl pellet. We have been studying animals in our Science curriculum and we just finished learning about owls. It was a perfect opportunity to dissect an owl pellet.

We read about owls in our Encyclopedia of Animals book.

Then the fun began - first I had them draw what it looked like before we began. Yeah, I know what it resembles but an owl pellet is not from THAT end of an owl. An owl actually yarps (regurgitates) the bones and fur of animals that it eats. The pellet is then sanitized for your protection.

Kaleb is working on separating the pellet. I was truly amazed at how many bones were actually in the pellet.

J is working on hers. She couldn't believe it either! It took some time but they finally separated the bones and fur from the pellet.

This is what we came away with - a ton of bones. I think each pellet had at least four skull pieces and lots of vertebrae. We soaked the bones in bleach to make them whiter and easier to see. This was an experience that J said she would do again. She loved finding all of the bones, like a mini treasure hunt!

Nature Hike

We just started our Science program - All about Animals through Winter Promise. As part of our Science, I want to work on nature journaling. We became enamored by them after my last camping trip and we haven't looked back since. I bought several nature guides, watercolors, paint pens, and small journals to take with us on our nature hikes. Today was our first nature hike and, although we had only an hour or two, we made the most of it.

The morning started out rainy so I thought we would have to cancel. But the sun came out just long enough for our hike. We packed our nature bag - and while hiking, we discovered a few things that we need to pack next time. Live and learn, right?

We discovered the wing span for a bald eagle. Wow, isn't that amazing? We didn't get to see any bald eagles - maybe next time.

The kids are trying to hold up a fallen tree. Because of time constraints, we didn't get to walk as far as we were hoping but that didn't stop us from finding some cool things.

We found an interesting grasshopper that we hadn't seen before - Giant Orange Grasshopper. It was huge and it didn't run away. The red and orange colors tell predators that they are toxic. When we got home, we promptly looked it up and read all about it.

We found a mourning dove at the top of a trimmed palm tree. Not sure if it was a nest or not, but it seemed content to stay on top of the tree. After our hike, we came home and worked on our nature journals. It was a good Science day:)