Big woods Day 3

Have you ever wondered what an owl pellet is?  My girls did.  When

I brought home a couple of skeleton pellets (which is different from an actual

owl pellet, which I found out latter) at Hobby Lobby my girls started the

guessing game... an egg... scat... fossil... and a dead prey, pretty close

guess but not on the money.  Today my girls found out what they were and

what can be found in them.  They learned that owl pellets are the

non-digestible parts of the owl meals, such as feathers,

fur, bones and insect shell.  And they regurgitate it,

lovely huh!  Before we dissected our pellets were watched a few videos.

A baby owl regurgitating a pellet

What is a barn owl pellet

OK, so I found out that Skeleton Pellets are not Owl Pellets.  What I purchased was

and I quote:

One Sanitary Synthetic Owl Pellet...

The "Skeleton Pellet" included in this bag contains and entire Starling skeleton!  

The Starling, or Stumis vulgaris, is a common menu item in the barn owl's diet.  

The starling skeleton reveals special structural adaptation which enable flight.  

Their design has been molded by nature to provide support 

with a minimum amount of weight.

It was a bit disappointing that we didn't have an 'authentic' pellet

but, as soon as the girls saw the bones the disappointment 

flew out the window and the awe of Yah's creation

took over.  Here are a few pics of what they found.

The included a pellet, small magnify glass,

and instructions with a picture of 

a Starling Skeleton.

This is the pellet, it's made up of sanitized fibers.

A real pellet would have feathers, fur and possible

bug wings as the encasing of the bones.

as they opened their pellets they found

bones and feather, at this point

the shrills of excitement could be heard

Mama, I think I found a...

ewwww... it's a bird skull....

they found pelvic bone, wing bones, even the

legs with claws and...

rib bones, lots of rib bones!

Now the girls want to assemble the skeleton!

Just to get an idea of what

they want to do here is a pic I found

pic of a full assembled Starling here

If they get it assembled I'll update with a pick.

We had started an art project last night using

Borax Laundry Booster, pipe cleaner, string, and  boiling water.

we cut the 12" pipe cleaner into thirds...  an opportunity for

a math lesson.  Twist all three pipe cleaners

together in the center to form a 6 pointed star.

Tie string around each pipe cleaner

and fully immerse into the diluted

borax and boiled water solution

wait 12-24 hours...

this is the lovely result... a beautiful

crystal snowflake in the middle of Summer!

You can find the snowflake project here

it also give you the 'science behind the fun'!