We dissected owl pellets the other day, after much anticipation from everyone (except dh, who is a bit disturbed by it). We had previously read a few picture books about owls, so we could learn more about how they live and how the pellets come about. I covered the table with a plastic trash bag, got out plates and took all the hygiene precautions I could think of. Then, we dived into our pellets. B had his own. T and I shared one. T lost interest after about 5 or 10 minutes so then I was left to finish it. B and I both had our heads down and we really deeply enjoyed it.

It looks like we both got mice as prey animals. B is still supremely confident that he will be able to completely reconstruct the skeleton, even though the bones are brittle. The kit included a bone sorting chart, in addition to a detailed rodent skeleton diagram. I noticed that I have more than one prey animal in my pellet. It seems as though my owl grabbed several mice in quick succession before regurgitating. So, now I’m wondering if perhaps we *can* reconstruct one rodent skeleton if we pool all our bones together. We could photocopy the skeleton diagram and then glue the bones directly on top of it. I’m willing to give it a go.

When we wrapped up yesterday, we weren’t quite finished. Mice have incredibly tiny bones so we still have fur sections with tiny bones hidden inside. I promised we could go back to it today and try to sort them out. When it’s all over, I have three more unopened pellets for us to do; B was really excited about that. I don’t know how many more he will want to do before he loses interest, but they are so cheap to buy so I could reasonably buy a bunch more. I took some cute pictures of him. He looks like a tiny scientist hunched over the table; his expression is so serious.

I enjoyed dissecting the owl pellets too. If you don’t mind (sterilized) rodent fur and you like picking at things, owl pellets are for you. I seriously had so much fun. I think I was still working on mine when both kids were done. Fun, fun, fun…