What do you do when school has become a tad too tedious for your nine year old?
Owl pellets!
Owl pellets are Neve’s favorite school activity. If you’ve never heard of them (brace yourself) – they are dried owl vomit. When an owl consumes its meal of a mouse or bird or mole, it digests the soft parts and vomits back out the hard bits – the bones, fur, etc. The vomit can then be dissected by adventurous school children to see what the owl in question ate.
Although Maddie and Emily refused to take part this year (having done it both once before) Oona was more than happy to jump in and try it out.
The girls were disappointed that none of the pellets contained evidence of a small bird, but excited for each little bone and bit of rodent that they did find.
We’ll be checking out some books about owls to round out the fun, and it’s made me think about how much I love hearing the owls that live in our woods and spend all spring and summer hooting away the evenings.
Merry Magpie Farm 
I need some owl drawings, too….
I once had a patient (home health) who lived wayyyy out in the country with no houses anywhere close. We somehow began discussing owl pellets and said that there were some big owls in a tree across the road. so, everytime I visited her, I made it the last visit of the day so I could see if I could find some. Not only did I NEVER ever find any, EVERYTIME someone would drive by and see me. At some point, I guess a neighbor decided I might be dangerous and warned not only my patient but a sheriff about my dastardly doings. All that and no owl pellets. I think I am jealous!
Oh my! Susan, I am so in love with that story! I have now been picturing you out skulking around looking for owl vomit while nosy neighbors hid behind their drapes and feared the worst.