Since next weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count I thought we’d learn more about birds. My kids are very interested in birds so this is a great topic for us. This was something they didn’t know – that owls (and a few other birds) puke up part of the last meal they ate. Gross! Perfect for my kids. Before dissecting our own pellets we watched a couple YouTube videos: Baby Owl Ejects Pellet and Great Horned Owl Coughs Up Pellet. This was a great introduction. Nothing is more exciting to little boys than puke.
I bought this package at Joann’s and used a 40% off coupon. This was a fun activity but, definitely not worth paying full price.
The box came with 2 pellets wrapped in foil.
The pellets looked like hard dryer lint.
Pull it apart carefully looking for the bones from the owl’s last meal. In our case we knew one was going to be a mouse and one was going to be a bird.
Farm Kid2’s pellet had bones of a starling. The bones broke fairly easily – which made it a pain to get all the lint off the bones. So we just left the lint.
Farm Kid 1’s pellet had the bones of a mouse.
The box came with a bone identification sheet, which was great. But many of the bones didn’t match the sheet, making it a bit challenging to figure out which bones went where.
If I were rating this kit, I’d give it a 3 out of 5. Between the videos and the pellet activity I’m sure my kids are never going to forget that owls puke. And, isn’t that the point? Learn something, have fun doing it & remember it. But, the kit itself was kind of chintzy.
Not long after dissecting the fake owl pellets the kids found a real owl pellet while we were on a walk around a wetlands area. So awesome!
