Owl Investigations

Owl Investigations

Every October, I try to plan an owl pellet investigation for my 2nd graders.  This year, I actually got to use owl pellets from our area.  My sweet sister-in-law has a real live owl who lives in a tree at her house.  My sweet niece and sister-in-law picked them up for me a few months back and I froze them until October.  I wasn't for sure they would hold up, but they did just fine.  

Owl Investigations: Digging through Bones

Students used a chart to discover which type of rodent or bird fell prey to the owl.

 Students measured their owl pellets before breaking them in half.  They also made predictions on a chart about how many of each type of bone they would find.  They then used tally marks to get their actual total.  It's really amazing how many little bones can be inside an owl pellet!

Owl's prey...here are some bones...They really loved the skulls, but the picture I took was too clear.