All About Owl Pellets

My brother and mom came home from the Home School book fair with a few arrowheads for my sister, a few shark teeth for me, and some owl pellets for all the boys.

An owl pellet is the throw-up of an Owl.  Gross.  Inside the throw-up is the parts of the animals they cannot digest.  Owls hunt at night and catch mice to eat.  They swallow the mice whole and then digest what they can and throw-up everything else.

There were 3 mouse skulls in one of them.  One skull in the other.  There were lots of other bones in there too.

We sat outside at the table and pulled the pellets apart with our fingers.  The pellets were covered in foil, and then surrounded by fur or hair – that the owl cannot digest either.  Inside was all the bones. 

In 2010 we watched an owl on the computer, her name was Molly. 

This is McGee – the Dad

We were able to see her nest and her eggs.  We also watched a few eggs hatch.  We would watch the mom and dad bring food for the babies.  Before the eggs hatched the dad would bring food for Molly.  Sometimes the food was rabbits or mice, and sometimes they were still alive.  We would watch her eat it. 

This is Molly in her box – see the feathery stuff she is standing on?

Molly’s nest was made out of owl pellets – it look like a bird nest and comfortable – furry and soft.  She had 6 eggs, and hatched 4 babies (we think).  The babies will fly about 5 miles away to make their own nest.

It was fun watching Molly and learning about owls, and it was fun pulling apart the Owl pellets my brother brought home.