Saturday, January 14th at 3:00 p.m.

What is an owl pellet? An owl pellet is the compressed undigested animal parts such as bones, teeth, feathers, fur, and claws that is regurgitated (coughed up from the beak). All owls produce pellets and dissecting them is a great way to find out what they eat. Owls are not the only birdss to produce pellets. Hawks, eagles, crows and sparrows produce them, their appearance being smaller and depending on what they eat.

Children and adults will be ‘field biologists’ for the day as they dissect, analyze and identify the remains of various small animals found in the pellets. Even the youngest children can practice skills of observation and classification while using age-appropriate tools (including tweezers, toothpicks, magnifying lenses and microscopes) to dissect an owl pellet.  Bone identification charts will be available to try and identify the bones and other materials they find in order to discover what the owls ate – this will likely be their first lesson in comparative anatomy.

“See” an owl produce a pellet by watching this video of a Barred Owl owlet.

Suggested donation of $5 or $10 for a family to help cover the cost of the pellets and supplies.

Please register by calling 228-6250 or email moosewoodnc@gmail.com. Please consider supporting your year-round nature center by becoming a member. Membership information can be found here.

MooseWood is located on Presque Isle Park in the former Shiras Pool building in Marquette, MI.