As part of our owl topic we have learnt that owls like to eat mice, shrews, voles and small birds and that they swallow their food whole or in large chunks. Â Some of their dinner cannot be digested so the bones, fur, teeth and feathers are stored in the gizzard and coughed up later as an owl pellet. Today some of us became science detectives and had the opportunity to dissect an owl pellet to investigate what the owl had eaten for its dinner. Very carefully, we used tweezers and pointed sticks to tease the pellet apart and looked closely at what we found with a magnifying glass. Â We discovered lots of interesting items including a whole mouse skull with front teeth attached, many tiny rodent bones, some seeds, bark, fur and even quite a large metal hook??? We are not sure how the owl managed to swallow that! It was fascinating! The rest of us are having a go tomorrow.
