Owl Pellets

The day of dissecting the owl pellets had arrived.  The older boys were not as excited as I thought they might be.  It was kind of gross.

You need to let them soak for about five minutes to help the pellets come apart more easily.  We picked up the pellets at our local home school convention.  This is our first time dissecting anything, and now the kids are not sure if they are ready to do any more things.  I am hopeful that they will change their minds later on.
Well after they were soaked up, then came the gross part.  You need to pull them apart to see what bones are inside.

They were pretty nasty and smelled real bad.

Both the boys found what we think are mice or voles in their pellets.  Ryan just had one bigger one, and Austin had a bigger one and then at least three small ones.  We hypothesized that the owl must have found a mouse nest.

We will for sure be doing this again in the future.  Even though the kids thought it was gross, they enjoyed themselves.  It's always fun to try something new.