Owl Pellet Discovery

Wednesday, October 25th 2017

Children and parents arrived this morning ready to tackle some owl pellet dissection.  Armed with owl pellets collected during the summer and autumn by the bird ringers, the children began their delve into another world.  What had the owls been eating?

It did not take long before the parents were helping!  Some of the bones required a closer examination. 

Once the bones had been found they were mounted on card to be taken home.  You can see that this owl had consumed voles, mice, a shrew and possibly a mole.  It is known that shrews and moles taste rather unpleasant. 

This was another excellent activity where the children learnt about owls and their food.  Looking at the observation board and the photographs on display the children asked questions about birds and moths.  One little boy was off to find out more about shieldbugs, as he has seen several around his school. 

It was the last Wednesday of the month, so that is Flower Walk morning.  Our route included Risedale Beck, down to the lake, up the Syacamore Avenue, across the moor and through the Scrapes.  Although we found nearly 30 flowers open, passing the flower test, their numbers are much reduced.  Some had to be examined closely.

Surprisingly Cross-leaved Heath was still flowering.

And to brighten up the blog there was a Dandelion in flower!

We have said many times that our volunteers have a great variety of skills and today was no exception.  Some helped with the children's activity whilst others carried out the flower walk and identified moths.  Thank you to everyone who helped.

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