San Mateo County Parks Online Classroom Program - Food Web (Owl Pellet dissection)

 

Where: Online 

When : School year, by arrangement

Who   : Grades 2-5

Cost   : Free

This was a hidden gem - we found out that San Mateo County Parks hosts free online lessons on a variety of topics, and requested them to teach one on Food Webs. We scheduled a couple of months in advance - that gave us enough time to gather a group, and work out logistics (e.g. if families wanted to meet at the library to do the class together). A bonus we were not expecting: the lesson includes an owl pellet dissection along with a worksheet, and these were provided for free - the ranger dropped them off a week before. 

On the day of the lesson, we logged on to the Zoom link. Ranger Lauren started off with a question, "Why do we eat?" and that got a lot of chatter. She then moved us to the idea of food as energy, and introduced food chains and food webs.

She also introduced terms like producer, consumer and decomposer, as well as herbivore, carnivore and omnivore. We appreciated that the slides used pictures of local animals, e.g. the Mission Blue Butterfly, which helped us appreciate the diversity of wildlife in our area. The first half of the worksheet came in handy - we drew various food chains and connected them into a food web. 

We then talked about owls - how they don't have teeth, but prey is swallowed whole and the parts which cannot be digested (e.g. bones, feathers) are regurgitated into a package (the "owl pellet"). The pellets we used are sanitized, and can be handled safely. The ranger showed us this video of an owl regurgitating:

After that, it was time for the hands-on activity. Students were eager to take apart the owl pellet (tip: use fingers to gently separate the pellet, tools might break the parts within) and for 10+ minutes worked with intense focus.

The lesson ended with a Q&A, and one of the students had a question which ranger Lauren couldn't answer on the spot, but to her credit, she sent out an email the next day with the answer.

Q: Are owls the only birds which regurgitate pellets?  

A: It turns out many bird species regurgitate pellets! Some are found more frequently because they are denser/sturdier in structure such as owl pellets or pellets from raven or birds of prey (such a hawk or a peregrine). If they google bird pellet they will find MANY types of birds that regurgitate pellets.

We are thankful to San Mateo County Parks for hosting this lesson, and for giving us a renewed appreciation of the complexity of nature around us!

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.