On the hunt for Owl Pellets (A FIAR field trip)

 While I was planning for school in August, I knew I wanted to row through the book Owl Moon sometime in the winter.  Towards the end of November I told Barry that I need to purchase some owl pellets for dissection in January when we would get to this book.  He told me that his friend, and  fellow deputy knew of a spot where there were many bones of rabbits that became prey to the local owls.  He was sure that Clarke would help and take us to find them.  I was so excited, but when we actually got out to the spot, the bones were gone!
However, he remembered a friend that had been out dog hunting in the area and when he came upon one certain tree an owl would always fly away.  Sooo, we were off again, high with hope, in finding some owl pellets.  The tree that Clarke thought was "the tree" didn't have any and we were feeling a little gloomy, but then I heard Barry shout  "Hey, is this what they look like?  I think we may have found some!"  

 Sure enough, around the base of another pine tree he found some grey balls that looked like dead mice, but upon inspection, they were owl pellets...at least I thought them to be, they fit the description.

We searched around for some more and came away with 7 or 8 owl pellets, a few feathers and a very happy hunting crew!

 Posing in front of the "Owl Tree".  We can't thank Clarke enough for a wonderful drizzly, afternoon traipsing through the woods in search for owl pellets....I'm sure he thinks we're crazy homeschooling people.  But, he did get a loaf of my famous cinnamon bread for the deed!

 A few days later, after I did a bit of research on owl pellets, we completed the second half of our experiment.  We soaked the pellets in water and started to clear away the fur, hair and debris.  Using a chart that helps identify the prey by the bones we found that our owl eats lots of field voles, commonly known as field mice, however, voles and mice are different.  By the teeth we were able to tell that these were voles.

We have been doing watching lots of videos, researching sites and reading books on owls.  Here in Virginia, most commonly we have Great Horned Owls, Barred Owls, Screech Owl and Barn Owl.  We've concluded that this owl is definitely not a Barn owl--his home is in the tree, not a human structure such as a silo or barn,--it's most likely a Great Horned owl, because they prefer pine trees to nest in.

Although Cailin's working on primitive plants for science,she's loving this sidetrack into the life of owls.  She plans to do a bit of research on them too.

 This looks quite gross really, but even Delaney, who wasn't excited about sifting through the gunk had a wonderful time.

We identified ribs, scapula, jaw bones (from the teeth pattern we were able to identify the prey as voles), pelvic bones, hind limbs, and forelimbs, vertebrae and lots and lots of skulls.

Riverbanks Zoo, South Carolina

This is Cailin speaking:

I love animals. Let me just let you know that. I do not want to be a veterinarian because I would have to kill animals. Or, rather, put them down,  but that's practically the same thing. I want to be a wildlife biologist.
     The zoo was stunning. They had a nice variety of animals. They had juvenile Komodo Dragons, which can be seen in the picture above and below.

Connor here--The Komodo Dragons were truly awesome. I want to come back in a few years and see how they've grown. Those things were already about two feet long as children. Makes one wonder, what would it be like to have one as a pet? Adult males can grow to be ten feet long and weigh three hundred pounds. They also eat their own weight in food every day. But, they're also able to take down water buffalo (my sources for this info are forgotten, so I don't remember if they're reliable or not. I do know that they are able to catch deer.) The police should replace their German Shepherds with Komodos. 

Ryan here--  He refuses to tell you his thoughts....but we really may not want to hear them as he didn't want to go....but he did, albeit, kicking and screaming!  Okay, well not the kicking part.  But once he got there he was quite happy....proof by the picture below.

Delaney here--  I want to write in purple...so here's my thoughts-- It was cool to see all the animals and to do all the things I did there.  It's one experience with my family that I will never forget.  I've been wanting to go to the zoo now for about a year and I'm glad we were able to finally get here.

Liam here-- I liked going to the zoo.  I liked seeing the Komodo Dragon.  I had a good time because I got to see lots of animals that I haven't seen before.  I liked seeing the lion and the tiger.   

The sign outside the reptile house said "Here Be Dragons" Ha, ha.

The Elephants are interesting creatures. They use their trunks to transport their hay (or whatever it was that they were eating) to their mouths. One kept rolling it into a ball and dropping it. It did this several times, making its meal a nice little bundle before putting it into its mouth. I was fascinated. They are fascinating creatures, they really, really are. 

The elephants were cool and they were from Africa,  hey the same place my Grandma and Grandpa are as they are serving a mission. 

Here we are with the elephants. 

On a fake turtle. That reminds me, I don't know if Mom took any pictures of them, but there were these really neat creations of a lion, zebra, and giraffe made completely out of spare parts. They were called "Recycled Life"

Kangaroo.

We got to walk where the kangaroos lived...in their caged area.  We didn't not get to pet one, but we still got to walk in their habitat.

Brianne likes the zoo and showing off how many signs she knows. 

These are blue macaws.

The name of the species these birds were was not blue macaw, although Cailin is technically correct, they are blue, and they are most likely macaws. I don't actually remember what the species was, regrettably.

I think we were at the owls here.

It was cool to see the owls because we are learning about them at home.

MONKEY!!!!

Statue of a lion!

"Hey! We tamed a lion!  Thank you Bree, Bree for sitting near the head!"

Oh, that's sad, you can't really see the lions....but I got that lion toy for five dollars at the gift shop. It was normally 17 dollars. The little lion in the lion's den...there was one male lion, asleep, and two females, one was asleep and one was grooming herself. The lion was sleeping in an odd position, with his legs splayed out and his tail in the air. If you look closely, really closely, you can see one of the lionesses. 

Never mind.

There's the tiger! I was a little disappointed at the lack of big cats in the zoo, but then the tiger roared and it was worth it. I could imagine his frustration. "GET OUT!" He roars, but people call to their family, "He's roaring, he's roaring!" They flock around like birds. He roars again, "GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" More people run up and peer over other's heads.

The tiger gives up and walks back to his cave. 

Darn it. Cailin stole what I was going to say. Oh well. You can't really appreciate the size of a tiger until you've seen one in person. 

On a ride.

I didn't realize that a carousel ride would be enticing to kids of all ages, but Ryan wanted to go on one...and so did Cailin.  Connor went along to help Liam.

Brianne likes it.

We all had a great time.

Delaney participates in the tiger rodeo and tames one enough to ride it.

"I was scared at first to ride the carousel, but once I got used to it, it was fun!"

Oh, this part is funny. We went to the Lorakeet feeding place. You could feed lorakeets nectar. Once Ryan walked in, they flocked on and started eating stuff off his jacket. Yuck. It was his dandruff. 

They LOVED Connor's buttons on his shirt! They wouldn't go away! One even unbuttoned one!

I would have preferred to have told that story myself. But yes, the lorakeets were not birds, they were demons wearing technicolor feathers. 

He really seemed to like this activity.

Connor doesn't look happy.

Connor turns into a Lorakeet perch.

 I was worried the one on my head would poop on me.

Liam is happy to feed a bird.

The lorakeet is attacking the button!

The bird was fascinated with the loose strings on my jacket. 

Poor Delaney...she got nipped by a bird!

I was scared at first but when Dad and Mom helped me get a bird on my hand it was okay.  It ate the nectar.  It was a cool experience.  One kept attacking Connor's button.  

Just look at the malice in its eye!

This picture is proof of the demon bird comment from before.

Delaney is surprised.

"That goat ate all the food right out of my hand!!  There was no more to feed any of the other goats."

Beside the ostrich and zebra cage. 

Flamingos and Coi fish....above.

PENGUIN! I loved the penguins! 

My favorite animal was the penguins because I could pretend to be a penguin!!

I saw Penguins!! I thought that they only lived in Antarctica.  There were plastic rocks there that we could stand on and then jump off them, just like a penguin would.

The temple was spiritual and we got to touch it, just like President Monson says, "If you touch the temple, then the temple touches you."  

I didn't know that we were going to go and see the temple when we went to the zoo.  I've been wanting to touch the temple for a long time now.  

After the zoo, we touched the temple.

It just occurred to me that this blog post was about the entire trip, not just the zoo. Although, I will remark about what I was thinking about at the time this picture was taken. Have you ever thought about memories? For example, what if the previous remarks and pictures in this blog post are really figments of your imagination? If you were to check this, and found the pictures there, it could easily be that your entire thought process that caused you to look up there was invented by your mind to explain the situation. This produces strange connotations. Since we are bound by our experiences, we cannot test this hypothesis because the outcome would be bound by it, making anything we found useless. We also couldn't disprove it, as that which we found would also be bound by it.I think about stuff like that when I'm bored.

At CiCi's Pizza.

I dare say, that this was Ryan's favorite part of the trip....pizza, and TV, a great combination in his opinion.
Cici's pizza was DELICIOUS!!! It seemed like I didn't have enough pizza, but I did!!  Dessert was good too.

OOOH! YUMMY!!!!

Drinking water...  I liked to eat here because I could eat dessert...and Mom and Dad had to get it for me!!

Vicki here--We had a great time!!  I love it when we have a great family memory created..  Liam and Laney have been wanting to go to a zoo for quite a while now, but something was always keeping us from going....money, mowing, time, school schedules etc.   We just have to plan all our vacation time in the winter, most of those problems are solved!