Surprise During Teaching Times

This morning I spent quality time with one of my grandsons. Our intent was for me to teach him how to use a compass while at the same time work with him to shoot outdoor photos with a “good” camera.

We hiked a trail that wove in and out of trees. Some of the trees were conifers - trees that are prime habitat for owls. As we hiked under the trees we found random aged (fragile/soggy) owl pellets. Those pellets made perfect subject matter for a young lad to learn to work a camera on. Owl pellets don’t move making framing and focusing easier than a living subject. So, we practiced shooting photos on owl pellets.

As we wandered along the trail talking about owls, pellets, cameras, and other kid/gramps stuff, we lucked out and found a saw-whet owl. Not only did we find a saw-whet owl, but the owl had a mouse it was in the process of eating. Of course finding the owl was the highlight of our outing for him and me. He learned some about the compass, but much more about owls. The owl was buried deep in a cedar tree, so my photos were less than perfect when it came to lighting and compositions.

After our hike we checked out areas along the river. There we found 4 male common mergansers. Again, technically the images are not perfect, but they do show the mergansers.

And now for an educational bit of wisdom. If you wish to find gather owl pellets, do not be confused between owl pellets and animal scat. On the left in this image is animal scat (fox or coyote) produced after the predator feed on something with fur - likely a rabbit. On the right is an owl pellet my grandson found. This was the only dry pellet we found and we will dissect it to try to reassemble the prey animal’s skeleton. FYI - Scat comes out the back end, owl pellets come out of the mouth.