A veritable who’s who

Suzie Harrison

With the hands of surgeons, they delicately extracted the bones,

ribs, scapulas, feet, skulls and whatever else they could find. The

second-graders were quite serious as they delved deeper into the

study of owls.

The work was part of a three-week study of owls in Roberta

Goodman’s class at El Morro Elementary School. On this day they were

busy extracting the consumed prey from owl pellets and match them on

a bone identification chart.

“I found the humerus, skull, scapula, ribs, ulna, femur, fibula

thoracic vertebrae,” Trevor Collins, 7, said. “I think the skull is

the coolest because it has a lot of cool parts and has the biggest

pieces I’ve seen.”

He said he was worried about crushing the bones and explained that

he made sure to do it gently.

“I’ve found 53 bones already,” Trevor said.

He said he recovered mostly femurs and thinks that’s what the owl

ate the most but didn’t digest.

Before the pellet -- came the owl, a few to be exact, nesting in

the trees behind Goodman’s class, which worked out well as the

students got to experience their subjects first-hand.

The owls have made the trees their home for three years.

“Last year they only had one baby live, this year she had three,”

Goodman said. “They are still around, one fell and had a wing

problem.”

With the help of ranger Pete Ott, a concerned parent and a local

veterinarian, the bird is on the mend.

“We study owls and learn all about their characteristics and

lifecycle, Goodman said. “Each child picks an owl and does a report.”

Kay Baskevitch, 8, studied the striped owl and appreciated the

fact that it does not live in a nest, but in the grass.

“It was small and it was really cute, with its stripes it looked

like fudge,” Kay said. “It lives in North, South and Central America

and calls like ‘wee-yoo,’ ‘wee-yoo.’”

Anya Miller, 8, studied the white-faced scoop owl.

“It’s a small gray owl with a striking white face,” Anya said.

“Its scientific name is Otus Granti.”