rss
mobile
Feeds
"They lay eggs," the children answered enthusiastically.
The owl storytime held Jan. 29 at the pavilion at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island was just one aspect of a new program called "Moonlight Creature Features" presented by the museum for children ages 7 to 12.
Last week's program focused on the wise, old creatures, and the next two will cover bats and moths. The museum's curator of education, Amy Tressler, said children are fascinated with nocturnal animals because they are rarely seen and most people don't know much about them.
"When you're talking about something that is mysterious and strange, I think that it's automatically appealing to kids," Tressler said. "And I think that they enjoy coming out and doing something in the evening. You know, it's a fun adventure."
And for the first Creature Feature program, that adventure included not only stories about owls but a nighttime nature walk, owl crafts and owl pellet dissections. About 50 children attended the event, where they took turns going to various stations to participate in owl-related activities.
At the pellet dissection table, children took apart the stubby, cigar-like pellets of owl regurgitation. Tressler said most owls swallow their prey whole, but bones, fur and feathers can't be digested and are instead regurgitated. The items in the pellets can reveal what and how much the owls eat. Using a bone-sorting guide, the children were able to name, or at least guess about, the different animals the owls had eaten.
Bluffton resident Alexander Shannon, 11, focused intently on his owl pellet as he tried to decipher what the animal must've eaten. This might be good practice for Alexander, who said he wants to be a surgeon some day.
"I'm finding a lot of weird stuff," he said. Among his finds was a rodent skull with teeth still in place.
At another table, children created owl crafts out of paper plates, feathers, construction paper and chenille stems. And somewhere in between crafts, stories, dissections and a nature walk, the children got to roast marshmallows on an open fire. Judging by how much fun the kids were having, the event was definitely a hoot.
