Same Place, Different View

Our field trip today was to our local county’s landfill.  It was a very good field trip.  There were about 40 kids who attended.  We learned about trash and about how to reduce the amount of trash.  We learned about how the Landfill works.  In connection with the local children’s museum, the kids did experiments such as testing water and dissecting owl pellets.  The latter is not what one might first think of when hearing the term “owl pellets”.  Birds of prey cannot digest all that they eat so they will spit it back up much like a cat does a hairball.  Inside the owl pellets, which are held together by dried up hair/fur,  are the remains of what they ate.  The one that I helped with was thought to be a large rodent, such as a squirrel or large chipmunk.  We found the skull, jawbone, teeth, ribs, vertebrae, leg bones, etc.  See below for some pictures.    I reminded the kids why we don’t let the guinea pigs play outside unattended.  They could become lunch.