OWL BIOLOGY
I started calling and studying owls in college some thirty years ago. When I arrived in Oregon for graduate school, I soon became involved in the work that Eric Forsman was doing with to spotted owls in the Willamette National Forest, calling and baiting owls, mapping habitat, and working with the timber industry to preserve important habitats.
When I began working for the Washington Department of Wildlife in 1984, I analyzed more than 700 spotted owl and barred owls pellets, as part of a prey availability study and soon became the spotted owl point man in southwest Washington, evaluating impacts of timber harvest and development on owls and working to protect their dwindling habitat.
This experience has led me to a complete and personal view of owl biology, owl habitat, and predator/prey relationships, and I can communicate this in a meaningful and important way, in this curriculum unit. We'll bring owl pellets full of bones and skulls and collected from the local areas, along with reference skeletons from our extensive private collection for comparison, dissect these pellets, identify the species, identify and study the bones, how the critter fits in the prey base, and throw in a healthy dose of owl biology to boot. Always popular and multidisciplinary. Recommended for K-6.