WISE
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog

WISEfriends Blog

Curiosity, amazement soars at Wings over Wrangells

8/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Copper River Record  August 9, 2018
By Janelle Eklund
​It was a cloudy drizzly rainy kind of day but that didn’t deter people spreading their wings to flock to Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve’s (WRST) Wings Over the Wrangells. Four learning stations gave participants the opportunity to experience firsthand the lives of birds.
 
The picking apart of owl pellets to discover all kinds of little bones and skulls was a major attractant for the young crowd and some oldsters at the Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment (WISE) station. Equipped with gloves, tweezer, a pointed stick, and a hand lens there was some very meticulous picking apart and serious discovery going on. The excitement of finding a small jaw with tiny teeth, or a whole intact skull was thrilling to watch. A sheet of paper identifying the various bones was taped next to each person so as they picked the bones out of the pellet they could lay them on the correct picture, which was labeled with the type of bone. Parents of the young ones were just as fascinated and worked right along with them digging and probing for bone treasures.
 
Some wanted to take their pellet and/or bones home and continue the joy of finding something new.
 
Contrary to popular belief an owl pellet is not something that comes out of the hind end of the bird. It’s actually regurgitated matter. The owl uses its beak to take apart a vole – like us cutting our meat – and consumes it along with any bones. The meat and soft tissues get digested. The bones don’t and the owl needs to get rid of them, so they are regurgitated and come out in a pellet looking similar to a winter moose dropping, but usually a little bit bigger. Sometimes the bones are pretty intact within the pellet and if one is very careful, as some of the participants were, the whole skull can be extracted from the rest of the pellet.
 
A live Great Gray Owl and Red Tailed Hawk from the Bird Treatment and Learning Center also drew attention where their life style and habits were discussed. These birds had been injured in some way and could not be returned to the wild because they wouldn’t survive. So they become teachers!
 
At another station anyone was also able to make their own bird out of craft materials and/or spruce cones. Everyone seemed to enjoy the afternoon of scientific bird discovery with the new found knowledge giving their own wings a wider span! Thanks to WRST for putting on this enjoyable event. 
Picture
Kids and parents enjoyed discovering what remained of an owl's meals inside the pellets they cough up at the WISE learning station as part of Wings Over the Wrangells at the NPS visitor center.  Photo: Courtesy of Janelle Eklund
0 Comments
    Picture

    Who We Are

    WISEfriends are several writers connected with Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment, a nonprofit organization located in Alaska's Copper River Valley.  Most of these articles originally appeared in our local newspaper, the Copper River Record.

    Archives

    August 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2009
    September 2007
    August 2007
    May 2007
    May 2006
    May 2005
    March 2005
    June 2003
    September 2000
    July 2000
    July 1998
    June 1998

    Categories

    All
    Alaska Forum On The Environment
    Aquatic Ecology Camp
    Art
    Audubon's Christmas Bird Count
    Bear
    Birds
    Blueberries
    Camping
    Cats
    Changing Seasons
    Chosen Frozen
    Christmas Bird Count
    Clean-up Day
    Copper River Basin Symposium
    Copper River Stewardship Program
    Denali
    Donation
    Earth Discovery Day
    Fish
    Geology Camp
    Giving Tuesday
    Glacier
    HAARP
    Hikes
    Home
    Ice Fishing
    In Class Science
    In-Class Science
    Insects
    Interns
    Kotsina River Cleanup
    Lamprey Lecture
    Lecture Series
    Local Food
    Meadow Jumping Mouse
    Moose
    Natures Beauty
    Neighborhood Nuisance
    Nic'anilen'Na
    Oil Spill
    Owl
    OWLS
    Partnerships
    Plants
    Pop-Up Natural Playground
    Project Healing Waters
    Quinzee
    Redback Voles
    Re-Usable Shopping Bag
    Salmon Blitz
    Skiing
    Snow
    Snowshoe Hares
    Subsistence
    Tolsona Mud Volcanoes
    Tonsina River Trail
    Volcano
    Weather
    Wildfires
    Wild Plants Of The Copper Basin
    Wings Over The Wrangells
    Winter Fun Day
    WISE News
    WISE Thoughts
    Women Of Distinction
    Wrangell St. Elias National Park

    RSS Feed

Picture
About WISE
What We Do
Get Involved
Support WISE 

Contact Us
Policies​
Wrangell Institute for Science & Environment 
www.wise-edu.org
contact@wise-edu.org
(907) 822-3575
​WISE is a
501(c)3
nonprofit
​organization
 
​

Contact Us

Donate
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog