Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993 TAG: 9303060054
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
OWL'S FAIR; IT'S A HOOT
It was a frenzy of fuzzy, feathered fowl last week at Harding Avenue Elementary School.The gymnasium was filled with owl pictures, owl sculptures, Woodsy the Owl (the bird that says "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute!"), owl pellets, owl skeletons and plenty of owl displays containing interesting owl facts - all part of the school's first owl fair.
Did you know that there are air sacs inside an owl's bones that make it very light?
And an owl turns its head at such incredible angles because it cannot move its eyes from side to side?
How about owl pellets? They aren't the same thing as rabbit pellets, but actually the fur and bones of little field mice and moles and other owl treats that cannot be digested. The owl simply regurgitates this material - sort of like a cow chewing its cud - and spits it out. Scientists can study these pellets to gain knowledge of an owl's diet in any particular area.
These are the tidbits teachers Joan Nunnally and Barbara Crockett hoped to teach their pupils this year as a result of an $850 grant provided through Montgomery County schools for special classroom projects.
The children have been studying owls for the entire school year and the recent event was the culmination of more than a semester of work.
"We started the first day of school with live owls," Nunnally said. "Then every Wednesday and Friday we studied owls, teaching them [the children] how to do research without just using encyclopedias."
Most of the grant money was used to buy books and magazines about owls - "Ranger Rick," "Zoo News," and other wildlife and zoo books. The teachers also bought computer programs and real samples of owl pellets.
The community got involved, too.
Parent Tom Reisinger, a forestry professor at Virginia Tech, came to talk about the spotted owl controversy, telling the children both sides of the issue - the timber industry's and the conservationists'.
"I tried to stress that we need to sort of balance the two" to protect the owls and people, Reisinger said.
Probably the highlight of the owl fair were the real live owls brought in by the New River Wildlife Center.
Jackie Collins, a wildlife rehabilitator for the center, showed the owls the center has cared for.
"Hoot," a little screech owl about the size of a Nerf football, was hit by a train a couple of years ago. He was found by some high school students and brought to the Wildlife Center. He perched comfortably on a child's arm, a complacent look on his round fluffy face, as pupils, parents and other visitors asked questions.
"I think, without a question, the most important thing these kids have learned is to have respect for wildlife," Collins said.
"It's astounding how much they've learned - and besides the kids, the parents have learned a lot by being here."
Tommy Brumfield, 10, said spending the year learning about owls has been "lots of fun, because I learned a lot."
He now knows where owls live and how far they can turn their necks. His job at the fair was to direct the "Owl Game" booth, showing the pupils how to play an owl trying to catch a mouse.
"I learned that there are 152 species of owls, and that around here there are screech owls, spotted owls, barred owls and the great horned owl," said 11-year-old Nathan Janney.
"I didn't know what the [owl] pellets were," said Wilma Cundiff, 11. "And I learned about their habitats and that they eat mice and stuff."
But 11-year-old Kasey Kohl may have learned the most important lesson of all:
"It is important to just leave an owl where it is," he said, "because if you leave it alone, you'll have a better chance of seeing it."