Owl vomit, to be precise, or regurgitated pellets if you want to get all technical.
When faced with the vastness of a museum, in this case San Francisco's Academy of Sciences, you never know what's going to tickle your -- or your children's -- fancy, especially when you are regular visitors. This time the aquarium was too crowded, the rain forest seemed less than lush, the stuffed beasts in the Africa hall were more creepy than compelling. And we had to steer poor Ada away from the frustrations of finding that people are still playing the 'Watch Your Step!' game wrong. But we found the perfect spot in the quiet of the education center where a delightful young man sat with an owl pellet ready for dissection. It was from a Barn Owl and featured an almost complete song bird skeleton, multiple scapulae, a number of small rodent skulls, tiny jawbones, radii, ulnae and more. It kept the children rapt for longer than anything that day.
