I have fond memories of many lessons in elementary school, but one of the shining highlights was the day us kiddos were each given an owl pellet to dissect. The ugly little grey-brown lumps, the size and shape of stuffed grape leaves, looked a whole lot like any number of small critter scat one might discover on the forest floor, and while they were indeed evidence of wild digestive systems at work, poop they were not. Along with our pellet, we were given tweezers and microscopes, and it…