On 5th June 2014 we had a visit from Birds Of Prey which Friends of Rainbow kindly organised for the school.
All classes took turns to meet the owls we were very quiet as we walked into Preparatory and amazed to see six owls from around the world like the Amazon Rainforest, Argentina even Peru and our very own British Barn Owl.
They were all different; some were fluffy and big with small eyes and some big with small eyes. All of them were perched on top of special stand with straps tied around their leg so they don’t fly around.
The owls also had very interesting names that we are sure the children recognised! We had Wispa, Truffle and Twix also Gizmo, Sugar Puff and Archie.
The barn owl Wispa was a stunningly beautiful white bird with golden and silver grey feathers - it had a distinctive white heart shaped face.
Wispa gave us a demonstration where we watched as he had his lunch of chick’s legs! Miss Sylvia and Miss Izzy took turns and had to put on a special glove and with two taps on the glove Wispa then left the handlers glove and flew across preparatory to the other side of the room onto Miss Sylvia and Miss Izzy gloved hand where he tucked into his lunch.
We also found out after eating, Wispa needs digest his food for 10 hours! After this he brings back up a pellet which is formed off all the bones and feathers he has eaten.
We then had a further surprise! The children were able to see a very cute baby owl who was only 5 weeks old.
The baby was a ball of white fluff like a snowball she was very curious of all the children and walked over to them. She moved her head left to right over and over again, this is because all owls have binocular vision and this allows her to focus on everyone around her.
Finally the children then came up and close and personal with Archie - he was photographed with all children and he was not camera shy at all and very happy to pose with the children whilst they had their photographs taken with him!
The children learnt about the different locations where owls can be found and that there are many different species of owls. We were told how their digestive system works and shown a pellet which looked like a stone! It was incredible! We also discovered that an owl cannot turn their head all the way round but can go halfway.
Overall, the visit was such a wonderful experience for everyone including the teachers!
Thank you very much Friends of Rainbow for organising this for us!
Rainbow Montessori School Children and Teachers
Elementary 1
Elementary 2
Primary & Preparatory
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