This story is true, although Maria and Enrique are fictional characters. A barred owl does live in the rafter of the chickee at Shark Valley and does drop owl pellets from its nest almost daily. The purpose of this story is twofold: (1) to learn more about the eating habits of owls and (2) learn something about the anatomy of what the owls eat, which is mostly rodents. This is done by dissecting the owl pellet and trying to put together the bones in the pellet into a complete skeleton.