Oak titmouse. San Mateo County

For fun
Christine L. Case

 

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The Great Tit Rip-off

Left on British doorsteps early in the day
Bottles of milk capped with foil or cardboard
Wait to be taken in and put away.
No one thought this quintessentially
Mammalian food was for the birds
But no one reckoned with the local Paridae:
Four species quickly learned to use the bill
To puncture, peel, or highly prize the caps---
Thus ultimately foiled---and swill.
This shift involving diet
Smacks in hindight of the loosely preadaptive
Inasmuch as tit were the birds to try it.

Poem: John M. Burns. BioGraffiti. Photo: C. Case

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