In this poor-quality photo—taken yesterday through the smudgy glass of my bedroom window on an overcast afternoon—the little creamy-hued tit seems to be awed by the massive beak of the finch.
The visitor loitered on the edge of the clay pot for about five minutes, during which time no tit dared to dive in for a sunflower seed.
I don't see many finches at Gamone. Rare visitors impress me and obtain my respect (I'm as awed as a tit) in the sense that I've always imagined finches as co-inventors, in the company of
Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands, of the principle of evolution.
Clearly, if this solitary finch happened to go out of its way to visit an evolutionary enthusiast at Gamone, I would imagine that the bird was aware of the approach of
Darwin Day [
display], which falls tomorrow, on 12 February.
[I'm aware that Darwin's so-called "finches" were
not in fact common chaffinches of the Gamone variety.]
To celebrate Darwin Day, I urge you to visit the
WWF website [
access] and sign a petition aimed at "
killing the trade that kills the elephant".
BREAKING NEWS (announced an hour ago)
Miracle on the eve of Darwin Day:
Benny 16 resigns!
Darwinians of the world, let us unite and launch a lobby designed to spread a great idea: namely, that nobody should ever replace a pope who has resigned.
The only problem with Benny resigning is that he will be replaced by another geriatric troglodyte.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, Badger, it's theologically wrong for a pope to resign. It's daggy dogma, akin to the evil idea of Jesus deciding to put an end to his suffering by getting down off the cross. The resignation of a pope is a sin, which no supreme prince of the Church has committed for centuries, and God is sure to be displeased by such a selfish act. So, the only way to attenuate the evil of such an event, while hoping for God's forgiveness, is for the Church to decide, once and for all, that there shall be no more popes. And, while we're about it, no more pedophilic priests. And maybe even, with a bit of extra effort, no more Catholicism. As our mathematics teacher used to say (at least the oldtimers who knew a bit of Latin): Quod erat demonstrandum.
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