Poem and photos by Master Naturalist, Doug Jackson
Hey kids! Can you help me finish this story?
I don’t know if you have ever heard
Of my noble friend, the big copper bird.
I gave him a name, a long silly word,
The Snoodlegobbler, which sounds frankly absurd.
Being a bird, he is covered with feathers
From the base of his neck, right down to his nethers.
His tail fans out into stark and brown rings.
And he can fly just by flapping his wings.
Yet he looks too heavy to fly all alones.
But he’s helped by the fact of his thin, hollow bones.
For insects and seeds he’ll peck for and seek.
His food he’ll snatch up with his hard and sharp beak.
To digest the hard grains, he’s got help from a wizard,
An organ in his belly known as a gizzard.
From his beak hangs some flesh that will wiggle and wobble,
As he struts all around and calls out a gobble.
As he stoops down to eat, it could fall in his food.
It’s long and it’s pink, and it’s known as his snood.
Under their beaks, toms and hens have things weird.
From their breasts, both can have a feathery beard.
Small bumps on his aunts and large on his uncles,
Are red lumps on their necks known as caruncles.
Much sharper and keener than the hunter who spies.
All toms and hens have superior eyes.
His spikes on his legs are bigger than hers,
Though not a cowboy, he dons pairs of spurs.
Oh, the “Snoodlegobbler” just sounds too long and too quirky.
Perhaps I should change his name to the _?_?_?_.
