Key West Roosters

Key West Roosters

Friday February 19, 2021

After spending so much time in Key West, I felt I had to figure out what the story is behind the chickens that run around loose everywhere.  According to the information that I could find on the “interwebs”, the roosters are descendants of those bred for cock fighting.  Once the practice was outlawed, it seems people just released the roosters.  Seemingly, there must have been escaped domestic hens roaming the streets.  Soon there were roosters, hens and chicks all over the place.  

The poultry have their fans and their detractors.  Some people enjoy the sight of these birds roaming around (sometimes stopping traffic).  They think it adds a certain something to the Key West experience. Many people think the roosters in particular are annoying. I read an opinion by one woman who said “ they are just like the tourists—they don’t know when to quit.  They crow at all hours of the day or night.”  (From what Tasha said, she might be more in this camp.  We are fortunate in that the birds don’t seem very attracted to the dock areas.  We hear them in the morning but not from right outside the boat!

As you might imagine with a controversial subject, there’s a lot of debate about what to do.  At one stage the city employed a “chicken catcher”. (How would that job title look on your resume?) While it wasn’t overtly stated, I got the impression that the duties involved catching the chickens and wringing their necks.  Some residents were horrified and some were delighted.  Eventually, the catcher of fowl quit the job and was not replaced.  Now, it seems that one can request a trap (from the town?).  Once the annoying bird is caught, the Key West wild life sanctuary will take the bird away.  These are re-housed on farms where they are used to reduce the insect population.  Rather than allow the birds to roam free and eat the crops as well as the bugs, the poultry are kept in long mesh tubes in between the rows of plants.  That way they can eat the bugs which come their way but not destroy the vegetables.  

From what I’ve seen, there aren’t nearly enough traps to keep up with the population growth.

Today we started to do a few jobs to get ready to depart the marina.  We defrosted the freezer and cleaned the fridge and freezer.  Then we pumped out the holding tank—always a joy! Our reward was a trip back to the botanical garden.  On the way we stopped off for lunch at the Thai place where you can sit outside on the balcony.  Before dinner we went to get cleaned up and in the time it took to take a shower the wind picked up from next to nothing to 25-30 knots as a cold front moved in. The boat is now listing to starboard.

Gloria

24 42.220 N, 81 06.131 W

Lizard on a metal fence post (split tone B&W)

The same lizard on chain link fence (B&W)

Turtle

Cotinga at the dock in Key West ... our new neighbors on the far side of the dock have underwater blue lights (even at the dock the boat moves enough to blur other objects when using 30s exposure and tripod)