I have had a rather mixed relationship with the wild chickens of Key West over the years. I find the fascination with them rather surprising until my wife pointed out that the fact that chickens are not normally seen wandering around towns in the US. I suppose that is true. This one was guarding a meal that went astray though I like to think he didn't recognize the meat as being of the genus gallus..
I have noticed over the years how chickens live on the streets in families, just like these seen below. The more you observe animals the more you come to understand they have similar feelings and we share many of those as well.
Nevertheless wild chickens are noisy and messy as they live out their dramas on the streets of Key West and I suppose I am forced to accept they have earned their place in the panoply of tourist attractions. The recurring myth that they came here from Cuba still manages to irritate me but I suppose the tourists need to be fed some kind of an interesting line about these interlopers.
I should point out that they do have the capacity to create some interesting photo opportunities. Here witha lounger and a coffee maker...
They are everywhere if you know where to look and even if you don't. For the best photo opportunities you can find flocks of hens and roosters in front of the post office on Whitehead Street. These I found near the Old Harris School on Southard.
And when cold weather threatens they roost everywhere, just check the bushes.
If they improve the quality of your vacation they have done their job, I tell myself as I step over the piles of dirt and leaves they scratch out onto the sidewalks all over town.
5 comments:
I dont trust them. Last time I was in Key West 2 chickens kept following me and giving me the stinkeye. They were up to no good. I was starting to get eggsasperated but decided to cross the road. I suspected fowl play. I scrambled to get away from them. I finally told them to Cluck Off. They are not taking advantage of this old Rooster.
The first time I went to KW I stayed at what was then a Comfort Inn, which is now calling itself The Gates, in a ground floor poolside room. I was bringing things in from the car and propped the door open since it was lovely out. As I was puttering about I had a feeling I was...not alone. So I turned around to find a hen standing in the doorway, checking out my luggage, possibly prospecting for spilled takeout. I said, “Hi,” she concluded the pickings weren't good, and went back to her nest in the plantings around the pool.
I think they’re funny, but then, I don’t have to live with them...
What *are* a little creepy are those big land crabs down by the wildlife rescue.
Good one Dave and you live right among them.
Land crabs are much the creepiest creatures. Walk a trail and listen up ghastly rustling sun the dead leaves as you walk by.
I used to feel followed until I figured them out.
Rusty hates chickens and will cross the street to avoid them oddly enough.
I think "24 North" is what used to be The Comfort Inn. They had some "greasy spoon" chain restaurant on the first floor, like a Stuckey's or something... I can't remember for sure. The wife and I always stayed at Holiday Inn (now Marriot) Beachside until it closed in 2005, which I only remember as we were there that year. It had rooms with balconies that extended so far you were actually standing OVER the super-clear-water with grass beds rich in small & tiny fish, which I'm sure either insurance costs or zoning rules no longer allow as the Marriot "installed" an artificial fake beach Bahama-sand 'barrier' directly behind the seawall with the buildings around 12 feet from the water with no true ground-level rooms as ground-level is car parking ONLY beneath each stand-alone wing, save for the common areas like the office & restaurant.
The Marriot Beachside was built as a hurricane proof category five building and is the back up space for catastrophic evacuation. When Hurricane Irma approached with 140 mph winds the back up plan if the police station collapsed was to get somehow to the Beachside two miles away. Even wearing a SWAT helmet I thought the plan had some obvious flaws but happily the police station outdid itself and did not fall apart in the face of the worst storm I've seen or hope to see.
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