Wild Chickens

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.

Mallory Square has a contingent of them.

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.

Flora and Fauna

I think of it as new but the H2O Suites hotel on Simonton offers watery rooms and has been so ding for a couple of years. Apparently you get a plunge pool with your suite and a rooftop bar witha swimming pool for all guests to enjoy when they aren't stepping out onto nearby exciting Duval Street.

It doesn't look exactly the sort of architectural style Old Town Key West is known for but it does catch your eye. Well it caught my eye; other people  have to spend a lot of energy finding their way.

Bright sunshine is supposed to be the time of day people with cameras avoid going out into the noonday sun. I like bright sunshine and I find that even with my camera bright light and dark contrasts make me happy. I do like the clouds to be interesting where possible but even a clear blue sky can turn into a backdrop that looks right sometimes.

If I had to wait around for gray skies, fog and drizzle and overcast I'd never go out with my camera.

The Italian restaurant on Simonton Street, Abbondanza, has found a way to discourage undesirables from camping out on their comfortable bench. They have removed the seat.

I found it inside the front doors ready to be installed fro guests when they start dinner service at the restaurant. It's how you take the imitative to manage your affairs when you are bothered by people hanging out. Pretty smart and self reliant.

The bright sunlight gave me a chance to nail some lizards relaxing and soaking up the rays.

Neither of them seemed intimidated by my camera pointing at them and the FZ1000 has a pretty big lense when it's pointed at you.

I don't often get the chance to hang out with stationary relaxed lizards so I gave them the treatment as they clung brilliantly to the palm.

And while we think about wild tropical animals we can't ignore the ever present, ubiquitous wild chickens of Key West. People say they were brought from Cuba to be used as betting tools in fights, which never made sense to me. I've looked  at photos and paintings made in the early 20th century of Key West streets and there are no chickens to be seen. I suspect they were domestic creatures that just escaped and came to be accepted or ignored until they became darlings of the tourists. But that is a much more rational and uninteresting story than making them out to be descendants of prize Cuban fighting roosters. Perhaps Cuban roosters have figured out a way to reproduce than no one knows of, but I prefer rational thought to make believe. Boring is Me.

Birds, Dogs And A Person

Pictures without words, an accumulation of creatures observed at the White Street Pier  and on our walks. For a serene Sunday read.

Chickens

I was stuck at the Circle K waiting for a friend to meet me so I had two choices, read my Kindle on my phone which was pretty enticing as I am enjoying Havana Blue, a detective story set in contemporary Cuba, or I could play with my camera to pass the time.

There is a surprisingly large cluster of chickens at the Circle K at Mile Marker Ten.  I am no great fan of chickens unless they are on a plate but from time to time I do have to acknowledge that they have their fans.

Visitors to the Keys seem to think iguanas and chickens are first rate public ambassadors and I can't stand either creature. Iguana's wreck local wildlife and chew people's gardens to death and have no natural predators in these islands. Chickens meanwhile are noisy and dirty scattering soil and mulch everywhere in their search for bugs.;

I grew up around chickens and their stupidity is legendary however when you consider the adverse living conditions and  their survival rate I'd say the Lower Keys public chicken population has higher than average intelligence. They can be meaner than snakes too. One chicken ran Rusty off her turf on Appelrouth Lane downtown one day.

 A face only a mother could love ( or a tourist):

I like native birds like these ibis (below). They are quiet dignified and very swift at eating noxious insects. They don't crow at odd hours and they don't kick mulch across sidewalks. I think ibis are the ideal urban insect clean up crew:

Check out this hole: 

The source of Key West's free range street chickens is a mystery shrouded in myth. Some people think they came from Cub when refugees landed in the Keys with their prize cock fighters. This story makes no sense on so many levels I can't understand why it gets propagated so much. I don't recall any refugees in modern history arriving with roosters in their luggage; dogs occasionally have landed but birds from Cuba no, never. Plus if they did bring roosters who would they mate with to propagate the species on the streets?

I have also checked pictures from the early 29th century and none of the folk art I have seen, by Mario Sanchez for instance or Depression Era WPA painters show any signs of chickens in the street. The literature of the era doesn't mention them either. I rather think they got loose probably in the 60s when downtown was collapsing and gradually they evolved into a protected species in the city and a source of tourist largesse.

 In any event here they are and seem bound to stay.

 It's not that I hate chickens but I have no affinity for birds. People are fascinated by parrots but as far as I am concerned I am happy that they live decent lives and long may they do so, but studying them or trailing around behind them does nothing for me. I like dogs.

Chickens have been a source of aggravation too. They city hired a chicken catcher for a while but the humane traps he set out were sprung by well meaning chicken supporters so he had to give up did Armando Parra. I think he made more money from his line of authenticate Key West Chicken Catcher t- shirts than he did from his city bounty actually catching the birds.. 

 There are hundreds of these birds and their fate was much debated. The solemn promise from the city was that they would be rehoused at some sort of humane ranch setting somewhere on the mainland. Some opponents of the catching program envisioned a rather bleaker future like one of those Disney animal cartoon movies about secret slaughter houses from which the heroes have to escape.

 Chickens have their beauty certainly but they are noisy. And anyone who tells you they crow at dawn to herald the arrival of a new day are either misinformed or lying. They make a terrible noise any hour of the day or night.

But they are adaptable, making lives for themselves on the streets and prospering while ignoring the human chaos around them.

 I watched them for quite a while bickering over scraps and strutting around like school yard bullies.

They moved off and I walked up to the deck to keep an eye on the parking lot as I waited for my ride. 

 I don't love Key West's chickens but I don't wish them any harm. They aren't going anywhere and I suppose they shouldn't go away. It's all part of the pageant of Key West.