It is a fine morning here in the Banana Belt, Port Townsend specifically.
Calm and gray at dawn, with the moist air that really seems to encourage Robin song; this mornings dawn chorus was a real ear- full of singing Robins, even more than usual here lately. So many songs overlapping songs that counting the singers was impossible. In the dawn lots of Towhees trilling loudly here, and other birds.
But then, off in the distance, almost lost in the chorus - an exotic call; the Junglefowl!
Many year's ago when I was a kid in Seattle, my family used to go to Woodland Park Zoo. I remember many of the exotic birds they had there, including some sort of Junglefowl. "Hey, that's a Chicken!" I remember thinking.
That's right folks, Chickens are really Junglefowl! Domesticated from Red Junglefowl a fancy wild bird of South Asia. (possibly with other crosses). It was nice to hear one crowing in the distance. Back in the late winter I could hear that rooster much better without all the songbird competition. Very nice.
Back home in Everett I don't get to hear that sort of thing, because they got all them urban rules and stuff, and you can have chickens in town, but no rooster - no cockle-doodle doo's in Everett. I can understand that this loud early morning call might piss off many urban dwellers.
I've been largely an urban dweller, but roosters don't bother me! I have lived on several farms over the years, with chickens, and enjoyed that sound. Of course on a farm it is also a practical wake up call - time to feed the cows, milk the goats etc. If you think roosters are loud, try listening to blaring goats that are overdue for their morning milking!
So I'm glad to hear the crowing Junglefowl here in more rural Port Townsend. One of these dawns, I'm gonna walk down the hill and see if I can find that rooster, and get a closer listen.
Jeff Gibsonroosting in Port Townsend Wa.