Roosters in Hawaii, the Feral Kind

I have a couple of fun photos of roosters, chickens, chicks. I'll post them by May 5th, 2010.

The next thing about Kauai is roosters. This post will begin the topic. I need to do some more research for the next post.

Roosters are feral animals in Kauai, like cane toads in Australia and mongooses on several islands of Hawaii. Before our first trip to Hawaii, in 2009, the writer of one comment said he wanted to kill the roosters, which were waking him up in the morning. Some roosters and their partners have made their way to Maui, where they were crowing in full force last year, much to the displeasure of vacationers whose windows opened on to the cacophony more than ours did.
Lots of roosters and hens scour our resort for goodies. At JJ’s Broiler in Lihue, they cover the patio floor in measured steps, often pausing at length on one foot before continuing their hunt. One passes behind a chair at the next table. When it back comes into view, it has something big, green, and leafy sticking about three quarters of an inch out of each side of its beak: Lettuce. The sole occupant of the table that the rooster and hens are scoping out is a woman, who says with a friendly smile as she leaves, “If you want pictures, you have to feed them.” I told her that I was free-riding off of her.
The day before, I threw an ice cube that I had dropped on the kitchen floor on the grass. One of our roosters spotted it and ran to it, but when it got there, it stood below our balcony giving us an earful of what I took to be detailed instructions for feeding.
© J. Russell Burck, 2010