Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Return To Rooster Island

So we are on Cow Eye with Norm and Marie, guests of Bob and Beth, at a time-share on the east coast of the island, at Kapa'a. The time-share is right on the water, and we have a great view of the breakers, reef, paddle boarding, etc., from the balcony. Also the rain. Vicki and I spent a week or more here in 2009, doing all the sights, the Kalalau Trail, etc., and I devoted half a dozen posts to Rooster Island back then (search Kauai). So now I have more pix of all this, but I'll spare you, Gentle Reader, these updates. With one exception.

From what we have seen over the past 3 days, the feral fowl population of Kauai has diminished a bit. But one still doesn't have to go very far to find them. Any public place or parking lot will do. Apparently the departments of health and sanitation have done some Avian Flu preparedness drills and thus raised consciousness, if there was any.
A typical specimen; not an endangered species, as they say














So we are at a beach on the south coast near Poopie-Poopie or somesuch when 
there is a great flutterment among the fowl, all making a mad dash, a veritable 
stampede, for the pick-up that has just arrived. Apparently they know this guy.
The back of his truck is loaded with foods scraps, scoured no doubt from the 
dumpsters of the thousands of condos that line the coast here. At first I thought 
he was a county employee, distributing specially-doctored feed to the cluckers. 
(In Venice, they have brought the pigeon population under control by feeding 
them grain laced with sterilizing agents). But no, he was just a kind soul, with 
special affection and compassion for poultry. "They are homeless, and 
someone has to feed them," he said in response to my innocent query. Obviously 
he hasn't been watching the Republican "debates." "Let him die!"
























A homeless family feasts on Cheerios; family values among poultry are still 
pretty strong, despite these tough times
Ground-level view of chicken feed
After the chicken feed, Mr. Compassion turns his attention to a couple of  possibly 
homeless tourist cuties
And some extended hitting on the chicks; compassionately
In any case, the rooster notoriety has become big money here, and I doubt the 
poultry population will decline much more; at least until the pandemic...






































































































Not pictured: Lihue, Kapa'a (Kapa'a Shores), assorted forgettable waterfalls, Anahola, Princeville (ick!), Hanalei, Wainiha Bay, Wet and Dry Caves (and moist caves), Kalalau Trail, Na Pali Coast, Mt. Waialeale, Poipu, the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Hanapepe, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, Kalalau Lookout, Salt Pond Beach, Waimea, and more. See the previous Kauai posts. Maybe I'll do a Kauai out-takes post some day. 

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