Forest Rooster greets us at the entrance to the trail. ©voyager, all rights reserved
This morning Jack and I went to a forest trail a few miles outside of town to the east. We don’t come here often because it’s full of mosquitoes, but it’s still early in the season so I thought we’d take the chance. We did see a few mosquitoes, but we didn’t run into any swarms and neither of us got a single bite. This trail is a lot different than our familiar wee forest path. It’s a mixture of conifer and hardwood with several large open areas and a big pond covered in lily pads. It’s also protected by a large, aggressive forest rooster who did not like the looks of Jack.
Forest Rooster greeted us at the entrance to the trail and introduced himself as Cock of the Walk and Keeper of the Pass. He gave Jack a good going over as he strutted from one side of the trail to the other, deliberately blocking our way. He did a lot of head bobbing and his bright red comb kept flapping up and down. I started to giggle, but Forest Rooster glared at me with his beady black eyes then thrust his head back and let out a cock-a-doodle-do that was loud enough to make Jack back up several steps. Jack has never met a rooster, but his curiosity got the best of him and he moved towards it. Forest Rooster then charged at us with his wings flapping and his beady black eyes full of malice and mayhem. At this point Jack had enough and he let out a low growl and went trotting around the bird and off into the forest. Forest Rooster was not pleased and he shot Jack one last beady look before turning around and heading back to his post at the entrance.
Keeper of the Pass. ©voyager, all rights reserved
Forest Rooster sizing us up. ©voyager, all rights reserved
Cock-a-doodle-do! ©voyager, all rights reserved
You Shall Not Pass! ©voyager, all rights reserved
He’s doing the chicken dance. ©voyager, all rights reserved
Or maybe the polka. ©voyager, all rights reserved
Those beady eyes mean business. ©voyager, all rights reserved
The photos are hilarious! And I immediately thought of fair-tale dragons guarding treasure, too. You need to find a way to trick that rooster and discover its secret true identity and it will reward you with riches beyond your imagination! Or something. The action shots are just amazing.
(But I would keep my distance, too -- they may be small (for us), but they’re still dinosaurs and they still have that wicked sharp talon on each foot…)
And sharp beaks, don’t forget the beaks!
The “chicken dance” photo is especially hilarious, but they all had me smiling and laughing. Chicken are so funny. Somewhat disconcerting at times, but still funny. :D
Very few people keep more than one rooster, this is a good illustration of why.
A great show of true dinosaur spirit.
He is a very handsome rooster, but I have to wonder who left him in the forest all by himself? First year hormonal roosters are exceedingly stupid, yet quite wily at attacking from behind. I used to send the children to gather eggs carrying a white 5 gallon bucket to thwack any roosters that got too territorial about the chicken coop. It always took the more belligerent roosters a few thwacks before they learned not to attack ankles with their spurs.
Tethys
This wooded area is surrounded by family farms. I think he probably wandered over to the trail looking for a bit of excitement.