I know I shouldn’t be doing this, but I’m sitting here starting another post about chickens! Well, mostly about one chicken that I’m now calling Walter for reasons to be explained later. But he comes from a large family called the Orpingtons. (His breed was created in the 19th century in the town of Orpington, England.)
I’ve met Walter four times so far this month as he continues to explore the fields and woods of our property. His roost is across the road, but he apparently is a very free-range rooster or an escape artist. He’s more dignified than friendly, and he’ll pose to be admired, as you see here in his latest portraits.
If I try to approach him closely, Walter will cluck disapprovingly, sometimes give a hurried or partial “cock-a-doodle-do” and strut slowly away with his handsome head and glorious tail held high. Once, when I tried to open a neighborly conversation with him, he looked me in the eye, clucked a demeaning insinuation and then made a definitive statement by defecating mightily while glaring at me.
Walter is part of a family of chickens that have been bred to be large and meaty, while producing many eggs and being so beautiful that they can compete as show birds. These “Orpingtons” come in black, white, blue and buff feather finery. Walter, as you see, is a “buff Orpington.”
This rooster is English, a daring explorer and a bit disdainful. So, I decided to name him after Sir Walter Raliegh. As you probably know, Sir Walter was a dashing explorer who was given a royal charter to American land in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I. He apparently considered the land to encompass North Carolina through Maine.
Sir Walter named the property “Virginia” to honor Queen Elizabeth who never married, reputedly to avoid the risk of power being shared with a foreign prince. Thus, she was lovingly known as “The Virgin Queen.” (Whether that was just a political persona has been debated; there are nasty rumors about her being roostered by Sir Walter. But that’s another story.)
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 21, 2026.)