It’s impossible to tell the time of day in Todos Santos by when roosters crow. The squawking seems to only be at night in this Baja town. All night.

Roosters have a pecking order, with the dominant male sounding off first, and then the others chiming in afterward. It’s a symphony of sorts at times in the neighborhood.

They are probably sleeping through the day because they were cackling all night. If only I had that luxury.

In other parts of the world a rooster’s distinct call is usually about two hours or less before daylight. This is normal. Earlier this decade scientists at Nagoya University in Japan conducted a study to learn more about the habits of crowing roosters. They discovered the animal has an internal clock to tell when the break of day is. The light in the sky isn’t relevant.

Besides signaling the start of a new day, roosters get vocal when danger is nearby. He is alerting the hens a predator is about.

This area is home to coyote, gray fox, raccoon and bobcat. All of these animals are nocturnal, which could be the reason roosters are doing their job throughout the night. A hen isn’t going to be able to win a fight with any of those creatures.

When I lived in Sonoma County in California my neighbors built a chicken coop, rooster et al. My window was nearby. Working nights meant I wanted to sleep and not know when daybreak was. The fortunate thing there is we lived on quarter-acre lots so it was easy for them to move the coop to accommodate my hours.

While it’s nice to have an alarm clock, it’s also nice to be able to turn it off. Not so with roosters throughout the hood.