Guest Blogger: Rog
Why? We're talking homing pigeons- they give me the shakes. I may add some commentary, just to keep you all awake.
I'll print it in red.
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| I want to duck and go fetal just looking at this pic. |
There are 5 species of birds in the family Columbidae. This includes the now extinct passenger pigeon, rock doves, mourning doves, ring necked dove (turtle dove) and the homing / messenger pigeon.
Translation: pigeons and doves are essentially the same thing.
The difference is in the homing range - a dove can range 5 miles and a pigeon can range 1500 miles. A skilled homing pigeon can fly up to 115 mph for 15-16 hours non stop.
Homing pigeons have been used for friendship, food, religion and communication for thousands of years. We will start with religious purposes. In ancient Greece, Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, used the dove, ie homing pigeon as a symbol of love. Noah, when searching for shelter while on the arc, released a pigeon in search of dry land. Behold, the pigeon returned with an olive branch. This was a sign of hope for all mankind. Even today, doves are used in weddings and funerals as a sign of love and peace.
Historically, each city would have its own set of homing pigeons. Olympiads would take their pigeons with them to the Olympics and release them upon winning to send word to their hometowns of their victory.
Soldiers would also carry pigeons during battle and release strategic messages notifying of danger or requesting help. Common people were banned from owning such tools of power.In World
War I, the US Navy had a department of messenger pigeons. There were up to 15 pigeon bases placed around US territories. The most famous pigeon of all, who is immortalized at the Smithsonian was named Cher ami. Cher ami saved a battalion of 500 men who were being fired upon by both enemies and friendly fire. The pigeon was shot 2-3 times in enemy lines but lived to deliver his message. It was awarded many medals and honors and even had a wooden prosthetic limb made after it was amputated post injury.
Fun fact: Cher ami was honored as a 'he' but was discovered to be a 'she' on taxidermy.
In the most recent wars many terrorist regimes still employ homing pigeons and ban the public from doing so.
Pigeons can be companion animals, some prisoners have them. Mourning doves that call outside in the morning will always return to your house. So please make friends, today.
At one time, the passenger pigeon was hunted in such great numbers it led to their extinction. They were bombed, shot down, harvested in mass quantities and fed to slaves as cheap food. they were exported to Europe and fed as squab, a delicacy that most do not connect with pigeon.
I became interested in pigeons upon hearing a presentation given by Denzel St Clair of Queen Right Colonies. I then decided that there would be an interest in this species. Since there are so many programs on raptors and endangered birds I thought this was an overlooked bird that deserved some attention. They are cheap, easy to raise, no permits necessary, minimal facilities needed. I then wrote a grant expressing the need to inform the public of this great natural servant through my role as naturalist at Findley State Park. I hoped to link the function of this species with todays' trend of frenzied text messaging and hoped that young people might be interested in the original text messengers.
Through trial and error it took a whole summer to train the birds to fly and come back to their loft, given that they weren't born at the park.
Translation: several escaped during training and flew back to Denzel's. Some of the original clan of 'borrowed' pigeons were discovered by cats and Rog was greeted with headless pigeons at pick up time.
Now I can do programs and release the birds at any location in the park and they will return to the loft located at the nature center.
As my seasonal work came to a close at the park, I worried about the safety and care of the birds who would no longer receive daily attention. I was strictly forbidden from bringing them home, since
someone is scared of birds. So I went to the park, put them in our cat carrier and brought them home.
Surprise! I told Amanda that they wouldn't need any attention and they would only need fed and watered every 3-4 days. The two boys settled in without difficulty but I noticed they seemed to be fighting more than usual. As the weather grew colder one of the birds spent more time in the roost box and wouldn't come out. When I reached for him he batted me with a wing thrust and a low cooooo. Usually they are pretty friendly so I tried again the next day when my parents were visiting. This is what I found.
Shock. Awe. Eggs! A new adventure. The eggs will become homing pigeons who think that this is home. Our house, because this is where they were born. I can sell them, give them away, relocate them, but they will come back. Amanda is going to kill me.
That $^&D%#@!!!! Lying @$*&! He knew they were a breeding pair. They weren't fighting! What kind of naturalist is he???
A long time ago, she told me 'no way' the pigeons are not coming here. She said if I brought them home she would get another dog. Meet Luna, the newest misfit wonder to join our family.
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