Why We Love Our Pigeons........

[spirit wings]

Here is a story I came across and thought I would share it...

Dear reader,
I have had a few heart breaking experiences.

The one that sticks out in my mind was......

I had a white racing pigeon that I called Tippler Tail. He was a gorgeous cock bird that was pure white except for the tips of his tail feathers that were black. He was so pretty to watch fly. He also had Boots, (feathers on his feet). He was one of the first birds I bred out of Hermans that a nearby flyer gave us to start with, back in 1989, when my father first started out in pigeons, and I was the record keeper, scraper, and just helper, because I knew nothing about racing pigeons, and he had a partner. The mother was a blue bar, and father was white with one blue feather in his tail. I had the Tippler Tail on the race teamn for four years. Never won a race, but was a consistent bird, and won pools with him. He flew all the races from the 150-500. Well, in 1993, he was shipped to a 400 mile race, and didnt return on the day. It was not like him. He felt good, and ready for the distance. So we thought, maybe he was tired, but he'll be home the next morning, he's been there and further before. The next day passed, a week passed, a month passsed, and still noTippler Tail. He was one of my favorite birds, and missed him a lot. Everyday, the trip to the loft, was disappointing. Then, about 7 weeks later, as I walked to the back to the flying loft, I can see something white on the landing board. From a distance it looked like a little bird. so I never even thought it was him. As I came up closer, and looked at this sad, fluffed up little bird, I realized it was HIM! Half the bird I had shipped 7 weeks ago, so I reached up and picked him off the landing board, he didnt even try and move. As I looked at him closely, he had a tuft of feathers sticking up from behind his neck. When I looked closer, with the feathers sticking up, there was also a lump of skin. From the way it looked, we can only guess that a hawk had grabbed it by the neck (or another animal), and as he pulled away from it, the skin on his neck was torn and pulled up towards his head. By the time he returned home, he had grown new skin on his neck, and pin feathers were growing in. I cannot imagine him being able to survive in that condition for all those weeks, but somehow, he managed to heal up, and return home. I wish there was a way that I could have found out how it happened, and how he survived, and regained strength to return home. Pigeons are just amazing creatures. Their homing instinct and love for home is so strong, that it breaks my heart to think of what was going thru his head all that time. That is why, when you raise racing pigeons, you should treat them with respect, because we have no clue as to all the obstacles they encounter, and what they go thru a lot to get home to us.

Yours in the sport,

Mary Bajer

HighLow Lofts

North Brunswick, NJ