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Home free
Who let the pigeons out?
Tina and Derik Webster's pigeons, before liberation. Each bird's arrival at the home loft was clocked by a chip on its leg. Through centuries of breeding, Tina said, a racing pigeon's heart is twice the size of any other rock pigeon. COURTESY
By MARK BROWN World Scene Editor
Published: 11/10/2009 2:23 AM
Last Modified: 11/10/2009 7:58 AM
There were to be twice as many birds in the air Sunday for the Center for Counseling & Education's Great Pigeon Race. But
"We've had some devastating losses this year," said Tina Webster, who operates Webster's Wings with her husband Derik, who hauled a crate of 50 homing pigeons off his truck and onto a high spot near the lodge at Camp Loughridge in west Tulsa.
Homing is risky training, and baby birds simply get lost in flight. Some of Webster's are now "living under bridges," having gone astray. Other homers just don't quite make it home. "Cooper hawks pick them off as they land," Tina said, adding that redtail hawks generally prey only on the young ones.
Since the 1500s, "fanciers" have been training rock pigeons to fly out and back again. "Once you train a bird," Tina said, "home is forever." One of Webster's birds left Eufaula and found Denver.
Finding home is one thing, arriving safely is another. On a windy day, gusts sometimes send birds smashing into their lofts.
"It's not hazardous to fly them," Tina said. "They'll fly from dawn to dusk until they get home. Mostly it's just landing."
The race is on
Pigeons race in daylight and not in the rain. The clouds Sunday over Camp Loughridge were patchy and purple-gray. The wind was blowing up something, but not a storm. The Great Pigeon Race is the organization's big annual fundraiser.
Race sponsors and gatherers amassed in the parking lot, ready to rubberneck for their homers.
These birds were headed over the hill to Sapulpa. "This isn't even a sprint," Tina said.
Tina and Derik's birds are part of the Northeast Oklahoma Racing Pigeon Federation, an 11-member club that stretches from Ponca City into Missouri. When their birds aren't racing, they're floating over weddings, memorials and 21-bird military salutes. You can hire one at
tulsaworld.com/websterswings
.
Sunday, the 50 Great Pigeon Racers trickled from the cage and soared over the leafless oaks. They circled the grounds several times in a group, which they'll sometimes do when the home loft is near. Then, one will break and the race is on.
Sunday's results were to have been shown on a screen at Loughridge, from a remote camera located at the loft in Sapulpa. But technical difficulties ensued and the results had to be phoned in.
The big winner was a homer dubbed "Restoration," sponsored by Pastor Alan South and the congregation of Restoration Church in Sand Springs. The big prize was a flatscreen TV.
"The Restoration bird came in five or 10 minutes before the others," said Maridee Lindley, executive director of CCE. "I guess the rest were out playing."
Homing terms
A homing pigeon is a domesticated rock pigeon. A homer is
any homing pigeon.
Airline: The straight line distance in the nearest thousands of
a mile from the loft to the point of release of a race.
Bars: Color bands across the back part of the top surface of a
racing homer’s wing.
Billing: Pigeon kissing. When the female sticks her bill down
the male’s throat and takes an offering of regurgitated food. A
behavior known as a prelude to mating.
Blocky: Broad and short of body; also called “apple bodied”
or “cobby.”
Breaking point: A theoretical point where your bird must
break from the flock of racing birds in order for it to win a race.
Clutches: A name given to a set of laid eggs.
Corkiness: The description given to a pigeon that is light in
weight and in race condition.
Dovecote: Another name for a pigeon loft.
Fancier: A person who raises or races homers. (Terry Bradshaw,
George Foreman and the British Royal Family are famed
fanciers.)
Hawkbait: Often refers to birds that have a lot of white on
them.
Liberation: The act of liberating the race birds. Letting them
out of the shipping crates.
Old bird: Any racing homer more than 1 year old.
Premaxilla: The beak.
Single toss: Tossing a racing homer by itself.
The American Racing Pigeon Union, headquartered in Oklahoma
City, has more information on homing pigeons. See its
Web site at tulsaworld.com/pigeon.
For More
The Center for Counseling &
Education is a nonprofit organization,
multidenominational organization
that provides pastoral
counseling for a patients with a
variety of behavioral problems.
Visit their Web site:
tulsaworld.com/ccetulsa.
Mark Brown 581-8335
mark.brown@tulsaworld.com
By MARK BROWN World Scene Editor
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