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NEW YORK: A handful of pigeons circling the drab streets of New York's suburbs gives no idea of the drama being enacted in the skies over the Big Apple this summer.

These are not ordinary pigeons, the flying rats of urban speak. They're homing pigeons, winged racers who'll literally give their lives to cross the finish line.

“They're the racehorses of the sky,” as Peter Fusco, a 41-year-old pigeon keeper, from the borough of Staten Island, puts it.

Pigeon racing is little-known, but deeply rooted in New York.

So while the sport may have sharply diminished in popularity over recent years, old-timers and younger enthusiasts like Fusco will ensure that this year's racing season is as fiercely contested as ever.

Keepers, known as fanciers, train their athletes in a game of daring, navigation and endurance. Released hundreds of miles from their home coops, the pigeons brave hawks, storms and deadly power lines to return. Many die.

“They have heart,” Fusco said. “I have birds come home with broken feet, busted keel, and they still made it home.” It's a working class sport largely hidden from the outside world. Fanciers maintain coops, called lofts, on rooftops and in yards throughout the less wealthy areas of New York, far from the glitz of billionaire-ville Manhattan.

The city's most famous fancier is Mike Tyson, the legendary heavyweight boxer. He grew up looking after pigeons and has announced he's returning to that first love – this time as an owner of racing birds.

Albert Sima, who races and sells pigeons from a pet shop in the Queens borough, has known Tyson for years and says the ex-champ is in for a surprise if he thinks money will buy success.

“He's going to find out it's not that easy,” Sima, 59, said on the roof where he keeps cages of slick-looking birds.

“This is not boxing. It's completely different. I hope he does well, but I should think I will beat him in most races. If you don't devote the time, you won't be a pigeon racer, just a pigeon keeper.” On race day, various clubs from the city compete, driving hundreds, even thousands of pigeons to a release point anything between 100 and 600 miles from home.

Each pigeon's return to its coop is clocked by a computer chip attached to an ankle ring. Handicaps are then applied to even out the distances between competitors' houses.

Often, only minutes, or seconds separate winners and losers, with prize money varying between a few hundred dollars at local level to tens of thousands of dollars for big occasions.

Ralph Laggio, 71, has been racing pigeons since he was nine and says it takes a lifetime to understand the animals' complexities.

“You need a good bloodline in the pigeon, he said. “You don't just take a pigeon from the street. That to me is nothing but a common pigeon.” Next comes the careful process of training the young pigeon alongside older birds to memorize the neighborhood and gradually acquire the ability to return home from longer distances.

There are various theories on how pigeons home in, battling mortal dangers and simply the temptations of sitting in a tree or absconding with a bunch of street pigeons.

They clearly appear to navigate by the sun and they may also have some natural compass, using magnetic north to find their way across swaths of unfamiliar territory. Once they locate their neighborhood, they seem to recognize the way home.

GETTING THAT LITTLE EXTRA OOMPH

The real making of champions lies in the care of the pigeon, fanciers say.

“You have to treat them like an athlete. It's like a runner or a boxer: If you don't train, diet, exercise, sleep properly, then you're just wasting your time,” Laggio says.

And on race day, the dark arts of the trainer come into play.

Laggio says he'll only feed his birds lightly on the eve of the flight. “That way the pigeon goes into the race, just as if it was a wrestling or boxing match, with a little hunger.” There are even stronger motivators.

Some trainers will fly female pigeons who are sitting on eggs or nursing newly hatched: the mother will be desperate to return home. Others separate males and females from their mates the day before, giving the athlete a different kind of hunger.

“The motivation to get them home, what motivates any individual, you know most of the time – sex!” laughs Staten Island pigeon fancier, Mike Romano.

As youngsters turn to less complex pastimes, Sima fears the sport could die out.

“When I was a kid all me and my father ever talked about was pigeons. There were 50 or 60 members of our club here. Now there're 24,” he said.

But nothing, he says, tops that dedication between men – and it is almost exclusively a male pastime here – and their feathered friends.

Sima says his passion cost him a normal social life and ultimately his 20-year marriage. He'd change nothing.

“When I'm up here with the birds, I just forget everything,” he says.

Tyson, one of the most tortured sportsmen of modern times, will still come into his pet store, "sit with the birds and just watch them."

And the pigeons repay that love.

"A friend had six or seven pigeons that he didn't want anymore, so he gave them to a friend in Florida," Sima recalled. "In a few days, two or three came home. They found their way back – 1,100 miles back.” –AFP

By Keith Mott

Talking to Dean Garrett recently he informs me that he and his partner, Cheryl, are expecting their first baby on 31st January and he can’t wait! This wonderful event will mean he will have to cut back on his pigeon racing hobby for a couple of years, but he is quite happy about that. Dean also mentioned that his step daughter, Chloe, is his ‘side kick’ with the training of the birds and she might the involvement. Dean has enjoyed another brilliant racing season in 2010, winning with old birds: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Federation Wincanton, 4th Federation Kingsdown, 5th, 8th Federation Kingsdown, 4th, 23rd Federation Yelverton, 8th, 9th Federation Wincanton, 8th Federation Wincanton, 28th Combine Falaise, 8th, 9th Federation Kingsdown, 4th, 5th Federation Wincanton, 2nd Federation, 6th Combine Le Mans, 8th Federation, 8th, 12th Combine Exeter, 2nd, 8th Federation Exeter and the young birds were on fire winning: 1st Federation Kingsdown (by 5 minutes), 13th, 14th, 15th Federation Exeter, 7th, 12th Federation Exeter, 9th Federation Wincanton, 5th, 6th open L&SECC Guernsey (1) and 22nd, 132nd open NFC Carentan (provisional). Absolutely brilliant pigeon racing!

The 2010 season saw Dean send only between four and ten widowhood cocks most weeks and these were never trained during the season, only exercised around the loft twice a day. He started the season with 35 young birds, which were put on the darkness system and trained twice a day weather permitting. He is up and out training at 04.00hrs and maintains you can’t give young birds to much training! Dean is a great fan of Versele Laga corn and all the birds were fed on it in the 2010 season. The star of the Tidbury & Garrett loft this season was a young Lambrect red cock, which recorded a staggering: 1st Federation Kingsdown, 5th open L&SECC Guernsey and 132nd open NFC Carentan (provisional). The great young cock was sent racing sitting eggs and is bred from a pair of stock birds that have now bred three 1st Federation winners. Another great success story in the 2010 season was Dean’s fantastic yearling De Meyer mealy cock, ‘Dean’s Dream’, who won the Federation as a young bird and has now recorded 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 22nd and 23rd Federation being raced on the widowhood system. As Dean says, ‘absolute class’.

The L&SECC sent 2,450 birds to Guernsey in the August 2009 for the first young bird and old hens classics, and being liberated in a strong tail wind the member had a ‘banger’ of a race, with the winners recording over 1800 ypm. It was very refreshing to see one of our young fanciers win the race and was particularly nice that Dean Garrett of Feltham take the top honour, as is a very good pigeon racer and loves the sport. This up and coming ‘ace’ won the young bird classic with his Soontjen / Janssen blue chequer hen, ‘Bill’s Dream’, which is named after his late grand father, Bill Tidbury, who was his pigeon partner for several seasons. This game hen won the classic, racing celibate to a nest pan and previously won 9th Federation Guernsey when the Tidbury & Garrett loft won the first eight positions in the club. Dean tells me the parents of ‘Bill’s Dream’ cost him £90, being purchased from sales at the BHW Blackpool Show and her dam, called ‘The £30 Hen’, was bred by Mr. & Mrs. Arrowsmith. When the L&SECC secretary phoned him to inform him he had won the race he was over joyed and just looked up to the sky and thanked his late grand father for his help! Dean enjoyed a brilliant 2009 young bird racing season winning a long list of premier position, including several firsts in his club, 1st Federation and 1st open L&SECC Guernsey. Well done mate!

Dean was born in Feltham, Middlesex (same as me) in 1981 and his late grand father, Bill Tidbury, was a pigeon fancier, starting up when he left the armed forces. Bill fort in Burmah, finally being taken prisoner of war and Dean says he was his best friend as well as my grand dad and still misses him very much. When Dean was a youngster he was a keen boxer, walking in the foot steps of his grand father and his cousin, Eric Boon, who were both good sports men in the boxing ring. Eric was famous for knocking out Arthur Danaher in the 15th round of their bout and had many top encounters all over the UK. Dean started racing pigeons in partnership with Bill in 1995 and he trained the youngsters, single up, from Cranford Park on his grand dad’s old GPO ‘postman’ bike. Dean was only 14 years of age and says he loved taking those north road babies for those short tosses on that bike, which paid off as they won several good positions in the club. In the early days the partners had some good success with their mixture of gift pigeons, which were mainly from George Oliver and he raced Cattrysse, Kirkpatrick and Fear Brothers pigeons. When Bill passed away in 2000, Dean got rid of every thing, loft, clock, pigeons, the lot and hit the night club scene, and enjoyed the normal teenager pursuits of drinking and woman. After he had got that out of his system, he rejoined the sport in 2004 with several gift late breds from Allen and Janina Jenkins. Dean told me the Jenkins’ gave him a lot of help in the early days and these two wonderful people now live on the Isle of Barrow, off the coast of Scotland, but still in his thoughts. His first real season back was in 2005, when won several good prizes with young birds and was always at sales looking for good stock birds, which were mainly Janssen. He went to a sale at the ‘Lion Brewery’ PH in Ash and purchased two pairs of Eddie Wright / Janssens very cheaply, and they produced his good cock called, ‘99’, which won several premier positions including 1st club, 2nd Federation, 2nd Combine Fougeres. Another good pigeon was the Marcelis red cock, which was purchased for £11 from Mr. Davenport and he won Dean’s first race for him, recording 1st club, 3rd Federation, 26th Combine St. Nazaire. Some outstanding pigeons have been obtained from several local fanciers including, Rod Berry, Clive Yates and the L&SECC winning partnership of Jenkyn, Barrott & Rolfe. His club was the Bedfont SR Club and he is still a member today, and told me it’s a great club, welcoming him with lots of help and a gift pigeon clock. Dean tells me the best local fancier is the great Jack Newell of Feltham, who is a legend, winning every thing in his life time in the sport, including 1st open NCF Pau.

The main families now raced are Cooremans, Lambrects and De Meyers obtained from Jason Hulse and Kevin Head. Dean’s loft set up is a 21ft race loft with an 18 widowhood cock section and two hens sections, plus two 12ft lofts, one for his young birds and the other which contains 16 nest boxes for the stock birds. He thinks the main things needed in a loft is good ventilation, good light and above all must be dry. Dean loves young bird racing and breeds a good strong team of 60 babies every season to compete well in both Federation and Classic racing. The Tidbury & Garrett young birds are put on the ‘darkness’ system and Dean is a firm believer that young pigeons need to be trained, and he gives them a 32 mile tosses twice a day once they start to race. He maintains to be successful with the babies they have to be trained, trained and trained again, and fed correctly for the weather conditions and wind direction the next weekend. He lets the youngsters do as they want and has won with them pairing up, sitting eggs and even feeding a youngster, but maintain the only way to be successful in the National and Classic races is to be on the ‘darkness’ system. Premier young bird racers for the Tidbury & Garrett loft in 2009 are: ‘Dean’s Dream’, bred by Kevin Head and winner of 1st club, 1st Federation Kingsdown, 8th Federation Wincanton: ‘Cheryl’ winner of 1st club, 5th Federation Yelverton: ‘Big Man’, Dean favourite youngster and winner of 1st club, 2nd Federation Wincanton, 16th Federation Kingsdown: ‘Bill’s Dream’ winner of 1st SW section, 1st open London & South East Classic Club Guernsey, 9th Federation Guernsey.

Dean races his old birds on the widowhood system, which suits his work as a brick layer and slabber, but he thinks the system of only racing cocks is a waist of good racing hens. He pairs up in early January and the racers rear a youngster before being separated for the widowhood and are later repaired for the training period, which is about six short tosses. The widowers are not trained during the racing season, but are exercised around the loft for an hour twice every day and the cocks are required to race the programme. The loft has won many premier positions in the first six in the club and Federation through the years and Dean prefers sprint / middle distance racing up to 400 miles, but in the future hopes to have a go at some long distance events. Recent racing seasons competing in the Federation have been very successful winning, 2006: twice 1st club, 2007: four times 1st club, 2008: nine times 1st club, fourteen times 2nd club and at the time of writing this article Dean has won twelve times 1st club. His ambition, after wining several seconds and thirds in recent seasons, was to win the Federation and he finally achieved it in the 2009 season from Kingsdown, with his game mealy cock, ‘Dean’s Dream’. He was delighted to win the Federation, having won 2nd Federation on the two weekends before, then came out and won 1st open L&SECC the week after. Great pigeon racing!

He tells me he has no idea about the ‘eye sign’ method, but likes to see a nice bright eye on a pigeon and he thinks the eye tells the whole story, with the bird’s general condition being seen in the eye. Dean says the three local fanciers who are setting them alight in the premier races this season are Mark Gilbert, Garry Inkley and Richard & Reg Maybey, who have all had brilliant success. He maintains the moult is a very important time of the year and says a bad moult this year will almost certainly mean bad race results next season. In October the birds should enjoy some good relaxation and be given plenty of seed, oils and regular baths. He is not a fan of late bred youngsters for stock of racing, but lets the widowhood cock breed a round of youngsters at the end of the season, which he gives away to his friends.

Too finish this article Dean would like to thank a few people who have helped him out through the years; Firstly his grand father, Bill Tidbury, who he still misses very much; Mum, Dad, girlfriend Cheryl and little Chloe for their support and inspiration; his good mates Steve Oliver, Imran Malik and Danny Seedwell; Mick Maitland for teaching him and all the member of the Bedfont SR Club for their help. Dean would like to dedicate the Guernsey Classic win to Bill Tidbury and his best mate, George Oliver, who he knows had a Guinness or two up in the pigeon club in the sky! There you have it, the brilliant success story of Dean Garrett of Feltham!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT

By Gregory A. Summers - Features Editor

Amazing Grace isn't just a hymn; it's a her, too, as in the aptly named racing pigeon that found a temporary home at Carolina Christian Academy last week.

"She once was lost, but now she's found," said CCA seventh-grader Jenny Payne.

Jenny came up with the name after classmates Lauren Hamby, Ashley Pearson and Hope Harris found the pigeon beneath the car line shelter at the school on Sept. 13.

"It wouldn't fly away and was by itself," Hope said. "We just thought it was any kind of bird until we found out about it."

The girls told Paul Nichols, the school's minister of music and fine arts director, about the bird. When he saw the bird by the CCA front door, Nichols realized it wasn't a wild pigeon because it had a numbered band on one of its legs. The bird was hesitant at first, but let Nichols pick it up.

"We checked with Clemson Extension Service and the Humane Society because we thought the pigeon may have been tagged for some type of scientific experiment, but that wasn't the case," Nichols said.

Nichols tried to release the bird, but it flew into a hedge near the front of the building and stayed there.

"We threw it up and it just sort of fluttered and came back down in the bushes," Nichols said.

On Sept. 14, when Nichols got to school, the pigeon was standing in the driveway. He picked the bird up and took it to CCA science teacher Carla Bell.

"It was really tame," said Adam Bowling. "You could yell at it and it wouldn't move." Bell started searching the Internet for homing pigeons and found the Web site for the American Racing Pigeon Association, (www.pigeon.org).

From there, and by using the numbered band, and through four phone calls, Bell's biology and physical-science classes contacted the pigeon's owner, Vincent Rooney of Chesapeake, Va.

"It's come to be a good learning experience," Bell said. "If you find one, you aren't allowed to keep it until you've exhausted all means possible to find the owner."

Rooney, 63, has been breeding and racing pigeons since moving to Virginia in 1997.

Until getting off course, Rooney said the 6-month-old female racing pigeon's only name was the last three digits of her registration number.

"I just called her 813," a laughing Rooney said by phone from Chesapeake on Thursday. "I have about 120 birds and that's too many names to come up with."

Rooney said Amazing Grace was part of a Sept. 10 pigeon race that included about 400 birds. The birds were taken to Durham, N.C., and released.

They were supposed to fly the 150-plus air miles back to Chesapeake.

Rooney said of the 13 birds he had in the race, only five made it back home. Amazing Grace makes the sixth bird. Rooney said it's not unusual for racing pigeons, like Amazing Grace, to get off course, especially those birds that use the Interstate-95 corridor as a point of reference.

In pigeon racing, a bird is timed from when it's released - anywhere from 100 miles to 1,000 miles from its home coop until it returns.

Pigeons have a scientifically unexplained ability to find their way home. They were regularly used to relay messages in World Wars I and II when other communication messages were impractical.

It's not hard to train them, Rooney said. You start small and then expand the birds' range, he said.

Amazing Grace is a young bird in training, and while the Sept. 10 race was her first 150-mile event, she has flown in 100-mile races, he said.

"This kind of racing isn't an exact science," Rooney said. "When you take in factors like weather, the earth's magnetic field, sunspots and cellular phone activity, they will get off course."

Rooney figures during the flight home, the pigeon lost track of the group she was with and followed another flock that brought her to Lancaster, which is about the same distance from Durham to Chesapeake in air miles.

"Birds of a feather flock together and they just hook up and love to fly," Rooney said. "She just flew until she got tired and stopped."

Rooney is grateful for the care that the CCA students gave Amazing Grace. After learning that she wouldn't eat bread, the students visited a pet store to get her the proper food. She was kept in a cage in Bell's classroom until the special container to send her home arrived. The pigeon was mailed back to Rooney on Wednesday.

"She has good breeding and is worth about $250," Rooney said. "I just hope she's going to be OK. I'm happy to see a wayward racing pigeon generate this kind of interest from a group of kids. There are very few people interested in pigeons these days. It's really dwindling."

That's not the case at Carolina Christian Academy. "Maybe the next time he lets Amazing Grace go, she might fly back here," Nichols said. "She might think of us as her second home."

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MAN BARTERS 2009-MODEL CAR WITH 2 PIGEONS

Mr Halil Kabakçıoğlu, a pigeon lover, bartered his 2009-model Ford Focus with two pigeons at an auction at Pigeon Lovers Association in Nilüfer town of Bursa, western Turkey… .

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