Thursday, July 30, 2009

CENTRAL INDIANA ROCKS!


Central Indiana Racing Pigeon Club has a nice article in the local paper.
Nice work guys!

The Commercial-News - Danville, IL
July 18, 2009
Racing pigeons take to the skies
BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL

COVINGTON, Ind. — The wooden cage doors open and immediately there’s an excited shuffle of feathers. As muffled wing flaps fill the air, almost 60 pigeons take flight over the grass field in front of them.The flock moves almost in unison as the birds bank to the left and disappear behind a wall of trees.In most cases, a dedicated bird owner would chase the flock, trying not to lose sight of his precious pets. But not Charlie Coffing and Roger Hall of Covington, Ind. They sit back and watch, knowing almost exactly where the birds are headed.Hall and Coffing have been breeding, training and racing homer pigeons for almost a decade in Fountain County, Ind., enjoying a sport that, like soccer, receives a bigger following in Europe where it first began.The racing, for Coffing, developed from an interest he’s had since high school. He’d always assumed they were just run-of-the-mill pigeons being used.“But I learned more about it and it’s something that always intrigued me,” he said.The two men have raced their birds with a number of different clubs in Illinois and Indiana over the years and currently fly with the Central Indiana Racing Pigeons Club.For Hall, racing the birds is a hobby that has gained him recognition in years past, earning a national award among owners who fly younger birds and having a bird named as one of the top new fliers in the nation. Coffing has had his own share of success, winning a number of club awards.Racing pigeons — which originated in Belgium — is unlike most sports people have encountered. The birds are released from a location and expected to fly distances from 100 to 300 miles for young birds and up to 600 miles for older birds.Coffing said a good racing pigeon can fly at an average of 40 mph and up to 50 mph with a helpful wind . . . For racing purposes, the birds are ranked according to yards per minute that it is calculated they flew. An electronic pad placed at the entrance of their owner’s loft records when the pigeons arrive using a microchip band attached to the birds’ legs.The races are run from locations anywhere in the United States . . . The pigeons will use almost anything they recognize to find their way back to the loft. Coffing said any sort of visual references are used, ranging from rivers to highways. But the birds also have trouble breaking away from the flock, meaning the pigeons can sometimes end up in another loft.Both men try to train the birds, taking them miles away to prepare them for the direction and route a race may take them so they are used to the territory.Coffing and Hall are the only nearby racers, but they said other people on both sides of the Illinois-Indiana state line have shown interest in trying to get started.“To be able to work with something like this is something Roger and I enjoy,” Coffing said. “Most people, once they get into it, they get attached to the birds.”

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Homing Pigeons & School



Homing pigeons are a favorite at school presentations. Sometimes it is controlled chaos, but always it is fun and rewarding. Whether the kids have an on-site school project, or whether it is simply an introduction through show and tell, the pigeons are a hit!


Monday, July 20, 2009

Texas Center Convention 2009

Traveling along with AU President, Steve Lawler, we are practically there! See anyone you know?
























Texas Center of Racing Pigeon Clubs
American Racing Pigeon Union



Friday, July 17, 2009

TEXAS CENTER CONVENTION - Shipping Night












Racing Pigeons Take To Oklahoma Skies

Posted: Jul 17, 2009 10:46 AM CDT
Chris Howell, NewsOn6.com
Racing Pigeons In Tulsa

TULSA -- Released early Friday morning from Sherman, Texas, hundreds of homing pigeons raced back to their home roosts in Oklahoma.

The Texas Center Pigeon Racing Club registered the birds in Tulsa, then trucked them to the Texas release area.

"The good ones come home first, the others will be a few minutes behind those," said bird racer Randy Goodpasture. "The further out you go the more it requires a pigeon with vitality and stamina to keep coming without stopping."

Bar-code readers at the roosts will read ankle bands on the pigeon for official times.

These 'throughbreds' can fly up to 800 miles a day but do not fly at night.

"The young birds we start out at a hundred miles, then 150, 200 and 300 miles," explained Roland Gutierrez, Co-Chairman if The Texas Center Convention. "The old birds we fly out to six hundred miles. Sometimes you get the birds home that day at 600, sometimes it takes two days."

To get the race results, or get more info on pigeon racing, check out Texas Center Pigeon Racing's web site here.

Texas Center is a member of the American Racing Pigeon Union.

SERVING THE COMMUNITY


Omaha, Nebraska

The Journal featured AU's own Randall Carney releasing a flock of homing pigeons in the infield of Plattsmouth High School's football stadium at the Relay For Life event. They had a record turnout of 362 participants. The relay raised $60,000 for cancer research.

Randall released several dozen white homing pigeons symbolizing hope and determination in the fight against cancer. He operates a business called White Flight, which releases pigeons at weddings, funerals and various charity events like Relay For Life. Randall has registered, pedigreed homing pigeons that receive the finest care and training for ultimate health and well being.

Randall himself has a personal connection with Relay For Life, as he too is a cancer survivor. Participating in the Relay For Life is very meaningful to him. "It's rewarding to help out any way I can," said Carney.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

NOAH



GREAT STORY!

These little bunnies, about 6 days old, were attacked by a dog and orphaned.
Two out of the litter of five did not survive, and these three were not doing very well.

Noah is a non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon that we have here in rehab. Noah kept going over to the bunny cage and looking in...even sleeping in front of the door to the cage.

Then, 2 days ago, I only counted 2 bunnies in the cage, so I hurriedly picked Noah up from the front of the cage so I could look inside. And to my surprise...there was the tiny bunny...under Noah's wing...sound asleep! The bunny had crawled through the cage....preferring a featherbed, no doubt.

Now, they are all together, and the bunnies are doing GREAT. When the bunnies scoot underneath Noah's feathers, he extends his wings out to surround them..and they snuggle. When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak!!!!! This is amazing!!!

http://www.pigeon.org/

Sunday, July 12, 2009

PBS Chicago

AU's Plains Zone Director, Bill Mitiu, and Dave Baker set the record straight. Learning the facts about racing homing pigeons is easy through the American Racing Pigeon Union.