So what do you do when a pigeon lands in your life?
Especially a racing pigeon that, as far as I can tell from multiple leg tags, was more than 300 miles from his Missouri home when he decided to make a soft landing right smack dab on my front lawn.
Did he get lost? Did he become too weak? Or did he just get bored with whatever great race in the sky he was competing in before dropping into western Kane County?
And is the pigeon even a he?
These are questions I never in my 60-plus years on this Earth thought I’d ever have to deal with. But in this strange and getting-stranger year of 2020, I’ve come to believe anything can happen. Including the fact there’s now a beautiful blueish-gray bird happily strutting around in the empty dog run in our backyard, taking full advantage of the dog house, fresh sunflowers and corn from the neighbor’s garden and a whole lot of lovin’ from the entire family.
The little visitor – we named it Puffin – came calling last Thursday. And since then, I’ve learned a whole lot more about Racing Homers and how this particular breed of highly-trained pigeons landed in our lives. After eventually decoding the three tags around its legs – one contains a chip that monitors speed – we were able to figure out what town he’s from, the name of the racing club that sent him off into the wild blue yonder and even the name of the owner.
Not that it did any good. One thing I quickly realized after finding the man’s phone number and leaving a voice mail and text is these racing folks don’t want their “failed birds” back, a cold fact confirmed by the Fox Valley Wildlife Center when I called this Elburn habitat to find out what we should do with a little bird lost.
Surprisingly, this Kane County center on Route 38 gets about 20 of these birds a season, said animal caretaker Emily Duy, most of which come via the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, whose “pigeon team” is like the PAWS of pigeons, helping to rescue and find homes for these domestic creatures that are the object – and many would say the victims – of an old but still-popular sport.
Pigeon racing, I found out, was banned in Chicago in 2004 and has remained that way despite many attempts to make it legal again. But there are over two dozen racing clubs in Illinois, including some in the suburbs (the closest to the Fox Valley seems to be in Newark, although attempts to get through on the listed phone number were not successful).
Since Chicago Pigeon Pets Rescue was formed two years ago – go to https://m.facebook.com/pigeonsoffthestreet – the group has taken in about 250 of these Racing Homers, said member Liz Challoner. The racing season usually goes from May to September, and this year has been “particularly busy trying to find homes for these lost and half-dead birds that are taken 300 miles away from their base with the goal of flying back as fast as possible” at rates between 50 and 90 miles an hour.
“These races deplete so much energy from them,” said Challoner. “They quickly lose muscle mass flying that hard and that fast … so when we find them, even the food we give them is not always enough to save them.
“We had about seven die in one week,” she said. “It is just heartbreaking.”
Of course, many of these pigeons never get the chance to rehab as they starve or become victims of predators, she added. And “it is our experience these owners don’t want the birds back … they don’t return calls, or if we do talk to them, they say thank-you for helping but I would just kill it anyway.”
When we first called Fox Valley Wildlife immediately after Puffin landed in our front yard, we were told the center had too many pigeons and could not take another. Like every other nonprofit, COVID has created fundraising and volunteer issues, noted Challoner, “so have been swamped this year trying to find help.”
Each week, however, brings different situations, she added. And it looks like the Elburn center will be able to take on this little bird and hopefully find a home for him through Facebook efforts.
After a couple days of rest – and a whole lot of food – Puffin seems healthy and extremely friendly. From what I’ve been told, pigeons are one of the smartest breeds of birds, are excellent at facial recognition, and like all pets, have different personalities. While some will be more stand-offish, others will form strong bonds with their owners and can even develop into “lap birds,” Challoner said.
I have to admit, unlike other family members, I’m not so keen on adopting a fine-feathered friend at this point in my life, despite his velvet-like feathers. But I certainly appreciate his unexpected visit more than the snakes, moles, beavers and coyotes that have been uninvited guests in our home.
Does Puffin stay or go? At this point, I’m not really sure about anything except that he’s safe and he’s happy.
And I know a whole lot more about what to do when a pigeon lands in your life.
dcrosby@tribpub.com
