The Times Advocate, 2004-06-23, Page 12Crossroads
12
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Exeter Times Advocate
Watching the sky at Lucan Pigeon Racing Club
By Pat Bolen Saturday in May until the middle of July.
After a break of about three weeks, the season starts
for the young birds.
Before a race each member takes his birds to the club
to be registered before the birds are loaded onto the
trailer and transported to the launch position
After the pigeons return to their home loft, their time is
calculated using either a clock or a computerized timer.
At the time of basketing for the race the birds band
number is recorded next to the number on a small elas-
tic band placed on the opposite leg
This is removed when the bird comes home and is put
into a special clock that records the time in days, hours,
minutes and seconds.
After the race the clocks are taken to the clubhouse
and read.
Computerized timers use a plastic band placed on the
bird's leg contains a micro -chip with a number.
The trap or door on the loft is connected to a computer
that reads the electronic number and records the birds'
arrival.
De Haan said the appeal of the sport is "the sheer
wonder of raising young pigeons that have a homing
instinct and seeing them unerringly come back to the
home loft."
"I respect them for what they can do and the potential
they have."
But putting pigeons into a race isn't just a matter of
pulling them out of their cage Friday night, according to
de Haan.
TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF
LUCAN — "One minute to clocking," is the call as
members lean over their clocks and seconds are count-
ed down.
As the hand strikes the designated time, the call 'Up'
goes out and keys are thrown as members of the Lucan
Pigeon Racing Club prepare for another event.
It is a sport that is part the art of breeding and raising
birds combined with the absolute precision of clocks
timed to the last second for races that stretch hundreds
of kilometres.
But even after carefully breeding their birds and
months or years of training, the birds and their owners
are still at the mercy of the weather.
Rain and cool conditions can play havoc with the birds,
knocking them off course as can wind which can add or
subtract hours from a race, depending on the direction.
The Lucan Club has 18 members, one of whom is
Exeter's Al de Haan, who has been a member for 30
years.
De Haan started racing pigeons in Holland with two
pairs of birds and now has about 65.
Twenty five of the birds are considered old, which is
anything over a year, while the rest are young birds.
Pigeons are usually born in March and can be racing
within three months, although de Haan said that is
pushing it.
The racing season for the old birds goes from the first
"You have to watch them during the week as they are
let out for exercise."
With all the pigeons De Haan has raced in the last 30
years, he says there have been around a dozen which
have been especially good.
But with the birds covering such long distances and at
the mercy of the weather, some never reappear at their
home loft, and as de Haan says, "you always wonder
what happened."
But with such a strong instinct to find their way home,
the birds will always continue to try, to the point they
can reappear months or even years after a race.
De Haan had such an event occur this year, with a bird
reappearing this spring after two years.
"I opened the coop and it flew right in.'
But de Haan is still looking for a pigeon from a June 12
race from Bellevile that has not come home yet.
The sport is bigger in Europe than it is in Canada with
bigger races seeing truckloads of birds released and
prizes of new cars for winning entries. Top birds have
been sold for $50,000 to $60,000.
After the hours spent selecting and training the birds,
de Haan said what he liked was seeing the birds reap-
pear in the sky after a race.
He compared waiting for the birds to return and see-
ing the first speck in the sky with ground crews in the
Second World War waiting for planes to come home
from a mission.
"To see them come in is a big thrill, wondering which
one it will be."
Lucan Pigeon Racing Club member Al de Haan sets his clock prior to a race, while
(below), a pigeon gets banded. After the pigeon returns home, the band is
removed and placed in the clock which records the time the pigeon took to com-
plete the race. (photo/PatBolen)
Club members Charlie Barrett, Norm Hardy and de Haan band pigeons while
(below) club president Brendan Cunningham and Jim Whitworth load the birds
prior to the cages being placed on the pigeon trailer for transport to the race
launch destination. (photo/PatBolen)
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