Where pigeons dare
Racing birds cross country is a flight of fancy for local man
Posted: 8/12/03
by Andrew Miller
Argus News Reporter
Shipping your pets to far off places and then hoping theyíll make it home on their own might seem a little risky. But according to Mike Gran of Caledonia, thatís the thrill of racing homing pigeons.
A member of the La Crosse United Flyers pigeon racing club, Gran and his son Zack, a student at Caledonia Middle School, enter their birds in about 15 races a year.
Granís fascination with the birds dates back to a young age. When he was 11, a feed store that his dad frequented in La Crosse kept pigeons on hand, and they caught his fancy. He and his dad purchased a few at two dollars apiece. Gran didnít race the birds, but simply raised them like pets in the utility shed in his parentsí backyard.
His interest in pigeons waned for several years after high school, but picked up again about a decade ago. He bought four pigeons on a whimñ as a surprise for his wife Karen, as he tells itñ and was soon entering them in bird shows. The decision to race them came shortly thereafter.
The race, he said, in which pigeons are dropped off at a remote location and work their way back home, underscores the mysterious trait pigeons possess, of being able to find their way home from just about any location, regardless of distance. It is something that even modern science has been hard-pressed to explainñ Gran pointed out that one university spent several decades attempting to discover how pigeons can find their way home, but reached few conclusions.
About the best anyone can do in explaining the natural homing ability of pigeons, Gran said, is not to explain it as a biological or cognitive phenomenon, but to simply explain how the birds develop the ability as they mature.
A baby pigeon will home to the place itís born. After it has begun flying, it will disappear one day for between 20 minutes and an hour, Gran said. When it leaves, it will fly in a straight line for a few miles, and then return home.
People who race pigeons help each bird develop this ability. Once the birds have started homing, Gran said, ìyou run them out a couple miles and let them go, and they should have no problem coming home.î For birds heíll be racing, heíll take them out five miles the first time, and increase by increments of five miles each subsequent trip. After a pigeon can navigate home from 25 miles out, Gran noted, it can pretty much find its way home from any distance, provided it doesnít have to cross a large body of water.
The race itself is somewhat of a ritual for Gran and other members of his La Crosse-based club. For each Saturday race, Gran and his son will take the birds theyíre entering to La Crosse on Friday night. A truck then drives the pigeons to a drop-off site some several hundred miles away. Sometime between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. Saturday morning, a member of the club, known as The Liberator, will call the truck driver and instruct him to release the birds. After that, the bird owners sit back at their respective homes and wait.
The birds have electronic chips affixed to their legs, which registers the time it takes them to travel from the location theyíre dropped off at to their homes. The information is transferred to a central database, and each birdís average speed for the journey is calculated in yards per minute. Though the bird with the highest speed is the victor, Gran noted that speed plays little part in determining the outcome of the race. The pigeons will tend to all fly at about the same speed, in packs, and the raceís winner is most often the bird that flies the straightest course from the drop site to its home.
The first half of the racing season was good to Gran and his son. Older birds compete in the first half of the season, in May and June, and the last race of the old bird season is the Midwest Classic, which starts in Topeka, Kansas. Zackís pigeon took first among birds from the La Crosse United Flyers, and second among all birds from Minnesota. His bird was released in Topeka at 8 a.m. and flew the 382 miles to Caledonia in just over eight hours, averaging 1300-1400 yards per minute.
ìZack seems to win at everything,î Gran said with a smile. ìHeís a good partner to have.î
Some races are not so auspicious, though, and the races are not without losses. Older birds never seem to have problems making it home, but with younger birds, Gran said, itís not uncommon to enter 25 in a race and only have 15 come back.
Just this past week, Gran entered six pigeons in a race that started in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He usually enters more birds, but his pigeons are currently molting, which makes it harder for them to fly. Of the six he entered, only one returned home. And it took that pigeon almost a day and a half to get back, which is an uncharacteristically long amount of time.
ìIt was the worst race Iíve ever had,î Gran said. ìThe last month or so has been pretty disappointing.î
A disappointing month, however, hasnít put a damper on the thrill of racing, he added. Watching the birds as they fly back into his yard after a long race is something that continues to be a source of wonder.
ìI love watching them come home,î he said. ìYou know theyíve been let go hundreds of miles away, and when they come home itís really exciting.î
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