The Pigeon & the Eagle - Part II

On the way home I thought I’d try to call again and this time I struck pay dirt! I asked Al Christeleit, president of the Mt. Sopris club about the band numbers and after checking his records told me he had sold the bird to Tony Melucci in Spring Hill. FL. After getting Mr. Melucci’s phone number I called and asked if he was missing a pigeon. He immediately responded, “yes!” and briefly told the story.

On the Wednesday previous he had gone to Trenton, FL for a practice release, a competition was coming in two weeks, and the release had gone bad. Over twenty birds had failed to make the trip back to their Spring Hill loft. When this happens it is a rare occurrence that they are ever seen again. Usually dehydration, under-nutrition, exhaustion and predators take their toll.

The reason for the loss of direction in these highly skilled navigators is not fully known, but the best guess in this instance is the unusual atmospheric conditions due to Hurricane Frances recent foray through this north central Florida area. Some how this one bird had found sanctuary on the dock of the Maricamp Branch of the Ocala Post Office, some 60 miles from their release point.

After getting directions I turned my Jeep around and headed back to the Branch to collect the bird and headed out to Trenton. The 75-mile trip took about an hour and 45 minutes and when I pulled in the drive I located Mr. Melucci in the back yard tending to his flock.

After introducing ourselves, Mr. Melucci, Tony, as he likes to be called, showed me around his loft and introduced his 160 racing pigeons. The loft is actually two buildings, each 8 feet wide by 24 feet long and about 10 high. Inside the birds feed and water, and at night roost. Outside in the caged areas the birds spend most of their day doing whatever birds do. That is when they are not getting their daily exercise, competition training or flying for their lives from the local Cooper’s Hawks which wait in the top of a few tall trees near the lofts waiting for the “delicatessen” to open.

Make no mistake, for a hawk to catch one of these pigeons he has to be very good and very fast. These are not your garden variety of pigeon, but sleek, thoroughbred athletes. Capable of speeds of 60 miles per hour over the extended distances of competition which are usually 70 to 100 miles in length with some in the range of 500 miles. Most of the time the pigeons win as they wing their wild maneuvers desperately trying to elude the predator. The hawks win often enough to keep them coming back.

This particular bird has had a difficult recent history. She, yes it’s a female, barely escaped with her life a few months previous when she flew into a chain link fence fleeing a hawk. She almost lost an eye in the encounter. Then a few weeks ago she exhibited a condition sometimes suffered by these birds where for an unknown reason they begin to ingest great amounts of water and the excess nearly drowns them. Tony told me it is rare for birds suffering from this to survive very long.

Now she had lost her way and flown to where she could get help to find her way back home. This bird may have her problems, but she is a survivor.

Final tomorrow.


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