Mystery as 5k homing pigeons vanish | Hacker News Reader

Mystery as 5k homing pigeons vanish

walesonline.co.uk

56 pointsgraderjs58 comments

I believe one of these birds ended up at my fathers garden in North Lincolnshire. The bird spent the best part of a week in his garden, showing no signs of injury, nor any sign of wanting to fly off straight back off.

After a week of food and water, the pigeon finally took off again. Hopefully it got to whereever it needed to.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/roebuck06/51278515733/in/album...

For future reference and other readers, the rings around its leg have an ID written on it that you can use to lookup the pigeon owner online. Likewise, the ring likely had an RFID chip that has the ID, gender (of the pigeon: cock/hen), and owner (or racing club) details embedded within it.

Since it has a ring, it would be happy to be handled, and am certain that any owner would appreciate having their pigeon returned.

I came across a racing pigeon in Sidmouth once, presumably it had stopped for a rest/food, but I was amazed by how easy it was to handle - I held out my hand once I saw it had a ring and it just hopped right up.

Either that or I'm a Disney princess.

Cool looking pigeon. But man it's super annoying how non-functional zoom/pinch is on the flickr site when viewing this on iPhone.

That's a handsome looking pigeon.

I just read "Pigeons" by Andrew Blechman, which uses pigeon racers as its main through-line. Among other interesting facts in there: the pigeons you find in cities are not wild animals, but feral ones - they are all descended from domesticated animals. That has practical consequences because for example it's illegal to hunt wild animals in New York City, but the law doesn't apply to feral animals. Thus, there are (or were, when the book was written a few years ago) people who throw big nets over pigeons in NYC and sell them for a few bucks apiece in Pennsylvania, where they are (legally, still) shot for sport.

Here in the UK I was always taught that pigeons are the descendents of species native to cliff species (Rock Doves), and they are just well suited to urban life. It's not their fault.

Never heard domestication / feral theory so perhaps that's US only.

In Poland city pigeons are exempt from some animal protection laws. So while it's generally illegal to destroy functioning birds' nests, ones belonging to city pigeons are fair game.

In Europe, they are seen as rats that can fly, which I find funny.

The city council of Paris has been controlling pigeons population for a while now: https://observers.france24.com/en/20100805-pigeons-paris-pub...

Are they that bad? I do not understand the contempt against them.

I live in a different city in Europe and my neighbors seem to have a dislike to the pigeons (also they asked me to destroy the nest they have built in my balcony).

Another interesting story from the book was about arguably the first successful pigeon control strategy, developed in Basel and now used in many places: encourage people not to feed pigeons (since they reproduce much more when there's an excess of food) and build your own pigeon lofts on rooftops, feed the pigeons there, and then replace their eggs with fake ones! I think this is the guy: https://anatomie.unibas.ch/IntegrativeBiology/haag/Feral-Pig...

They are extremely dumb, stubborn and dirty. When they chose my balcony for their nest, they kept trying to rebuild it despite me cleaning it up several times a day. Finally they laid an egg on two twigs sitting on bare concrete.

They shit into their nest and their parasites (pigeon ticks) are dangerous to humans. So yes, they are bad.

I think it is part public health with the bigger the pigeon population the greater the risk of virus carrier and part public space maintenance, the faeces being left on public buildings and other outdoor items. It does cost money to the public coffers (local taxes) to clean after them.

It’s odd, because doves are seen as pure and beautiful, and pigeon, which are essentially grey doves, are seen as dirty and verminous

I have only ever heard that expression in the US (most frequently in NYC), never in Europe, where pigeon keeping and racing is still popular. See https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/fancy-pigeons/ (cited here) for further evidence.

We all know what Americans did to the Passenger Pigeon. A lot more than 5k vanished.

Definitely considered flying rats here in European cities.

Pigeon keeping/racing is popular, but still a small subset of the population. Also the pigeons in cities are generaly dirty, missing some appendage.

It happened in multiple races on Saturday, June 19 - https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pigeon-group-b...

"Any current reading of local figures over 150 nT in the A index of geomagnetic activity, or 4 or higher in 'K' index, is considered unsafe for training or racing pigeons"

https://www.foresthillweather.com/SpaceDailyGeomagnetic.php Seems fine?

It's been reported in Portugal as well - https://www.portugalresident.com/racing-pigeons-totally-conf...

> To date the furthest a Portuguese racing pigeon seems to have flown off course is 2,222 kms, straight into a bucket of paint in Plymouth, UK (click here).

That's one hell of a confused pigeon.

Strangely the article blames it on "solar storms", but there have been none lately. Could be a weakening Earth field due to the current geomagnetic excursion...

That seems to have been a random quote from a random individual. I would put exactly zero weight on it. Vague hand waving about weather is all I took away from the article. In other words, no one knows.

I was thinking the same thing. Does anyone know if there's any recent data on Earth's magnetic field, and which is publicly available?

Pigeons are able to detect the earth's magnetic field and navigate by it. By occam's razor the disruption of that is a likely scenario.

Haha. I love that "Pigeon fancier" is the actual dictionary term for someone that keeps and breeds pigeons.

Fancy pigeons is another term of art. Similar to thoroughbred, a fancy pigeon is a pigeon with a breeding objective. I imagine the term pigeon fancier was derived from it: someone who breeds fancy pigeons.

Darwin was a pigeon fancier [0]. He was working on theories of sexual selection.

It's interesting that terms like "fit" and "fancy", as used by British teenagers are so apt.

[0] https://www.jstor.org/stable/230968

Here's some portraits of fancy pigeons I made back in the day: https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/fancy-pigeons/

You are very talented, I love the contrast of these shots! Thank you for documenting the world at large. You are a true science historian :-)

These are incredible!

I remember pet stores used to have a magazine by the checkout called Cat Fancy and I always thought that was a funny title. Now it makes some sense.

I could never not laugh when seeing that magazine. I’d just imagine a wealthy person sipping tea and reading Cat Fancy through their monocle in an opulent mansion.

Apparently earlier homing pigeon disappearances have been blamed on weather disturbing their infrasonic hearing, that the pigeons use to navigate with.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130130184147.h...

https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/216/4/687/11868/...

An intriguing theory, but not proven conclusively here.

A single experiment relying on a speculative model implemented by one computer scientist combining data from multiple sources.

I am not in a position to attempt to discredit the research, but it doesn't feel right. Low frequency audio gives much more information when propogating through a dense medium like water than through the air.

Your mention of infrasonics immediately makes me think of wind turbines, which I guess might generate quite a lot of infrasonic noise.

The answer is in the title. "thin air".

Memo to all assassin brotherhood members - please keep messages to a single pigeon.

That explains the guano at the local MRI clinic.

5,000 drones that ran out of battery

Why 5k instead of 5000?

HN submission form has an upper limit on characters for the link title. This may have forced the submitter to substitute 5000 for 5k.

It's approximate. 5,000 looks more specific. Kind of like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figures#Ways_to_de...

We have a word for that: "around"

That's even longer. Why would I use more words to be less precise?

They mean the same thing.

Careful, this might devolve into speculation whether it was really 5000 or if they meant 5120.

It seems likely that this tragedy was ultimately due to climate change...

Call them what they are: racing pigeons separated from their mates as a way to coerce them into flying ridiculous distances.

If you find one around your home, call the RSPCA or a rescue group.

PETA info on pigeon racing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SG_QHuhzXE

Yeah, this is so weird. In the article they talk about honoring the birds for having helped thousands of lives (no idea what this is referring to), so they decide to do that through… making them race for our enjoyment?

I don’t get why people have a hard time leaving animals alone. Or in cases where some intervention is needed to preserve the animal, they expect something in return.

Weird and shameful, imho.

I've no idea what it refers to either, but pigeon owners take great pleasure and enjoyment breeding and training them. Perhaps that's what they refer to regarding how they have impacted the lives of humans?

I cannot speak for pigeons as I am a human, but if I was fed, watered, had a comfortable home, often with radio or TV, high quality medical care, and in return I fly a few times a week? Sign me up!

They are breed for the purpose of flight (or sometimes looks). They cannot be "left alone" as they're not quite the same as feral pigeons.

There is absolutely no shame in keeping pigeons, caring for them, and racing them.

I should comment that I have now watched the PETA video. The intro frame is a standard mechanism for releasing pigeons during a race.

It is true that some pigeons do not make it home. That's not to say that they have died, but perhaps got lost or "mysteriously" disappeared as in the article of this thread.

I agree that it large portions of pigeons were dying with each race that it would be terrible, but in practice this is often not the case.

Likewise, if pigeons fly home wounded their owners often stitch them up and care for them. If the wound is too much, then they can be unfortunately killed to remove the pain.

Compare this with feral pigeons ... The difference in "lifestyle" between them is stark.

The reference to helping thousands of lives will likely be in relation to their use as carrier-pigeons during war time - we certainly used them a lot in WW1, as far as I know, so wouldn't surprise me if it was a reference to that.

Sadly I don't think PETA can be used as a reliable reference for anything any more, due to the extremist nature of their communication/actions. Not everything is as black and white as they like to claim.

However I do agree that, in the UK, the RSPCA are a fine organisation and would be my first port of call if I suspected mistreatment of animals.

Pigeons fly home for food and water, not for their "mates".

As I commented above, if you find a racing pigeon there are websites where you can input the ID and get the club name that the owner belongs to.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21938429

> The pigeon’s fidelity can be exploited in a process known as widowing, or widowhood, in which the pairs are split up and one bird is taken away to race back to the loft.

> As Stewart Wardrop explains it, in a sprint race the stronger male birds will surge back to their hen and particularly their territory. But if the male birds are taken farther afield, they’re often tempted by pastures new.

> Now consider the attitude of the female birds: separate them from their cocks and they will fly determinedly back to their love over hill and high water. So it’s typically the females that are entered into the prestigious race back to the UK from Barcelona.

> After struggling to cross the Pyrenees, many of them appear to have their fidelity rewarded with an exhausted watery end in the Channel.

Thanks for the link and a good read. While this is possible, this is not something I would say most pigeon racers would do in practice. In this way, perhaps a small portion are giving a bad name to the rest?

Thanks for engaging with an open mind. I agree that there's an incentive for owners to keep racing pigeons healthy, that owners can be caring, and that it can be a more comfortable life than in the wild. I just disagree with the racing part -- there's no need to make birds fly over half of europe then the english channel purely for entertainment.

I agree - the civil tone in these posts is refreshing.

While I personally share your opinion, I wouldn't make our opinion a universal. 'theres no need..." is a bit stronger than I would say it because this wording sounds objective. Other people apparently do see the need.

For several decades, I have seen no need to eat birds or other land animals. While others have continued see the need. It's a difference of perspective.

But surely there is a difference between some folks seeing a need to do it, and there actually being a need to, no?

Someone might say they _need_ to race the birds, and they might feel that in their bones to be true, but does that actually make it true?

I'd say no. There are lots of great hobbies that don't involve putting the animals in those stressful and potentially fatal situations, so someone making the claim that they need to do it just sounds like mental gymnastics to me, personally.

Yes, I think the term is the crux of it.

By declaring that something that someone enjoys doing for whatever reason is not necessary, in situations like this, one appears to be implicitly attempting to erode their right to do it.

Anyone can think of many things they do for fun which are not necessitated.

Perhaps it would be better to be more explicit, if that's how you feel: "Everyone should refrain from ...'

Reply on news.ycombinator.com