Being completely bored out of my wits, here's a couple of shots of that pigeon leg band I found in the woods when I went on that trip to a farm property with my brother. In case you don't know what they look like.
The band is marked as:
AU - American Pigeon Racing Union.
76 - The year the bird was born.
SBMF - A pigeon racing club (now defunct) from Akron, Ohio.
25 - The 25th band this person bought for his birds.
And believe it or not I called the ex secretary of the Akron club and reported it to him.
He told me what all the specific numbers and letters meant and figures that the bird got into trouble somewhere and didn't make it back to home. (About 100 miles away.)
So with the info he gave me I found out through the owners son that his dad was an avid pigeon racer but the sport died off as did his dad some time back. But he said I could keep it as he had many of them as keepsakes from his father.
Oh, and it rang up 3-28, just like a clad dime!
Ed
ps.... and of all things today my 6 year old Fuji camera crapped out and these pics are with my phone.
very cool find.
and very cool story
Neat find Ed. and great detective work on the story about it.
Cool find Ed
What is it made of? Silver? Aluminum?
(11-19-2014 04:53 AM)MichiganRelicHunter Wrote: [ -> ]Cool find Ed
What is it made of? Silver? Aluminum?
Aluminum. It has to be placed on the birds foot within the first 21 days from birth and the bird grows into it.
Ed, my father's whole life resolved around pigeons. He had 'coops' all over Brooklyn. There are two types of birds that people have: show birds & racing birds. Show birds are generally for the owner to fly above his home coop, to take care of, admire & breed them. Racing birds are flown & exercised every day, and their speeds are carefully clocked. Then, once a group of birds are deemed worthy, the owner puts them in a wooden carrier, and drives anywhere from 50 miles upward to 200 or 300 miles away, where he'll meet up with other bird owners from the area his home coop is located. They will then release the pigeons at the exact same time, and will see who's birds make it back to their respective coops, first. The birds obviously make it back before the owners do, so, they normally have 'time guys' just hanging out on roofs waiting for the birds with stopwatches in their hands. As you would expect...
There's a lot of wagering that goes on. Then, as you found out, they have the clubs, too. Pigeon guys are DIE HARDS. Very much the same as it is with us detectorists. To a hard core pigeon guy, his birds will come before almost anything. My father was at his coops by 6 or 7am everyday to scrape the coop of pigeon shit, feed the babies, give medicine to the sick birds, exercise them, etc. The hobby itself is a shell of what is was from the 40's till about the early 90's. The BIG pigeon guys passed away, and their kids (much like myself) from a different generation, didn't continue the love affair. In the NY tri-state area, a lot of VERY tough guys had birds. Made guys. It was largely a sport made up of Italians, Irish & the blacks. The pigeon world is AMAZINGLY interesting.
Thank you for taking me down memory lane...and EXCELLENT research!
Joe
(11-19-2014 03:02 PM)NjNyDigger Wrote: [ -> ]Ed, my father's whole life resolved around pigeons. He had 'coops' all over Brooklyn. There are two types of birds that people have: show birds & racing birds. Show birds are generally for the owner to fly above his home coop, to take care of, admire & breed them. Racing birds are flown & exercised every day, and their speeds are carefully clocked. Then, once a group of birds are deemed worthy, the owner puts them in a wooden carrier, and drives anywhere from 50 miles upward to 200 or 300 miles away, where he'll meet up with other bird owners from the area his home coop is located. They will then release the pigeons at the exact same time, and will see who's birds make it back to their respective coops, first. The birds obviously make it back before the owners do, so, they normally have 'time guys' just hanging out on roofs waiting for the birds with stopwatches in their hands. As you would expect...
There's a lot of wagering that goes on. Then, as you found out, they have the clubs, too. Pigeon guys are DIE HARDS. Very much the same as it is with us detectorists. To a hard core pigeon guy, his birds will come before almost anything. My father was at his coops by 6 or 7am everyday to scrape the coop of pigeon shit, feed the babies, give medicine to the sick birds, exercise them, etc. The hobby itself is a shell of what is was from the 40's till about the early 90's. The BIG pigeon guys passed away, and their kids (much like myself) from a different generation, didn't continue the love affair. In the NY tri-state area, a lot of VERY tough guys had birds. Made guys. It was largely a sport made up of Italians, Irish & the blacks. The pigeon world is AMAZINGLY interesting.
Thank you for taking me down memory lane...and EXCELLENT research!
Joe
Thanks for the fill in info Joe!! Glad I could bring back good memories for you!
Ed
Cool find Ed. Probably a once in a lifetime. I wonder if the race pigeon fell to a bird of prey. Hawks love pigeon.
(11-19-2014 06:48 PM)PittsburghWill Wrote: [ -> ]Cool find Ed. Probably a once in a lifetime. I wonder if the race pigeon fell to a bird of prey. Hawks love pigeon.
Could be! Here's one of my neighbors right out my front door watching our bird feeder last year.
Peregrine Falcon!