|
Read News
|
Pocono News Section
Pigeon Racing
Pigeon Racing - Friday, August 8, 2008 at 5:27PM EST
Friday, Aug 8, 2008 @ 05:27pm EST
Releasing pigeons into a city might not sound like the prettiest thing in the world.
But one man in Stroudsburg calls it a thing of beauty.
He's one of hundreds of people that race pigeons around the world.
Steven Mitchell opens his cages, and lets 30 of his finest pigeons fly into the Scranton sky.
Within an hour, they're cooing, bobbing their head, and just hanging out at in their coup, more than 40 miles away in Stroudsburg.
"They come home, that's what they're bred to do, that's what they do,” says Mitchell.
Mitchell breeds homing pigeons for racing.
It's pretty big around the world.
The proof lies in racing pigeon digest, and full length movies.
Mitchell grew up racing in New York City , and sings the praises of pigeons.
Mitchell says, "Very relaxing. You see them grow from and egg and them to train then and race them 500 miles, and see them come home."
And to come home is natural for these pigeons.
Wherever they're released, they fly back to wherever they were raised.
It makes them perfect for racing.
"For hundreds of years they used these birds in Egypt and all the wars they used pigeons and that's because when they let em' up with a message, they'd come back, right, there was no radios, no phones," says Mitchell.
Mitchell's been raising and racing since 1975.
Here in Stroudsburg, Mitchell holds nearly 100 birds.
"They're tired they probably won't try to get out. So these guys made it back in less than hour? Yeah, about 40 miles I guess it was," says Mitchell.
Their wings are a little tired after their training flight.
These guys are only a few months old, and have a lot of racing days ahead of them.
They're just resting up, until the next time they're ready to fly the coup. | | |
|
|
|