By Glen Atwell
FORGET cricket, football and golf – go and race a pigeon instead.
That’s the message sported by the Pakenham Racing Pigeon Club, wherein lies a rewarding, complex and slightly mysterious sport.
Longtime member Ed Baillie has been racing pigeons since he can remember and said the club, based in Spencer Street, Nar Nar Goon, was on the lookout for anyone seeking an addictive hobby.
“We have a handful of racing members and love to see some new faces and get more pigeons in the air,” he said.
Pigeon racing is highly competitive and the Pakenham club races once a week.
About 40 birds per race are trucked anywhere from 150 kilometres to 900 kilometres to the starting point and are released at an exact time for the journey home.
“Races are held over Victoria and interstate,” Baillie said.
“Last year we had a distance race that began 150 kilometres inside the Queensland border.”
The pigeons can maintain speeds of more than 1000 metres per minute, but performance is heavily influenced by the conditions.
“With a tailwind, they can travel anywhere up to 2000 metres per minute,” Baillie said.
“But the weather can greatly affect their racing speed.”
Once the pigeon returns home, the race is not over until the bird is captured.
Then, using mathematical calculations to work out time and average velocity, a winner is found.
The mysterious side to the sport is that noone knows about is how pigeons actually home.
“There are a few different theories,” Baillie said.
Homing pigeons are widely believed to use the sun and the earth’s magnetic field to navigate their way to the finish line, though some believe the pigeon simply has an innate sense of direction.
“I think it does have something to do with magnetic fields, because whenever there is an earthquake a lot of pigeons racing don’t make it home,” Baillie said.
But environmental factors are not the only reason some feathered friends never arrive home.
Predators are also blamed for thousands of losses every year.
“I’ll start a season with about 100 birds and finish with around 50,” Baillie said.
“The hawks are terrible at the moment.
“They are a protected bird, so they have progressively gotten worse and worse.”
But some ‘missing’ pigeons can just lose interest, or find a new mate on the journey home.
Dandenong Racing Pigeon Club president and clock chairman of the Greater Melbourne Pigeon Federation, which includes Pakenham, John Blackney joked that pigeons could be somewhat like women.
“I can never tell what they are thinking,” he laughed.
Blackney said losing birds was a part of pigeon racing competitors had to deal with.
“You can’t become attached to the birds – just look after them and train them well,” he said.
Just like elite athletes, training is an important part of the racing fixture.
“I’ll take birds about 50 kilometres away and let them fly home about once a week,” Blackney said.
Baillie said he travels to Stud Road and releases a group of birds during the racing season.
“They always beat me home though – they are too quick,” he said.
The sport is inexpensive and a master pigeon trainer can be aged between nine and 90.
Baillie said he would even help out a new member with a couple of breeding birds.
For more information and membership inquiries contact Pakenham Racing Pigeon Club president Gary Gillard on 5997 7188.