Lost pigeon perishes on pilgrimage

To suggest the jaunty bird preferred Waynesboro to Delaware would be amiss.

Racing pigeons, known for their loyalty, don’t just fly 300 miles out of their way on a whim. And they definitely don’t travel 300 miles out of their way to fly smack into the window of a city finance department.

When the call broke over police scanners in the late morning on a tough and dreary Thursday, Waynesboro Animal Control Officer Dee Price didn’t waste a minute.

Price drove to the second-story balcony of Waynesboro City Hall, observed the situation, then made the call.

“I’ve got a 10-45,” Price announced into her radio.

An animal carcass.

“It had already died when I got there,” Price said. “From what they described to me, and from what I can tell, it looks like it might have just flown into the window.”

The small racing pigeon, or homing pigeon, didn’t come without identification. Its owner tagged the bird’s name around one of its its legs: NEW547.

For two days authorities followed the trail of serial and phone numbers connected to NEW547, attempting to connect with the owner in Newark, Del.

They deduced that the forlorn fowl died in the midst of a race, but the little bird’s point of takeoff remained a mystery. Just under a year old (it was born on Valentines Day 2009), the animal wouldn’t qualify for a race longer than 300 miles; only experienced pigeons deign to fly the 600 mile races.

Price first called The Wildlife Center of Virginia, where representatives in turn called Sal Lama, a Florida man who keeps records of racing pigeons in America.

Lama connected the bird to the American Racing Pigeon Union, which provided Price with the telephone number to a pigeon-racing club in Delaware.

There are more than 600 such clubs in the United States, said Deone Roberts, the sport development manager with the American Racing Pigeon Union, based in Oklahoma City, Okla. It’s a growing sport, she said. The group sees as many as 100 new members register each month.

Price left a message with the Newark, Del., club and played the waiting game, all the while keeping the pigeon’s body in case the owner wanted it returned.

Further research into the Delaware bird revealed its tragic story.

During the weekend of Oct. 10, Jim “Scotty” Galloway loaded 23 of his young pigeons onto a truck bound for Claysville, Pa. Once there, a team of pigeon racing officials released 602 birds into the sky to begin their long flights home. Special computer chips attached to their legs helped determine which bird won the race.

Maybe the overcast sky confused NEW547 . Even the light northwest wind, which would have pushed Galloway’s pigeon home, didn’t prevent it from flapping off into wrong direction.

Galloway moved to the United States from Glasgow, Scotland. He said he’s raised racing pigeons all of his life and it’s always sad when some don’t make it back.

“It just got blown off course, you know,” Galloway said. “What happens is they’ll split off into three or four groups, and then they split off into smaller groups. They get lost.”

Galloway, 76, belongs to the Racing Pigeon Union, which tracks racing times and pigeon rankings. He didn’t need the union’s high-tech computer software to remind him that eight of his 23 “babies” didn’t make it home, he said. When he received the call from Price, it put some of his worry at ease, he said.

“It’s just one of those things,” he said. “They’re all my babies, and I love them all. It was well off course, that’s for sure, but I’m really thankful she called me and let me know what passed off.”