How To Kill A Hobby (Part 1)

More and more lately, I find myself thinking about the future of the hobby of raising pigeons. I've not been at it as long as my dad and his friends but even I can see a definite decline in the number of both pigeon fanciers and domesticated pigeons from the time when I was first exposed to the hobby back in the 1970's. Every conversation with another pigeon fancier sooner or later gets to the subject of our dying hobby. Like view-masters and comic books, pigeon-keeping seems to have experienced a serious decline in popularity.

I have my own theories about why pigeon-keeping is not as popular as it once was. Among other theories pigeon fanciers will often trot out is the "kids today have too many other options of what to do with their free time" argument. Of course, the older fanciers aren't usually that articulate or polite. As I've said before I don't quite buy this argument because there have always been other activities competing for people's spare time. I also don't buy this because I've heard that the popularity of keeping pigeons is declining in places where there is no television and there is no internet.

Regardless of the whys of the decline, I do think there are some things that we do as pigeon fanciers that definitely hurt our chances of ever returning our hobby to the popularity that it once enjoyed.

Recently there was a thread on a mailing list to which I subscribe. A novice pigeon fancier was describing how she's dealing with PMV which is the pigeon equivalent of Newcastle's Disease. This poor woman is dealing with a lot of dead pigeons and a lot of grief. The most incredible thing to me is that this woman knows that the person that she got her birds from had PMV in his loft at some point in the past. Yet, this genius didn't see fit to vaccinate his birds for PMV on a consistent basis. So here's a novice fancier--just getting started in the hobby and she already has to deal with one of the worst calamaties that can befall a pigeon fancier because this rocket-scientist doesn't think it's worth his effort to vaccinate his birds. Experienced fanciers who have had pigeons for years might throw up their hands and give up the hobby when faced with an outbreak of PMV.

Now, were this an isolated incident, I wouldn't bother to mention it. However, this is far from the first time I've heard of this sort of behavior going on. I've heard of and seen more than one occassion when pigeon fanciers give (or sell) sick pigeons to novice fanciers. Nothing like joining the hobby and having most of your birds sick and dying to convince a person that raising pigeons is the hobby for them.

My point is this: if you want to help a novice fancier be very careful about the birds you give him or her. I can think of a few things that will discourage a novice and immediately having to deal with sick and dying pigeons is right up there on the list.

An UIB (Unidentified Bird)

I was driving home tonight when I spotted a bird in a pond. The pond is on the north side of Tienken Road here in Rochester -- between Brewster and Livernois. I wish I could have stopped and taken a picture but traffic moves at a pretty good clip along Tienken.

I'm inclined to guess that it was a great egret. It was a wader (long legs), the plumage was all white, and it had a spearhead shaped yellow-orange beak. Unfortunately I couldn't see the color of the legs and I could see if there were any crest on the head so I can't be completely certain that it may not have been a heron way out of its normal territory.

The Kids Are All Right

It's my pleasure to work with some young pigeon fanciers as part of the Oakland 4-H Fliers 4-H club. A few of them entered birds at the Michigan State Fair and they did pretty well.

Danielle D. got a 1st and 2nd place Trumpeter (as well as having the best Trumpeter) , she got a 1st and 2nd on her Indian Fantails as well as best young bird, her Birmingham Roller got a 1st, her Show King placed 4th and her educational exhibit came in 3rd.

Jess M. got a 1st and 2nd place in the Lahores; 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Old German Owls, a 3rd place in Koromoner Tumblers and a 1st on her Swing Pouter.

I'm very proud to be associated with these two fine young ladies and I'm glad that I could help them a bit.

Birdwatching Ears

I got the audio companion to Peterson's Field Guide today. In fact there are a couple of audio companions; one is supposed to give you the audio equivalent of the field marks that the field guide gives while the other is supposed to give the various bird songs to help a person learn what to listen for. I'm going to try to listen to it and see if I can start to pick up the sound of birds. If nothing else my latest mania for bird watching should help me to sharpen up my powers of observation anyway.

Once Again

I've tried blogging a few times over the years. It's always a source of enthusiasm at the start and then the enthusiasm goes away as I realize that I really have nothing to say. This blog may go that way too. I guess we'll see.