A stray white dove

[marilug]

For about a week now, I have had a visitor in my patio. It's a beautiful white dove but it has colored and numbered rings around the feet, one orange and one blue since I can get pretty close to it. It only flies from my tool shed to my overhang and back to the shed. I don't mind it except it is dirtying everything, my patio furniture , the floors and walls, etc.
What do I do, is there anyone I can call to come and get it?

[GandJ]

Might be a homing pigeon or something like that. Google "homing pigeons" for your area.
Someone might have an AWOL deserter.

[Matt Meltzer]

What are homing pigeons used for?

[GandJ]

What are homing pigeons used for?

A friend of mine had homing pigeons as a side business. He'd rent them out for "dove releases" at things like weddings, events, etc. Yup "doves" are pretty much a fancy name a for white pigeons. They'd always make their way back to his house, where he had their home coops in his backyard. He said that at first, you train them a little more distance at a time. Release from a quarter mile, then a mile, then 3 miles, then 10 miles, etc. Something like that. Eventually, they get used to finding their way back "home" from a long way off.


..... Or, in the case of the 1988 summer games in Seoul, South Korea, a bunch of released "doves" flew straight through the Olympic cauldron flame, and got toasted!



Glenn

[Blackford Oakes]

How often does one see a pidgeon in Miami ?

After eight years in FL, I've only had one encounter and it was at Cocoa Beach.