A friend of mine here in Izmir lives in a suburb called Buca. It’s significantly out of the city, but I’ve been a few times for dinner and a couple beers. Anyway, we were on the balcony of his 7th story apartment, gazing upon the half-picturesque, half-development-scathed landscape when we noticed some particular pigeons flying by. Well, flying around really. Some distinctly colored black and white pigeons were flying in circles around the airspace directly in front of us. It was interesting to watch. Even more, we noticed one of them had a blue bag tied to its leg that served as flight-drag, making it painfully slower than its pigeon comrades. Trying to keep pace, the burdened pigeon struggled and had to stop to rest several times before rejoining (good thing the pigeon squad was flying around in circles). Directly below us and the flying pigeon gang, was a small house equipped with cages. From above we could easily see the man was their caretaker. After explanations from my friend’s father and grandfather, I came to learn that they were indeed messenger pigeons and that blue bag was a training exercise used to accustom the pigeons to flight with additional weight. Who need’s messenger pigeons nowadays?, I asked. Prisoners do, apparently. The family’s apartment is located near a correctional facility into which pigeons air-transport all sorts of things in and out. Perhaps that’s illegal, but it’s also rather impressive.
-Charles P. Pearson
I seem to remember being told that the purpose was strictly for hard drugs. I also remember being told that the guy was a pretty steady alcoholic which seemed fitting as he was scithing his grass around his property.
I dug deeper Luke, it’s called journalism.
oh ,I love this story Charles. It reminds me of a really sweet elderly gentleman that I met in Egypt who told me that during the war he was in charge of the ‘night fliers ‘ while stationed with the Pigeon Service branch of the Royal Corps of Signals in Cairo .
He went on to tell me all about a pigeon called Queen Matilda who was awarded the Dicken Medal for flying 60 miles with a message that saved lives (then dropped dead by the way ) and finished up with saying what a shame it was that the Egyptians were now enjoying stuffed pigeon as one of their favourite dishes !
I think he would be impressed with the prison run .