Subject: Homing pigeons
Date: Jan 9 00:58:46 1997
From: "James West" - jdwest at u.washington.edu



Herb - you could try calling Broadmoor Construction in Seattle, and ask for
the number of the mudder called "Jack" who sub-contracts for them. He did
the mudding part of an extensive water-damage repair in my house, and I
spent the best part of two days talking with him about pigeon-racing, a
subject on which he's a fountain of knowledge. He seems to be a leading
light in the Washington homing pigeon community, which is clearly more
extensive than I had ever guessed. A typical race, by the way, consists of
trucking a load of birds down to California overnight, and releasing them
there at dawn - most of them are back in their cotes in Seattle the same
night, a feat that leaves Jack & Co. terminally awestruck and passionately
attached to their birds. A few of the less experienced ones go astray, are
picked up exhausted, and are "phoned in" from the info on their leg-bands.
Jack thinks nothing of jumping straight into his car and retrieving a bird
from a couple of hundred miles away.

Oh, and while we talked about pigeons, I watched him mudding without pause,
a performance that looked more like ballet than construction work, and
didn't leave a single speck on his plaid shirt & jeans (he utterly disdains
the use of overalls).

James West