Lost Pigeons

Lost Pigeons follows the lives of two brothers, Chris and Michael, growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the late 1970's. One brother goes off to war, while the other goes into sales. The soldier comes back and finds luck winning the lottery, falling in love, and getting married. Luck, however, suddenly turns its back on him as he finds himself irreparably damaged in his personal life and the tours of duty, leading him to ultimately devise his own end. His brother is left behind, forever wracked with guilt and painful confusion, questioning his own capacity to have helped his brother before fate took full control of his will to live. This sense of helplessness and grief persists until he meets Ricky, a real estate agent turned homeless, who is in need of a brother. The novel brings to light the themes that plague our human experience: the fleeting quality of our own luck, the loss of a loved one, the loneliness engraved in our grief, and the redemption we often find in the most unexpected of places. Among the greatest underlying messages of Lost Pigeons is a deeper reminder to all to treat those who are lost as family and to not let your comfort zone dictate your reality. There is a wealth of hope to be found outside the realm of familiarity, once we step outside of ourselves and lend a helping hand to others. Our brothers and sisters are out there struggling with demons greater than themselves.

This antique text contains the first part of a four-part treatise on the keeping and management of pigeons. This part concentrates on subjects such as anatomy, physiology, kinds of pigeons, conformation, and the reproducers. The author of this book draws his knowledge from forty years worth of experience in the subject, and intended this book for the true pigeon fanciers who might benefit from his wealth of experience. The chapters of this book include: Anatomy and Physiology, The Skeleton, The Muscles, The Wings, The Organs of Digestion, The Organs of Respiration, The Circulation of the Blood, The Genital Organs, The Senses, Formation of the Pigeon, The Composition of the Body of the Pigeon, The Different Kinds of Pigeon, Different Kinds of Belgian Pigeons, The Present Day Races, The Belgian Carrier Pigeon, et cetera. This text has been elected for modern republication due to its educational value, and we are proud to republish it here complete with a new introduction on pigeons.

How do homing pigeons navigate? They have a special ability to sense magnetic fields. As readers learn about this impressive adaptation, they’re introduced to important science curriculum topics in a fresh, engaging way. Readers explore fun facts about pigeons and other animals that can also detect magnetic fields, including honeybees. Colorful photographs of these animals and a helpful graphic organizer are included to enhance the reading experience. With each turn of the page, readers will gain a new appreciation for pigeons, honeybees, and other animals that have their own built-in compass.

Racing Pigeons: A Manual describes the historical use of homing pigeons for communications and is a manual for the pigeon racing sport. Descended from the wild Blue Rock dove, homing pigeons have been highly valued since ancient times for sending messages in times of peace and war. Todays homing pigeons have been bred to perform better than ever. Pigeon racing has developed into a worldwide hobby and is the national sport of Belgium. In 2013, a champion Belgian pigeon was sold for $400,000. Some pigeon races offer a million dollars in prize money but it can also be a hobby for ordinary folks who raise pedigreed pigeons and fly them for pleasure. This book explains how pigeon racing can be enjoyable and affordable with information on getting started, instructions for establishing a loft, breeding and training programs, and details about pigeon racing on a modest budget. The author has over fifty years of experience with racing pigeons, raising them, importing and exporting them, and winning races in international competition. In our fast paced electronic and impersonal age, homing pigeons can be a relaxing, challenging and rewarding family activity, appealing to people of all backgrounds. The author mentions some celebrities who have been homing pigeon fanciers. Pigeon racing in an under-publicized activity in America. Racing Pigeons: A Manual unveils this unique hobby and sport.

A “quirky, endlessly entertaining” look at the surprising history of the pigeon (Simon Winchester). Domesticated since the dawn of man, pigeons have been used as crucial communicators in war by every major historical superpower from ancient Egypt to the United States and are credited with saving thousands of lives. They have been worshipped as fertility goddesses and revered as symbols of peace. Charles Darwin relied heavily on pigeons to help formulate and support his theory of evolution. Yet today they are reviled as “rats with wings.” To research this lively history of the humble pigeon, the author traveled across the United States and Europe to meet with pigeon fanciers and pigeon haters in a quest to find out how we came to misunderstand one of mankind’s most helpful and steadfast companions. Pigeons captures a Brooklyn man’s quest to win the Main Event (the pigeon world’s equivalent of the Kentucky Derby), as well as a convention dedicated to breeding the perfect bird. The author participates in a live pigeon shoot where entrants pay $150; he tracks down Mike Tyson, the nation’s most famous pigeon lover; he spends time with Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Pigeon Handler; and he sheds light on a radical “pro-pigeon underground” in New York City. In Pigeons, Andrew D. Blechman reveals for the first time the remarkable story behind this seemingly unremarkable bird. “A quick and thoroughly entertaining read, Pigeons will leave readers chuckling at the quirky characters and pondering surprising pigeon facts.” —Audubon Magazine “Manages to illuminate not merely the ostensible subject of the book, but also something of the endearing, repellent, heroic, and dastardly nature of that most bizarre of breeds, Homo sapiens.” —Salon.com

A groundbreaking study of how emotions motivate attempts to counter species loss. This groundbreaking book brings together environmental history and the history of emotions to examine the motivations behind species conservation actions. In Recovering Lost Species in the Modern Age, Dolly Jørgensen uses the environmental histories of reintroduction, rewilding, and resurrection to view the modern conservation paradigm of the recovery of nature as an emotionally charged practice. Jørgensen argues that the recovery of nature—identifying that something is lost and then going out to find it and bring it back—is a nostalgic practice that looks to a historical past and relies on the concept of belonging to justify future-oriented action. The recovery impulse depends on emotional responses to what is lost, particularly a longing for recovery that manifests itself in such emotions as guilt, hope, fear, and grief. Jørgensen explains why emotional frameworks matter deeply—both for how people understand nature theoretically and how they interact with it physically. The identification of what belongs (the lost nature) and our longing (the emotional attachment to it) in the present will affect how environmental restoration practices are carried out in the future. A sustainable future will depend on questioning how and why belonging and longing factor into the choices we make about what to recover.

Possibly the most successful urban birds, pigeons and doves in the Order Columbiformes are one of the most easily recognised groups. They are an ancient and very successful group with an almost worldwide distribution and are most strongly represented in tropical and subtropical regions, including Australia. In most species simple plumage patterns feature mainly grey and brown with black, white or dull reddish markings, but the highly colourful fruit-doves include some of the most beautiful of all birds. From dense rainforests of north Queensland, where brilliantly plumaged Superb Fruit-Doves Ptilinopus superbus are heard more easily than seen, to cold, windswept heathlands of Tasmania, where Brush Bronzewings Phaps elegans are locally common, most regions of Australia are frequented by one or more species. For more than a century after arrival of the First Fleet, interest in these birds focused on the eating qualities of larger species. In addition to contributing to declines of local populations in some parts of Australia, excessive hunting brought about the extinction of two species on Lord Howe Island and another species on Norfolk Island. In Pigeons and Doves in Australia, Joseph Forshaw and William Cooper have summarised our current knowledge of all species, including those occurring on Christmas, Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands, and with superb artwork have given readers a visual appreciation of the birds in their natural habitats. Historical accounts of extinct species are also included. Detailed information on management practices for all species is presented, ensuring that Pigeons and Doves in Australia will become the standard reference work on these birds for ornithologists and aviculturists.

Pigeons were crucial to communications between Allied troops in both world wars. When phone, radio, and telegraph lines were cut or officers needed to send top secret information, it was pigeons that they depended on to reach support staff far from the front. In fact, pigeons earned the most medals of any animal for their services during these conflicts. Discover how pigeons were domesticated and trained for use in military conflicts, learn about some of their most daring flights, and find out what other ways pigeons and humans work together.