I Have Not Played With My Stamps For Some Time,

but I still read articles about stamps,

 and was intrigued to read about the pigeon post, I term I have often heard of, but never knew that the first pigeon post took place in 1898 and 1899, the competing services began to use stamps of various designs, these were likely the world’s first airmail stamps, the pigeon post services continued to play out their drama (Parkin dropped out in 1899) until 1908, when underwater telegraph cables enabled telegraph service to the mainland,

the area served was New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island, an island about 60 miles away from the mainland city of Auckland, a pigeon post service flourished there for almost a decade, being one of the first and only commercial pigeon post services, several competing pigeon posts that served the island during these years also bear the distinction of being likely the first service in the world to produce a stamp specifically for airmail use, in November 1898, over time, stamps from the pigeon post have become prized by collectors,  

 the reason for the beginning of the service was a tragic one, a few years before it was established, in 1894, a steamship named the S.S. Wairarapa, en route from Sydney to Auckland, broke up on a reef near the island and sank, more than 140 passengers died, yet it took three days for news of the wreck to reach Auckland, the ship’s destination, the island clearly needed a better means of communicating with the mainland,

 but the idea for a pigeon post didn’t arise for another two years, writes Margo White for New Zealand Geographic, in 1896, a New Zealand Herald reporter who was attending an anniversary service for the deadly event filed his story to the mainland using a pigeon named Ariel, it took the bird, who was owned by an Auckland pigeon fancier named Walter Fricker, less than two hours to reach the mainland, 

this event sparked a long tradition of pigeon mail to the island. Fricker started the Great Barrier Pigeongram Service in 1897, according to Barth Healey writing for The New York Times, the pigeongram service ended in 1908, when a telegraph cable was laid, so I now what the original pigeon post was all about.

Anyone Caught Spying, Is Always Going To Be In Hot Water,

especially at the border of India and Pakistan,

which is why this 'spy pigeon' has been arrested, photographs ANI, last week authorities in India announced the capture of a suspicious pigeon believed to be a spy from neighboring Pakistan. Now the bird’s owner is demanding that his bird be set free, the alleged spy was captured on Sunday by villagers in the disputed region of Kashmir, between India and Pakistan. The pigeon caught the people’s attention right away, because of its unusual pink color and a ring with a strange code around one of its legs. They immediately called the regional police, who detained the bird on charges of spying while they tried to decipher the code on its ring. Now a Pakistani villager has come out to dispute the charges, saying that the pigeon was his and the ring around its leg isn’t an elaborate code, but his phone number, in case something happened to the bird,

after India’s Border Security Force announced the capture of “another Pakistani spy pigeon”, Pakistani newspaper Dawn managed to track down the bird’s alleged owner, a man named Habib Ullah from the village of Bagga-Shakargarh, just 4 kilometres from the border with the disputed Kashmir region. To celebrate Eid, he painted the wings of some of his birds and released them as symbols of peace, love and tolerance. He never imagined that one of them would fly into India and be labeled a spy, meanwhile, Habib Ullah claims that the ring only bears his phone number, and is urging Indian prime-minister Narendra Modi to return the pigeon with “full protocol and due respect”,

photograph E-News Pakistan, He and others in Bagga-Shakargarh have been protesting the pigeon’s arrest over the last few days, showing off his collection of pink-painted pigeons as proof that there was nothing special about the captured one, well at least the 'Spy' is still alive!

 spare a thought to what happen to a spy washed ashore in Hartlepool, in the UK at the tine of the Napoleonic wars, legend has it that during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, a shipwrecked monkey was hanged by the people of Hartlepool, believing him to be a French spy! To this day, people from Hartlepool are affectionately known as ‘monkey hangers’, a French ship was spotted floundering and sinking off the Hartlepool coast. Suspicious of enemy ships and nervous of possible invasion, the good folk of Hartlepool rushed down to the beach, where amongst the wreckage of the ship they found the only survivor, the ship’s monkey which was apparently dressed in a miniature military-style uniform, Hartlepool is a long way from France and most of the populace had never met, or even seen, a Frenchman. Some satirical cartoons of the time pictured the French as monkey-like creatures with tails and claws, so perhaps the locals could be forgiven for deciding that the monkey, in its uniform, must be a Frenchman, and a French spy at that. There was a trial to ascertain whether the monkey was guilty of spying or not; however, not unsurprisingly, the monkey was unable to answer any of the court’s questions and was found guilty. The townsfolk then dragged him into the town square and hanged him, so I guess it was good luck that the pigeon did not fly over Hartlepool!

lucky the people of the area take the story with a pinch of salt as can be seen from the above, Rugby union club Hartlepool Rovers features the monkey on its badge, I hope the people of the area can forgive me!

With So Many People,

owning photographic drones,

 we take aerial pictures for granted, but what about the days before drones and aircraft, how did you take a aerial picture then? enter the pigeon camera! amateur pigeon fancier Dr Julius G. Neubronner decided to make a camera for his pigeons, up until then, the two best ways to take aerial photographs both had their drawbacks, balloons and kites could take a camera but were very restricted in their movement and speed, since 1903 Neubronner had been using pigeons to exchange prescriptions and urgent medications with a sanatorium a few miles from his home in Kronberg near Frankfurt,

 a pigeon lost during one of these flights had delighted Neubronner by returning to its dovecote four weeks later, safe and sound, the episode gave Neubronner the idea of creating lightweight, wearable cameras to record his couriers’ flights, He built several models which included a pneumatic timing mechanism to activate the shutter at set intervals, leather harness, and aluminium breastplate, Neubronner would take the pigeons up to 60 miles away before releasing them, knowing that they would want to take the most direct route home to unburden themselves, to increase the mobility of his fleet, he also built a horse-drawn dovecote with an attached darkroom, by 1907 he was in business, with the first satisfactory camera made,

 the German patent office objected to Neubronner’s application on the grounds that domestic pigeons could not possibly carry a 75 gram load, Neubronner countered the objection with photographic evidence and, in 1908, finally gained his patent, the invention brought Neubronner international notability after he presented it at expositions in Dresden, Frankfurt, and Paris in 1909–11, spectators in Dresden could watch the arrival of the camera-equipped carrier pigeons, and the photos were immediately developed and turned into buyable postcards, 

 above the Schlosshotel in Kronberg, it became famous as in the picture the wings of the bird were accidentally captured when the shutter clicked,

 the pictures were of course random, 

 but know roughly that the birds would go the shortest route back,

he had a general idea of the views that he would get from the camera, the German military considered the images sufficiently impressive to test the pigeon cam on the battlefields of the Western Front, however, rapid improvements in aeroplane reconnaissance consigned Neubronner’s birds to their traditional role of carrying messages, pigeons would go on to also play a similar role in the Second World War, as detailed in this amusing documentary, the Bird War of World War II! Rorhof has published a wider selection of pigeon pictures in their 2017 book The Pigeon Photographer, the pigeon drone,who would have thought it?

I Have Heard Of People Having Pigeon Toes,

but this is the first time I have heard of someone with pigeon shoes,

 it was an idea of 47-year old Keiko Ohata, she wanted to get closer to the pigeons in Ueno Park, so she designed a pair of shoes that looked like pigeons in the hopes of fooling them, 

it was time for the test drive, or walk I should say, Keiko started out by walking towards the birds, but they flew away as soon as she got too close, so she then tried walking backwards, with the heads of her pigeon shoes facing the real birds, it didn’t make much of a difference, 

She kept trying to get close to the pigeons for a while, but she only reached a goal when a friendly old man threw some breadcrumbs close to where she was, that finally attracted the birds, and her friends were able to snap some photos of the shoes surrounded by actual pigeons, so did pigeon shoes attract pigeons? No, but they did attract crowds of people that were fascinated by them, pigeon shoes, who would have thought of it? if you want to try your hand at making a none working pair of pigeon shoes here is her website, actually that is not quite right, they did work, on humans!

Considered Vermin By Many,

to some they are worth fortunes,

and to some musical merriment, as in this song by Tom Lehrer,

and they are? pigeons, going back to the people that think they are worth a fortune, this week there is a ongoing auction of racing pigeons, Hok Van De Wouwer, a renowned pigeon breeder in Antwerp, Belgium has recently put its entire collection of racing pigeons on sale this month. Father and son duo Gaston and Kurt Van De Wouwer have an enviable resume among pigeon breeders, winning numerous national ace pigeon titles and 1st place at nationals, photograph Pipa Pigeon Paradise,  

in just one and a half hours after the auction went live on the Pipa Pigeon Paradise website last Monday, New Kim already had 226 bids, with the highest one topping 1.3 million euros. The price hasn’t budged since, but with four days left to go, it’s already the most expensive pigeon ever, surpassing the record set by another Belgian specimen named Armando, for which a Chinese collector paid 1,252,000 euros in 2019, the auction officially ends on November 15, so a new bid could still exceed the record bid of the South African, although it is unlikely. There is a small chance that the bid could be retracted, but the organizer requires a deposit of 20% of the total bid sum, when it exceeds 500,000 euros, so in this case the bidder would lose 300,000 euros, as you might expect, the bird would never be flown, it would be far too risky to lose it, the bird will be used for breeding hopefully resulting in a thoroughbred offspring, I wonder what the final bid will be? 

!00 Years Ago Today Martha Died,

and she was the last known passenger pigeon to have existed,

named after George Washington’s wife the pigeon died in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, marking the end of the passenger pigeon species, (Ectopistes migratorius), just a few decades prior to Martha’s death, the passenger pigeon flourished throughout much of North America; in the early 1800s, they were considered one of the most abundant species of bird in the world, with their numbers somewhere between 1 and 5 billion, they lived in giant colonies that stretched for miles in length, darkening the sky for hours as they passed overhead,

but a combination of over hunting and habitat loss caused the species’ numbers to dwindle and between 1870 and 1890, the passenger pigeon suffered a “catastrophic decline,” with millions of birds slaughtered, after 1900, there were no longer any passenger pigeons in the wild, and only a handful (including Martha) remained in captivity at the University of Chicago, their handler, zoologist Charles Otis Whitman, tried one last attempt to breed the birds -- without success, after her death, Martha was frozen in a block of ice and sent to the Smithsonian, where she remained on display for 80 years, now, she is considered somewhat of a cultural icon, symbolising the threat of extinction for many other endangered species, 

going back to the first paragraph, taking the lowest figure of 1 billion birds it seems incredulous that they could have all been wiped out, but it happened.

This Is A New One For Me,

frillback pigeons,

 apparently they are one of the most coveted breeds among pigeon fanciers, prized both for its relatively calm temperament and for their unique frills or curls, they are believed to have originated somewhere in Asia Minor, the frillback pigeon is the result of many years of selective breeding. Its distinctive features are the frill or curls on the wing shield feathers, as well as at the end of the foot feathers or muffs, they are slightly larger than other pigeon breeds, with a longer tail and wing feathers, they are considered some of the most elegant of fancy pigeon breeds and are very popular at pigeon beauty contests, photograph Flickr/jim gifford,

according to research by Dr. L. Paul Gibson, the distinct curls of frillback pigeons are controlled by two partially dominant morphological modifier genes, given the symbols “Cu1” and “Cu2“, although evidence suggests that a third gene, perhaps one that causes longer feathers, may also be involved, photograph Wikimedia Commons/Jiel Beaumadier,

looking at the videos I get the impression that they do not fly much,

or if they do I am guessing as they do not look particularly aerodynamic not very far, I have to say I have never seen or heard of these before, what strange looking pigeons.

This Is When,

a little boys toy,

becomes a big boys toy, the toy in question, a paper plane, or in this case a paper bird,

 an ornithopter is a flying machine that uses flapping wing motion to fly, just like a real bird, named after the last passenger pigeon, Martha, who died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, the Flying Martha Ornithopter is a simple mechanical toy powered by a rubber band,

to fly, simply wind up the bird and gently release like a paper airplane, similar to an airplane, the forward motion of the ornithopter allows the flapping wings to deflect air downward, producing lift, no batteries needed, the Flying Martha is made by hand by Haptic Lab kite artisans, the bamboo frame is strong yet flexible, (bamboo has a higher tensile strength than most steel) and is shaped using only the heat of a candle flame,

Haptic Lab partnered with the woodblock print artist Nic Annette Miller to create a deluxe artist edition of the Flying Martha, 

She printed the wings in her signature style using a letterpress, 

 these pieces will be hand-assembled in Haptic Lab's Brooklyn studio, in all of the Flying Martha Ornithopter kits the wings and tail are crafted from mulberry paper, used in traditional kite-making for centuries, mulberry pulp has very long fibers making the paper extremely tear-resistant for its weight, and unlike the plastic wings of other toy ornithopters, the mulberry wings of the Flying Martha make a pleasant sound while flapping,

 why the passenger pigeon? made in the likeness of the extinct passenger pigeon, the Flying Martha is symbolic of humanity's role in a rapidly changing world, the passenger pigeon was once the most numerous bird species on the planet, with an estimated population of 3-5 billion birds, no one could have imagined that the entire species would disappear in one human lifetime, Haptic Lab is a small design company based in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood in Brooklyn, NY, the model is not on sale yet and no I am not on commission, I just thought it was a good example of a toy becoming a big boys toy, rather like My Wild Gears was developed from Spirograph.

I Have Seen Dancing Elephants, Bears,

dogs and even cats,

but this dancing pigeon is a first for me, the GIFs are from Los Angeles-based director Emmit Fenn, whose swaggering pigeon features in a new music video,

directed by Patrick Jean, “Who Dat” opens on a quiet street corner before zooming in on the lone bird. As the bass drops, the pigeon begins a subtle strut down the street while it grooves to the beat. Soon, the bird reveals in its dancing skills after a shake of its tail feather, to see more humorous animations, head over to Vimeo, great fun!

Pigeons, Love Them Or Hate Them,

they are a part of many city landscapes, 

and they have not gone unnoticed, photographer and native New Yorker Andrew Garn has spent years documenting these creaturing and collecting them into a book titled The New York Pigeon: Behind the Feathers,

 to share their “personalities, expressiveness, glorious feather iridescence, and deeply hued eyes.” Birds that used to be exchanged between the wealthy as gifts have grown to have different associations, and created a whole industry of pigeon defense systems for urban architecture,

 the goal of Garn’s work is, in part, to cast them in a different light (both literally and otherwise), showing the elegance of these creatures when taken out of everyday contexts where some find them to be annoying pests, some shots put subjects against dark backgrounds, focusing the viewer necessarily on the birds themselves,

 others put them in their urban contexts, highlighting them in flight or perched on windows,

an oft overlooked wonder of the urban wilderness, the common pigeon is much more than it appears, strangely enough we have featured pigeons more than a few times before, including them on stamps! 

and I can never think of pigeons without thinking of Tom Lehrer's summertime song and he is still going strong.

The Bidding Is Over,

New Kim has been sold!

on the 10th of this month I made a post about a pigeon auction, expressing surprise at the bids, well it has emerged that the bidding has ended and New Kim has a new home, and the previous owner has £1.4 million in his pocket, 

the bird was sold to a mystery Chinese buyer, the three-year-old hen called New Kim was sold by Belgian auctioneers Pigeon Paradise (PIPA) in an online auction for 1.6 million euros on Sunday, 

the video about the pigeon breeder is above, as it happens we have featured pigeons many time on the blog before, some quite amusing, if you want to look just click on the link here.

It Never Ceases To Amaze Me,

the talents that some people have,

 take artist Adele Renault as an example, whilst most of us see a flying disease carrying rat, the common pigeon, 

 she sees a thing of beauty and a joy to behold,

 this year she painted a mural of “Baby Girl,” a New Jersey pigeon who won a 366 mile race 19 minutes ahead of the other feathered contestants,

 a few years ago she dedicated a series of smaller paintings to “Camp,” a pigeon adopted by a Chicago couple after finding his egg left on their kitchen table,

 by focusing on these inspiring stories, Renault highlights the often overlooked bird as a magnificent creature rather than an urban nuisance,

 Her brightly hued public murals and paintings on canvas bring purples and blues into the bird’s feathers, and accentuate the iridescent tones one might not notice at first glance,

Adele at work in her studio,

 recently she published a book combining her avian works titled Feathers and Faces,

 You can view more of her large-scale paintings on her website and Instagram, and no I am not on commission, I just think the wall murals are stunning,

 the pigeons she paints are full of detail, imagine how given the same care to detail, and a really colourful bird like a Kingfisher or Hummingbird mural would look!

Back From The Dead,

scientists documented a sighting in 1882,

photograph American Bird Conservancy, and since then, only locals on Fergusson Island in Papua New Guinea have seen the bird they call "auwo," and those sightings were decades ago, as an aside as mentioned in the link above, do not jump into the pools on the island, back to the bird, researchers say finding the bird was like 'finding a unicorn' the bird in question is black-naped pheasant-pigeon, (Otidiphaps nobilis insularis), and here is the good news, a team of scientists from the Papua New Guinea National Museum, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the American Bird Conservancy spent a month setting up camera traps in the mountains of Fergusson, and guess what they found on one of the cameras? a black-naped pheasant-pigeon, and here is the actual moment the discovery was made,

I should mention there are a few swear words involved in the discovery! the trap was set 3,200 feet up a ridge, Jordan Boersma recorded the moment he recognized the bird in the camera trap's footage and showed it to his colleague Doka Nason, what a fabulous find, a creature returned from the dead, this is one of those story's I love so much.

I Had To Read This Twice,

'ice from the Titanic injures three people"

yes real ice from the Titanic broke off of the wall and injured the Titanic museum goers, the iceberg wall at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, collapsed injuring three visitors on Monday, August 2, 2021, luckily none of the guests were fatally injured, the half-scale replica of the Titanic hitting an iceberg is a main feature of the Titanic Museum Attraction, in a message posted on social media, the owners of the attraction stated, “Our iceberg wall collapsed and injured three guests, who were taken to the hospital. At this time, we do not know the extent of their injuries, and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all those who were affected, including the first-responders.” the museum closed following the accident on August 2 but was reopened to ticketed visitors on Tuesday, August 3, 2021. Although the museum opened back up the next day, it was without the iceberg wall. Since the accident, the affected area has been blocked off, and museum officials estimate it will take at least four weeks for the iceberg wall to be completely rebuilt to its original size,

the ice wall in question was approximately 15 feet by 28 feet (4.6 meters by 8.5 meters). The large wall was made out of real ice, and visitors were allowed to touch the ice block to better understand what the elements in the Atlantic were like on that fateful night in April 1912. The ice block was created using a water filtration system, despite the accident, visitors go to the Pigeon Force Titanic Museum Attraction to immerse themselves in history. Guests of the Titanic Museum Attraction receive boarding passes with the names of actual passengers and crew members onboard the original Titanic. The 400-piece collection is valued at over four and a half million dollars. Not only were visitors able to touch the iceberg before the accident, but they also can stick their hands in 28-degree water (the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean the night the Titanic sank) to see how long they can last before pulling their hand out, the Museum also offers visitors the opportunity to walk a replica of the Grand Staircase, learn how to send an SOS distress signal, and sit in a true-to-size lifeboat, it seems like quite a neat museum, I especially like the idea of putting your hand in the 28 degree water to feel how cold it is, having done something similar I know it is incredibly painful.