Growing up in the Philippines, Art Navalta raised pigeons, as did his friends.”It was like a neighborhood thing,” he said. “All of us had birds.”Navalta said he marveled when he would take his pigeons miles away ñ- perhaps as far as 50 miles ñ- and they would return home. Now, as a member of the Pikes Peak Homing Pigeon Club, his pigeons travel ñ- and race ñ- much greater distances.For almost 30 years, Navalta worked for the El Paso County Department of Human Services. Today, he and his wife, Mona, run their own business as polygraph examiners. They also have two sons and have lived in Black Forest for more than 20 years.Navalta joined the Pikes Peak Homing Pigeon Club in 2010; the club has been around since the early 1960s, said Dwight Baker, a longtime member who Navalta considers his mentor.”He taught me all about racing,” Navalta said. “He’s the man.”And there is plenty to learn, from breeding to training to feeding. “It’s fun, but it’s a lot of work,î Navalta said.Baker has about 150 pigeons; Navalta has about 50. He received many of them from fellow club members, who got him started with a breeding pair.The local club is one of about 700 nationwide affiliated with the American Racing Pigeon Union. While pigeon racing is largely considered a hobby in the United States, it is a big-money sport in Europe and elsewhere.Although there are hundreds of types of pigeons, there is only one kind, the homing pigeon or racing homer, that has the unique homing capability. Baker said it is the same type of pigeon that was used to carry messages across enemy lines in World War I and II.Even with that innate ability to find home, the birds must be trained. “It’s really behavior shaping,” Navalta said. Once the birds have become used to their environment, he will do a first release of “just a mile down the road.” He will continue to add to the distance ó the races can be as long as an astonishing 500 miles.Control of feeding is key to training. “You control them by their stomach,” Baker said.While some people may regard pigeons as disease-ridden “rats with wings,” the racing pigeons “have a pedigree; they’re kept in a loft safe from predators; they’re given premium food, vitamins; they’re even vaccinated,” Navalta said. “You’re talking about (treating them) like a thoroughbred horse.”For a race, a driver will haul the birds to a designated spot and release them. Then, ideally, they all fly back to their respective homes. The time of that return is recorded through a computer chip on a leg band and an electronic reader in the loft, “much like a grocery store when scanning,” Navalta noted.In the old days, an owner had to be home to record the time of the pigeon’s return. Even with the electronic timing system, Baker said he likes to be there to welcome the pigeons back. “I think the enjoyment is being there to watch them come home,” he said.Since the pigeons have different homes and thus fly somewhat different distances, the winner of the race is not determined by who gets back first, but by their calculated speed; the distance flown is determined through knowledge of the exact latitude and longitude of the start and end points. “Then I put it all into a program on the computer, and the computer does all the work for me as far as how fast each bird went,” Navalta said.Depending on wind conditions, the pigeons can fly 60 miles an hour, “if not faster,” he said. But it is well-known that the pigeons will take a break, at least to get a drink, particularly on the longer races. And they can face many potential hazards, from hail to hawks to power lines.”We do lose a few,” Baker said. “Not that many.” Smoke can distract the pigeons; strong winds can force them off course. Some pigeons might find a place with food and water and decide it is a nice-enough new home.Navalta had a pigeon show up over the summer with a numbered band that confirmed it was one he had bred ó but it had been missing for four years. “Wherever he was hanging out for four years, he decided it wasn’t really his home,î Navalta said.(To learn more about the Pikes Peak Homing Pigeon Club, search on Facebook or call Navalta at 719-203-8236.)
