THE TRUE NATURE OF A MARATHON PIGEON

by Jim Emerton

The marathon pigeon is a singular, wonderful and beautiful creature and quite rare. Its innate potential, under clever conditioning has conspired to endure and navigate over 700 miles to its home loft. Many of these peculiar individuals face adverse terrain, weather and other environmental challenges to split from the flock, flying solo over new ground, drawn by mysterious forces beyond the understanding of humanity, to the roost of their birthplace. Men of curiosity, vision and dreams and fuelled by wonder devote competitive lives to the cultivation of avian miracles. Physically such birds may project beauty or common looks, yet the uniting factor of them all is guts and tenacity to survive against great odds in the fireblade of competitive racing. This fact unites and cements the icons of the sport in true brotherhood - long may this be.

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Elimar - January 2015