Dan's Papers - October 12, 2007 - Pigeon Racing Fanatics In The Hamptons

It may sound like an odd sport, but pigeon racing has been around since the mid-19th century and still "flies" in Southampton. The Southampton Racing Pigeon Club, which is a member of the International Federation of Homing Pigeons and belongs to the Long Island Combine, in association with half a dozen other clubs on Long Island, is a group that has a passion for these amazing birds, who can fly over 500 miles to go home.

Man has domesticated pigeons for thousands of years, even the Egyptians and Greeks used them. During marathons, the Greeks would paint a pigeon at the finish line the same color of the winner and allow it to fly back to the starting line to let the spectators know who had won. Pigeons have been used during war times to deliver messages. Some of them have even been awarded the highest of military honors by governments for their ability to transport extremely valuable information on troop locations and intents.

About a dozen members of the Southampton Racing Pigeon Club meet to race their pigeons. Ron Morgan is the club's President and other members include John Iacono from Westhampton, Frank Danowski, Stanley Narejko and the club's Secretary-Treasurer, Dominic Schirrippa of East Hampton.

Although many of the original members were from East and Southampton, as time passed they have also passed, and today the club is spread evenly among the East End with members hailing from Riverhead, the North Fork, East Hampton, Southampton and Westhampton. In the New York area, many Italian and Polish-Americans joined the Long Island Combine, bringing their European interest and heritage to the sport. Mr. Schirrippa, the Director of Code Enforcement for the Town of East Hampton and a retired New York City and Brooklyn Police Lieutenant, has been racing pigeons since his father and grandfather introduced him to the sport many years ago. "My father and uncle did it after the war, and I took it up around the early eighties, growing up in Brooklyn. My family always did it."

Although some people purchase prized pigeons for upwards of $1,000 from the offspring of champion pigeons. Mr. Schirrippa said, "The best birds are the ones that your friends or relatives give you." Although he recently has not been able to find the time to race because he now works full-time for the Town of East Hampton, Mr. Schirrippa views pigeon racing as a wonderful and historical tradition. He used to dedicate much of his retirement to his passion for racing pigeons, but now views it as a hobby because of time constraints. I asked him about betting on the pigeons.

"In some areas like Florida and other parts of the country, there are some pretty big betting pools that can get upwards of twenty thousand dollars. Around here, we might bet the cost of feeding the birds. It is much more of a social thing. We have parties with champagne and caviar while we wait for the birds to come in."

He then continued to explain in detail how pigeon racing works.

"There are two seasons for the racing pigeon. There is the young bird series, for birds that were born in the current year and there is the old bird series, for birds born before that. The young birds race generally between August and October. Once a bird is born, they are given a band that contains information such as their unique band number and the beginning letters of its associated club. The young birds go from 100 miles to 300 miles in any given race. The old bird series is in the spring and goes from the beginning of April to mid-June. There are usually between nine or ten races in each series and the old birds races start at 150 miles and go up to 500 miles."

Mr. Schirrippa told me that a champion bird could complete a full 500-mile trip in one day. "It is pretty amazing what they can do," he said.

The birds get to Pennsylvania or Cadiz, Ohio by a truck owned by the Long Island Combine. A day before the race, a truck picks up all of the pigeons from East Hampton to Brooklyn to Staten Island, and then drives them down to their "liberation station." They use GPS technology to calculate exactly how far the pigeon has traveled and use either the old school method of a timing clock, or a more modern method of electronic timing. The older method requires that the pigeon's band be taken off and entered into the timing clock, which takes extra time, and the speed at which an owner can get the band to the clock can affect the time of distance traveled. Seasoned pigeons that are used to this method have also been known to avoid their loft because they don't want to go through the process of having their band removed. For this reason, electronic methods are now used with antennas and transponders, very similar to human races today. It all has to do with distance traveled and how fast. So if a pigeon from East Hampton gets to its home loft at the same time as a pigeon in Westhampton, then the East Hampton pigeon is the winner since it has traveled the longer distance in the shorter amount of time.

Maintaining a happy and healthy pigeon racing team is very important. The birds need to be exercised, fed and watered on a daily basis and you have to make sure they are healthy.

Mr. Schirrippa's team consists of eighteen birds. "Most people have thirty or forty birds to race. You're allowed to race twenty-five birds each week."

There are many theories on how racing pigeons are able to hone in on their home lofts even when they are transported completely indoors. One of the most interesting theories I came across was that it all has to do with navigating by the stars and that, even on dark nights, pigeons have the ability to see the stars. Other theories include basic instinct, and an extra sense that can navigate the Earth's magnetic field. Whatever it is, the pigeons have captured the imaginations of Long Island's pigeon racers, and will continue do so into the future.