NEWS-"Thousands of homing pigeons missing in two races" Date: 98-10-07 09:46:51 EDT From: hblonde1@tampabay.rr.com (New Millennium) To: hblonde1@tampabay.rr.com (Newmill) 10/7/98 -- 8:13 AM Thousands of homing pigeons missing in two races ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Some 2,500 homing pigeons disappeared during two long-distance races on the same day, a nearly unheard-of loss in the little-known sport of pigeon racing. About 1,800 pigeons vanished out of 2,000 competing in a 200-mile race from northern Virginia to Allentown on Monday. The same day, 700 out of 800 birds never returned to their lofts in a separate 150-mile race from western Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. The birds remained unaccounted for Tuesday night. Ordinarily, the swift-flying birds should have been back in their lofts in a matter of hours. "I've never seen anything like this," said Earl Hottle of Allentown, who has been racing pigeons for 37 years. "Nobody can explain it." Pigeon racing has thrived for centuries among a devoted group of several hundred breeders in the mid-Atlantic states. Each weekend in spring and fall, thousands of pigeons are trucked up to 600 miles away and released. Relying on their homing instinct and incredible stamina, the pigeons fly directly to their lofts. The ones with the fastest times are the winners. In any race, a small percentage of the birds do not return home - but a 90 percent loss rate is unusual. "We've heard of this in other areas," said Jim Effting, who had only three of 37 birds return in the race from Virginia. "But we've never had it happen around here." Racing veterans have few ideas about what caused the birds to lose their way - or otherwise disappear. There were no weather problems during either race, sun spot activity was low and no comets, meteor showers or planet alignments occurred. The skies were clear of satellite interference. "The chances that 2,000 hawks would get 2,000 pigeons are pretty unlikely," said racer Dennis Gaugler. "The birds would scatter when attacked." "The truth is that nobody knows what happened," said another racer, Robert Costagliola, "and probably never will." --------------------------------------------------------------- By Staff Writer Source: Rob from WeekEnd Discussion Groups Fri Oct 9 , 1998 -- (Refer to 10/8 article in WeekEnd News:"Thousands of homing pidgeons disappear") Jim Berkland, Geologist and Earthquake Expert, says "a Smash Race is one where few of the birds get back on time or do not return at all, Corini has records of Bay Area pigeon races going back decades, and he spent some time researching the greatest smash race in local history. The date caused me to gasp. It was March 24, 1964, which I knew was just 3 days before the greatest quake measured for North America, the 8.5M Richter (9.2Mw Moment magnitude) Alaskan Quake on *Good Friday*, 1964. It struck in the late afternoon on the day of a Full Moon! It had been preceded by a few months of strange slowing of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone. In recent months we have had a similar report about Old Faithful. I have had several unconfirmed reports of the Federal Scientists being concerned about a large US quake this fall. I don't know if that is true, but I am concerned, and this amazing coincidence of Smash pigeon races does not ease my mind. I am trying to learn if other parts of the world have experienced similar "smash" races." (Note - The 1964 'smash' race occurred over 1600 miles from the location of the Alaska quake. Jim Berkland states that the location of the smash race may have little to do with the epicenter of any following quake...that the magnetic disturbance caused by fault stress is so powerful it can disrupt the internal magnetic guidance systems of pigeons great distances away.)