More backyard archeology

[essentialsaltes]

Rebecca found a fairy ring today. Not the usual kind of fairy ring, but a little aluminum band with a diameter less than a centimeter. It had raised little letters and numbers on it. It remained a mystery for some time, but following a mixture of hunch and google, I managed to identify it. Nevertheless, it may remain "the fairy ring".

Comments

[zorker]

Oooo! I just read about these when I was reading about pigeons. They need the bands as part of their logging system. Since they are all returning to their home loft, different 'stables' of pigeons actually travel slightly different distances in a race, so they use the time and distance to judge by speed. Apparently it is a sport that is dying out but used to be quite popular.

[essentialsaltes]

Yeah, pigeon fancying used to be pretty big in Darwin's day, and he gathered a lot of data about the action of artificial selection from trying his own hand at it. Though fancying was more for show than for racing.

[zorker]

Yes, I read about fancying as well. A separate group of dying out weird hobbyists! Much weirder than the racing hobbyists. Some of these poor birds have been bred in such bizarre fashions that they have difficulty eating. The only thing even weirder than that among the pigeon fanciers are the ones that roll them. I think some places have banned rolling pigeons.

The most impressive thing is that as disparate as these pigeons are, they all originated from the rock dove. Some pigeon fanciers nowadays, with standardized breeds, don't even believe their pigeons did come from rock doves. But I guess it just underlines Darwin's work.

[essentialsaltes]

Both of those examples are just plain nuts!

[oohbarracuda]

What kills me about pigeonbasics.com...is how they have to use 5, count'em 5, different fonts for that top area! Gah it burns us!

[essentialsaltes]

I never would have noticed that...

but now that you mention it, it's driving me buggy, too.

[hagdirt]

The tragedy of font abuse is just one of the many hidden crimes of modern society.

[stevenkaye]

I have the sudden desire to look for remixes of the "Dastardly and Muttley In Their Flying Machines" theme now.