Letter to Pigeon Community

Invitation

For those who understand that people marking the most important moments in their lives have different motivations than those who race pigeons, I have written this letter to explain why a ceremonial bird is different from a racing pigeon, and to invite the pigeon community to join the Ceremony Dove™ service.

beauty,
flying skill,
homing ability,
tameness,
size,
take-off quality

From: Wynn Smith
Subject: Release Duv Standard

Many of you have known of my effort, since the mid 90's, to establish a new breed of pigeon called a Release Duv. Thank you for your help and encouragement.

I've been given more credit than I deserve since my birds have not yet achieved the show qualities we desire. But I like the way they fly. I have a simple system for scoring their flying skills, and most of my breeding efforts have been focused on the flying.

I'll start from the beginning... My goal is to create a breed in which breeders can gather together, judge the birds for show quality, and then release the birds to judge them for flying skills. The "Best of Show" will get half its score from show quality and half its score from flying.

I got started on my Release Duv project after my three daughters fell in love with a small, cute looking, slow homer that was the result of a color project.

My eyes were opened when we did one of our regular pigeon releases at their grade school. This is really fun because we hand one pigeon to each of the kids who want one. And then, (if you've ever done this you know what I'm talking about) the kids scream a rocket count down at the top of their lungs. 10... 9... 8...

The kids who released a "mutt" seemed to have the most fun because they could keep pointing at "their" bird as it made extra circles. The kids who released a racing homer acted like they got cheated as the bird darted over top the school building and disappeared.

That's when I developed the Release Duv Fly Off scoring system and began breeding according to it. I usually release my birds in small kits at a High School football stadium; never the same place twice. This makes a well defined viewing area. I time how long they circle in the viewing area and then when they leave the viewing area, I time how long they remain visible in the sky. The first time is good time. The second time is bad time. Where a typical white racing pigeon might get a score between zero and two, my Release Duvs can score 20 or more.

My attention became very focused on the meaning of "Ceremony", after a friend of ours was emotionally moved by a white dove on a cruise vacation. She said she took it as a symbol that her life was just fine and from that moment on, she made up her mind to enjoy life.

It seems obvious that people are interested in beautiful symbolic "doves" and not "pigeons". In about '96, I made my first attempt at writing a show standard.

My oldest daughters are graduated from High School now. Every time I've shown one of her friends the difference between one of my smaller, slightly cuter, Release Duvs and a racing pigeon, they were convinced. Once it gets established in their mind that there is a difference, there is simply no question what bird they want for their wedding. It makes me laugh, because we weren't even talking about weddings. I just follow them out to my back yard and point out the difference from one bird to the next.

Between sisters and cousins of future brides, between wedding professionals, and between those of us in the pigeon community, word of ceremonial release birds is spreading faster than I can believe.

I never intended to be in this business. I've just enjoyed pigeons from the time I was a kid. But now I find myself constantly turning down requests to do releases beyond our circle of friends, and turning down requests from those who want to purchase birds that I do not have to sell.

The genie is out of the bottle. I believe there will be a ceremonial release standard simply because this thing has taken on a life of its own, and symbolism is a big part of wedding plans. It won't be enough to have a white pigeon, but one that is a ceremonial bird. For some, it won't be enough to have a ceremonial bird, but one that is the offspring of a nationally judged champion.

These are not racing birds. In fact, if you want a good model of how a "friendly" bird flies, go watch a Danzig highflyer fly. We need to get away from the frantic wing slapping of a heavier racing pigeon. I also find the friends of my daughter don't like the idea of a bird that does double duty as a racer. It just doesn't fit with the "symbol" they desire.

For those who are interested, my standard is posted here: http://ceremonydove.com/Show.htm

I invite all those who are interested, to join my Release Duv project.

contact: info2@oregoncity.com

Wynn Smith
(503)650-9496

Ceremony Dove is a trademark of Wynn Smith.