Without explanation, Yellowknife pigeons show up in Ontario

Two pigeons from Yellowknife have been found far from home, much to the surprise of some Ontario residents.

True North FM reported last week that a man came across one of the birds near Buckhorn, located in the province’s Kawartha Lakes region.

Judy Thompson, who spends her summers on a houseboat at the Reach Harbour Marina, confirmed to Cabin Radio that a pigeon with a band connected to Yellowknife had visited earlier this month.

“It just flew into somebody’s boat and was kind-of hungry. So they fed her/him,” she said.

The bird was “tired and kind-of scraggly” when it arrived around August 9, Thompson said, suspecting the “stinking hot” weather may have been to blame.

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A submitted photo of the band on the pigeon that visited house boaters at the Reach Harbour Marina.

She described the pigeon as “healthy and happy and calm,” adding it was very friendly and would let people hold it.

“He’s just a well-handled bird and he was lovely, a lovely distraction,” she said.

After being fed and hanging around for about a week, Thompson said the pigeon recovered and took off. She said the houseboaters would love to know where the bird ends up.

Meanwhile, in Yellowknife

Norm Pottinger has been breeding pigeons in Yellowknife for more than a decade and races them around the world, as far away as South Africa. He said he currently has around 150 of the birds.

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“I just like watching them every day when I let them out,” he said of what keeps him going.

Pottinger told Cabin Radio a woman from Bayfield, Ontario called him last week to say she had located a pigeon wearing one of his bands on her street and had been taking care of it.

Bayfield is located about 360 km by road from Reach Harbour.

“The only problem is I can’t remember this bird,” Pottinger said.

“I don’t know how it’s my band. I just don’t know. It looks like it’s a young bird from only this year.”

Pottinger said he has contacted an acquaintance in Ontario to see if someone can rescue the pigeon and help determine why it cannot fly.

He said it’s possible the bird could also regain the ability to fly on its own and take off.

A feathered mystery

Strangely, Pottinger said he has not sent any of his birds to Ontario this year – but did send nine birds to a friend in Edmonton to train for racing.

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He said all nine of those birds have gone missing “in the last few months.”

“We lost a lot of birds this year,” he said.

“You get funny rainstorms and stuff like that and it kind-of mixes the birds up. And I guess all the fires and stuff, the birds lose direction somehow.”

As for the pigeon found near Buckhorn, Pottinger said he was not aware of that discovery.

While it’s unclear where the pigeons started out or how they ended up in Ontario, there have been cases of homing pigeons flying great distances off track.

A pigeon from Spain was located some 5,000 km away on Nova Scotia’s Sable Island in April and a pigeon from the UK made a trip of more than 6,000 km to Alabama in 2022.

The Canadian Racing Pigeon Union and Canadian Pigeon Fancier’s Association offer information on their websites about what to do if you find a stray racing pigeon and how to locate its owner.

Smart birds

Patrice Lapointe also keeps pigeons in Yellowknife and currently has nine of the birds, but does not race them.

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He said he releases his birds to fly locally a few times a week and they generally stay in his neighbourhood.

The first time Lapointe released three pigeons, however, two of them did not come back. He said that can happen if a bird gets lost or encounters a predator, among other reasons.

“All of the pigeons I have now, they know their surrounding, they know where they are, they’re not getting lost,” he said.

“The new ones I have were born here, so it’s kind-of in their head where they belong now, like they’re born with knowing where they live pretty much.”