old wheat and pigeon band

[McCDig]

Got out on Friday and tried the Etrac at a city park. Good news is that the Etrac works on the park's west side where the overhead powerlines are. My Fisher F-75 is not stable near these lines. I did find 14 wheats on the hill by the power lines and the oldest turned out to be 1909.



Hunted in the county this afternoon and dug a pigeon band. Here are the identifying marks:

The AU identifies this as a banded pigeon registered with the American Racing Pigeon Union. Their website gives information on how to make sense of the numbers and letters on a band. https://www.pigeon.org/lostbirdinfo.htm

The 89 below 'AU' would be the year the hatchling was banded, thus 1989.

The FFC specifies the local pigeon racing club, in this case, The Lancaster Pigeon Club of Lancaster, Ohio.

https://www.pigeon.org/bandlist.php...w.bizapedia.com/oh/lancaster-pigeon-club.html

I like finding these and it's not often enough. This little bird travelled about 400 miles.

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Cool finds!

Nicely done, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[against the wind]

Nice hunt and congrats on all the wheats.
My oldest pigeon band is 1919.
I sent the information on the band to the American Racing Pigeon Union but they could not help with it because 1919 was before they starting keeping records and the band was not one of theirs.

 

[McCDig]

Thx ATW! That's amazing....1919. The government made over 300 million wheats that year but the number of pigeon bands was orders of magnitude less. Dug mine today in a farm field. Can't miss a target like that because there just aren't that many good signals.

 

[McCDig]

Thanks Lanny! May 2018 bring many nuggets your way.

 

[vpnavy]

Nice find McCDig. Thanks for the history of the "pigeon band" - neat!

 

[smokeythecat]

Poor pigeon.

 

[BeenThere DugThat]

Nice finds! My only pigeon band find was from 1995 Tarentum PA (AU 95 TAR). I like how yours looks compared to mine.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Nice pigeon band McCdig. I forget the exact year, but they have started making those out of some sort of plastic material now. Guess we wont be finding to many more of those in the future.

 

[Roundness]

Way to get it out of the ground.... Congrats

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Nice finds!

 

[McCDig]

Not certain if that was soil or pigeon bone I removed from the band; most likely just dirt.

 

[McCDig]

Thx Metal Headz! That's my first red band; seems the AU changes color form year to year. Prior to this one I dug one at the same location; that one was from a club in Chester, PA.

 

[Yak1366]

Cool finds, congrats!!

 

[Ammoman]

Great job on the coin and band. The only band i ever found was for a chicken and they don't track those. I guess its a farmer thing

 

[Phishfindr]

Sweet dig! Wheaties and a pigeon band. Bingo!

 

[McCDig]

Thx Ammoman! I like to dig things that make me dig deeper. HH an GL!

 

[McCDig]

Thx Phishfindr! Ground that gave up the '09 wheat leaves copper coins with a tenacious black film. I hit the coin with peroxide and rubbed it with baking soda to break through the grime. It needed a little more work to rule out and "S" or "VDB".

 

[McCDig]

Thx vpnavy! Thanks to the American Racing Pigeon Union for helping ID these bands....a very helpful website.

 

[McCDig]

Thx Trezurehunter! Treasure comes in many forms....pigeon's demise becomes digger's reward.