One professor’s story of science, grief and pigeons

One professor’s story of science, grief and pigeons

Kandy Noles Stevens is an adjunct professor and STEM Specialist teaching physical science for elementary in the School of Education at USD. The recipient of the 2019 Graduate Excellence in Teaching at USD, she’s also studying to gain her doctoral degree.

Stevens grew up as the only girl in a crowd of cousins who led her to muddy riverbanks to catch frogs and tadpoles. In high school, despite an upbringing in nature, Stevens had no intention of entering the field of science. Until someone told her she couldn’t.

“My first day of my high school physics class, the teacher said something about how only the boys were going to succeed in the class and none of us girls were going to be able to finish the class,” Stevens said. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but as I got older and was able to look back, it was in that moment that a scientist was born. Because I was going to prove him wrong.”

And prove him wrong she did. She went to work as a chemist for the United States Agriculture Department, and later, became a teacher herself. Now, when Stevens isn’t teaching at USD, she’s teaching at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota, where she and her family live.

Kandy Noles Stevens holds a homing pigeon outside her home in Marshall, Minnesota. Stevens commutes to Vermillion once a week to teach physical science for elementary in the School of Education. Lauren Soulek | The Volante

It’s also the place where, eleven years ago, tragedy struck them. On Feb. 19, 2008 at 3:25 p.m., on a highway north of Cottonwood, Minnesota, roughly 15 miles north of Marshall, a minivan blew through a stop sign and broadsided a school bus returning children home after a school day. The bus flipped on its side, and as a result, injured fourteen people and killed four.

Three of Steven’s four children were on the bus. Two of them survived. One did not.

“Out of that experience, I learned a lot about grief and grieving,” Stevens, whose daughter is now enrolled at SMSU and son at USD, said. “I was asked by a local pastor’s wife if I could share some of the things that the community did well to support my family and in areas that they could improve.”

From that, Stevens added ‘author’ to her list of titles. In “The Red Bird Sings the Song of Hope and Other Stories of Love,” published in 2016, she documents how those around her helped her family through the grief, and offers an idea of what grieving people wish others knew.

Before healing through words, though, she healed through birds — homer pigeons, to be exact.

As her second son endured surgeries from the wreck, he wanted to occupy his time with raising chickens. Because their community had strict laws behind raising farm animals in town, they instead raised pigeons.

“He had been through so much that it seemed like a crazy, whack-a-doodle thing at the time,” Stevens said. “It was a great way to do something productive and to give ourselves something to think about other than all of the negative things we were dealing with.”

Though a theory on why homing pigeons know how to navigate over vast distances, some scientists say they use earth’s magnetic field as a guide.

The pigeons provided a type of therapy for the family. Her son had a new getaway and Stevens, described as “nurturing” and “a mother figure” by Annaliese Howe, a third-year elementary education major, had new birds to nest and to learn from.

“Learning that life cycle and seeing the flight patterns and just the sound of them coming home, it’s really kind of a neat thing,” Stevens said.

Stevens has spoken nationally about her book and the process of overcoming grief. She’s also morphed the message into her own education by helping schools understand how trauma impacts students and student learning.

“Stay curious,” the mother, professor, scientist, student and pigeon-raiser tells them, “and don’t let anything stand in your way.”

“I think all of the things that I have done in life has been because I’ve been curious about something,” Stevens said. “That really is the hallmark of a true scientist, to be able to just have that natural wonder about the world and to always want to learn more.”

USD professor Kandy Noles Stevens talks the science behind homing pigeons. Lauren Soulek | The Volante

          Pigeon fun facts:

  • When you see dove releases at weddings or funerals, they are actually white homing pigeons. Doves don’t know how to come home like pigeons do. This is what the Stevens family raises their pigeons for. 
  • Pigeons were used to send messages back and forth from the field to headquarters in both of the World Wars. Multiple pigeons, including Blackie and GI Joe, were awarded medals of honor for their service. 
  • Pigeons mate for life and can breed up to eight times a year, having two babies each time. 
  • The pigeons you are probably most familiar with as bopping around town or hanging out on farms are called either barn pigeons or feral pigeons. 

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Flying High No More: Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Caught In Kuwait

Flying High No More: Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Caught In Kuwait

Flying High No More: Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Caught In Kuwait

It’s 2017 and we have clearly come a long way from the days pigeons were used to deliver letters.

Case in point, this pigeon in Kuwait that was caught with a little bag full of drugs out for delivery. According to Al Arabiya, Kuwait custom officials caught the pigeon as it was crossing over from Iraq to Kuwait. Upon searching the little grey bag strapped to its back, they discovered 178 narcotic pills. What a comedown for the little birdie.

This is not the first time that drug smugglers have used pigeons for delivery. In 2016, a pigeon was caught trying to smuggle drugs into a Costa Rica prison. The bird will not be charged for this offence.

Pigeongram: In Social Media Era, Odisha Keeps Age-Old Practice Alive

Pigeongram: In Social Media Era, Odisha Keeps Age-Old Practice Alive

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BHUBANESWAR: With the onslaught of social media and e-communication services, pigeongram may have become a thing of the past across the globe, but the Odisha Police continues to keep alive this unique practice.

The service was put to test yesterday when the Odisha Police, in association with the Bhubaneswar chapter of Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), flew 50 pigeons at OUAT Grounds here to deliver missives of heritage conservation to Cuttack, 25km away.

The ceremony was attended by people from all walks of life, including schoolchildren from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Former DGP and state convener of INTACH, A B Tripathy, praised the police department for preserving the age-old tradition.

The determination of the men who run India’s only police pigeon service has “guaranteed the survival of a practice” that was prevalent in the Mughal era, he said.

SP (signal) BN Das said Odisha was the only state in India to use carrier pigeons to communicate among police stations.

The Odisha Pigeon Service started in 1946 when 200 pigeons were handed over to police personnel by the army on an experimental basis to communicate in areas with no wireless or telephone links, Das said.

The service was first pioneered in the mountainous Koraput district, and its success and reliability resulted in its introduction to almost all the districts of the state with over 700 sturdy Belgian Homer pigeons ferrying messages to assigned destinations.

For years, these dependable birds have been a vital link between remote police stations, where traditional communications failed, beating storms, disasters – and birds of prey, the SP (signal) said.

The messages, written on a piece of paper, were inserted into plastic capsule and tied to the feet of the Belgian Homer Pigeons, which can fly 25 km in just 15 to 25 minutes and live up to 20 years, he added.

The service, headquartered in Cuttack, was extensively used during floods and Super Cyclone in 1999, as radio networks were disrupted, said a senior police officer, adding that the pigeon service was also the only line of communication to the marooned town of Banki during the disastrous flood in 1982.

Ornithologist Panchami Manoo Ukil feels this practice needs to be preserved for the next generation to get an idea about the ancient traditions.

“Pigeon service is an art that dates back to the Mughal days. The birds delivered messages to the harems and battlefields. This unique tradition has historical significance and should be preserved,” he said.

Anil Dhir, a member of INTACH, said the heritage service has generated a lot of interest among the collector’s community.

“All the pigeons reached Cuttack within an hour,” he added.

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Indonesian pigeon sells for $100,000 amid national racing boom

Indonesian pigeon sells for $100,000 amid national racing boom

Jayabaya

A pigeon named Jayabaya has become the most expensive bird ever sold in Indonesia. A racing pigeon in Indonesia has been sold for 1 billion rupiah ($101,700), breaking the national record for the most expensive bird ever sold in the country.

The male pigeon, named Jayabaya, was bought by Robby Eka Wijaya in the town of Cilodong in West Java to compete in Indonesia’s booming pigeon races.

Mr Wijaya bought the pigeon from his colleague after watching it compete in a number of different competitions.

He told the ABC he made an offer the owner could not refuse because the pigeon had “special features”, including a rare consistency and “stable mood”.

“One race can last over two days and nine rounds. Often birds can only perform for four rounds, but this bird is able to get into the top 20 at every competition,” he said.

Jayabaya competed against thousands of birds from across the country last year and received the highest score in the national competition, according to Mr Wijaya.

Pigeon racing is a traditional sport in Indonesia, mainly from the island of Java, but it has rapidly gained popularity ever since the creation of a national pigeon organisation.

Robby Eka Wijaya holds a sign of the pigeon he had just purchased named Jayabaya. The type of competition varies and includes speed racing, freestyle flying, as well as a table category, where the pigeons are expected to land back on a table at a certain time after flying.

In order to get Jayabaya to return during a competition, its owner calls out for him with his “girlfriend”, a female pigeon which shares the same cage as him, which Mr Wijaya says is a common practice.

“From what I’ve observed in the past 10 years, there are only two or three birds that are like him,” he said, adding that his friends has questioned his sanity over the amount he paid.

The popularity of pigeon racing in Indonesia has been partly attributed to high profit margins. Pigeons cost around 20,000 rupiah ($2) and the winnings can range from $7,500 to $10,000, or even a brand new car.

The registration cost to compete is also relatively low at a mere $13 to $16, according to the organisation of High Pigeon Fans Indonesia (PMTI).

However, Indonesian newspaper Kompas reports that the average participant pigeon racing competitions are anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 people, making reaching the top 20 a feat in itself.

Mr Wijaya said it would be “easy” to be able to generate profit off Jayabaya, who is estimated to be two to three years old.

“There is already someone who is willing to spend 100 million rupiah ($10,200) for a set of eggs he fathers, but I won’t sell it,” he said.

In March this year, a Chinese buyer bought a racing pigeon for 1.252 million Euros ($1.98 million) during a pigeon auction by a Belgian breeder, the most expensive pigeon of all time.

The pigeon, named Armando, was described as the Lewis Hamilton of racing pigeons and holds a variety of records including best one day long distance pigeon in Belgium.

Have a Pigeon Problem?

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