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Bird Breeder Has Epiphany

Suncoast News

Walt Postma holds one of the homing pigeons that might be released by the dove bearer in next week's Epiphany Celebration in Tarpon Springs.

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By CHERYL BENTLEY

The Suncoast News

Published: January 4, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - At 10 on a recent morning, seven white homing pigeons auditioned for the role of a lifetime.

One of them will be the bird carried in a solemn religious procession and then released by dove bearer Ioana Bociu during Tuesday's Epiphany Celebration by St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs.

In a trial run before the celebration, the birds' owner, Walt Postma, let them go at Spring Bayou in Tarpon Springs, where one of them will be released during the 2009 Epiphany Celebration.

Postma has been supplying homing pigeons for the famed Epiphany celebration in Tarpon Springs since the mid-1990s and raising them since he was a teenager growing up there. Doves and pigeons belong to the same bird family, Columbidae.

When discussing his feathered friends, Postma talks about the birds' remarkable homing ability. He also mentions the gentleness of these birds. They represent the Holy Spirit, who makes an appearance during the baptism of Jesus, which Epiphany commemorates in Eastern Rite churches.

The pigeons mate for life, he says. Pairs show obvious affection for each other by cooing, nuzzling and cuddling. Mom and dad make devoted parents, with both taking turns caring for their young.

"They're heartwarming," he says of his feathered charges.

Last week at Spring Bayou, the birds making the test flight began to circle overhead, immediately flying high to escape lurking hawks. They are programmed to fly as high as possible to avoid the predators.

"Hawks have to be higher than they are to catch them," Postma said. Hawks and power lines, which can injure wings, are the birds' main dangers.

The seven candidates are among the strongest and best looking of his 30 birds. They are 1 or 2 years old.

About 80 percent of the Epiphany birds have made it back home. In one of the mysteries that intrigues Postma about his avian charges, most of them return to their New Port Richey home from the north. Logic suggests they should fly in from the other direction because their Tarpon Springs departure point is south of New Port Richey.

Scientists have various theories as to how the birds are able to find their way home. In most the birds are thought to take navigational cues from the sun, the Earth's magnetic field, odors and eyesight.

The birds consider their place of birth as home. Postma begins training them by releasing them from their 8-foot-by-10-foot wooden shed with food in full view as a lure of keeping them close to home.

Once they are in the habit of returning home, he releases them from points increasingly farther away.

Postma's current stint as supplier of the homing pigeons for the Epiphany is actually his second. As a teenager growing up in Tarpon Springs, he let some of his birds be used for Epiphany celebrations. That practice ended when a cat broke in to his pigeon coop and wiped out the whole flock.

As an adult who owned a farm in the East Lake area and raised homing pigeons there, Postma resumed his role as Epiphany bird supplier. Organizers wanted strong birds able to fly long distances, and Postma's homing pigeons fit the bill.

Postma moved to New Port Richey in 2000. Although he still has some of the birds he had when he lived in East Lake, he only allows them to fly in a pen he has for his birds. Because they weren't born in New Port Richey, they would return to their birthplace in East Lake if released.

Even though he is not religious, his association with the Epiphany has produced an event that gives even the soft-spoken Postma pause. Shortly before the Epiphany in 1999, a raccoon broke in to his birds' cage and killed every one of them except the one that had been used in the Epiphany the year before.

Coincidentally, Postma had already decided the bird would make an Epiphany return appearance even before the slaughter of his birds. The chosen bird successfully completed his task, returned home and died six months to the day after the Jan. 6 Epiphany rites.

His birds have taught him about the love and gentleness many religions espouse, Postma says.

"They represent the good things in life like tenderness and happiness," he says.

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