Timothy Hume's Page

Latin paedagogus "a slave who escorted children to school and generally supervised them."

Environmental ARTS ENGAGEMENT Education From The Paedagogus Farmer

Garden Pedagogy

The drunken myths of art bewails us
With their whine of words
They enter a night
Which though hung with stars
Does not offer comforts at all
Can not feed us, these weed gardens,
These scripted fields of intellectual dry stones
Giving us no direction, no nourishment
Fail to Engage us in any feast from symbols empty stumbling.

Fattened on the farmers back
Learned Artists tell me they are now new leaders,bold healers
That can redirect the world
Teach me better ways
construct art cultures products
Create language so I can communicate
Make ECO ART to save the business wounded earth

But I,
I cannot eat your art,
Cannot dine upon your words
And like that cold night sky
I find no comfort with my belly empty
So I farm and say
I am arts slave this is my artfarm process.

Make food for you so you can dance and write and study
Pen school fancy words for which I am so far beneath
While I slave to feed the arts
But You
You will teach me how to be a culture maker.

Timothy Hume

First and foremost I am an artist. A painter, carver,poet, print maker, compost builder, gardener and horse trainer.
A pigeon flyer and a farmer.
All of which are creative acts.
Working with living beings in my view, is one of the highest art practices.

My pigeon art programs are varied and diverse. I selectively breed homing pigeons for colour and fly kits as a creative expression of communication, they are my sky paintings; if you will. This is my writing without words; pigeon flying is my expression of joy, gratitude and wonder.

Using different mixes of solid coloured birds I create exciting visual effects when the flock is air born.

The appearance of the flock can be dramatically changed according to what colours are flown together.

An example would be flying say 50 white birds and introducing 5 black birds into it, an all white flock has its own beauty but the introduction of specific colours certainly alters the dynamics. Black, Red, Blue, Yellow all create unique effects when mixed with the white flock as a base.

25 whites and 25 yellow birds have a whole different feeling when witnessed than the 50 whites and 5 blacks.

The combinations are endless so long as there are specific colours and numbers to work with.

This is very exciting and spectacular living art.

Most pigeon keepers rarely experience this type of flying because they are too caught up in competitive sport or show competition.

For me this is where the greatest joy of pigeon flying comes from, putting different colour combinations together and flying them in selected light or weather conditions.

At our home we have a hill west of us behind which the sun sets earlier than most places.

This is the perfect situation for the colour flying project because as the birds rise they put them selves in a beautiful spot light as we view them from the deep shadow. The colours stand out amazingly well even when they circle way out over the bay. An even neater affect is when they fly back into the shadow area over the loft and then suddenly wheel out into the sun light again. This has the most dazzling effect you can imagine.

The gold's are the most spectacular at this time because the sun has a very decidedly orange golden hue to it as it is getting low. This only increases the colour of the yellows and they then truly become golden doves. All the reds are redder. One friend that was observing said "I never knew you had scarlet pigeons, look at that one its scarlet on its back, man that's incredible". It was only the light conditions that made the pigeons appear so red.

The morning flying the birds are almost all dark because they are silhouetted against the bright sky. The rising sun is a pale white light.

This is the time to fly sharp contrast. Pure white and/or blacks.

Some of the pied birds look good at this time. There is no difference between red and black or blue pied at this time or light condition. They are good because they make the flock flicker more.

The grey misty days are not as bad as one would think though and I find some subtle pleasure flying just a bunch of blues and grey birds. The silver mealies are great here. Barless blues would be a great addition

They virtually become invisible at times. The white birds too disappear very easily in the fog.

But they stay low and do tight circles so there is a lot to be said for the sound of a tight flying kit on a foggy west coast day. This is the time to listen. It is a real ear opener so to speak. The wet air makes for heavy flying but as the wings get damper they also make a deeper duller sound which is enhanced because fog mutes all other sounds in the area.

The overcast day with little mist or fog enhances colour in another unique way. This is the best kind of day for showing off the solid reds, red white pied and white.

The reds are wonderful when they bank in tight sweeping across the great green backdrop of our huge fir and towering cedars. Another great combination is 20 yellows with 20 solid dark reds. This can then be flashed up with a few red white pied rollers added into the kit.

The rusty reds are a perfect compliment to the green. This is a painters dream splashes of red and gold speeding across the forest canvas. And the flash of the white as the rollers take a spin.

There is much to be done and much to be learned but it is wonderful conducting the symphony of colour according to the constantly varying set conditions.

I am very interested now to begin playing more with the altitude flyers. I very much enjoyed what you have to say on the subject.

I do have some rollers that have clearly shown they love to go way up. They have even taken kits of young homers up to heights I never would have thought the homers would go to.

This has been only an occasional thing and I thought it had more to do with atmospheric pressures or temperatures.

There are days we get strong updrafts above the bay and all the gulls, eagles, ravens, crows and hawks take advantage of these winds to go very high.

I thought perhaps that the pigeons were using one of these air currents. They stayed up for a very long time I would say several hours and seemed to be doing a lot of coasting or gliding. A few of the rollers were really rolling.

It was a very nice show.

I also do some strong wind flying and this is a very dynamic energy, very spectacular indeed.

I use only the most powerful flyers for this and birds that don't usually like to go high. Good strong working homers

Young birds are no good for this.

These pigeons love to play with the wind. They do a lot of power diving and use the vortexes created by tall trees as wind tunnels to generate great speed. Where the wind velocity is increased between banks to tall trees they swoop down then use the energy to vault over the next tall trees. They also love to split the flock around sentinel trees and regroup in calm air behind these obstacles.

They will dive through one of the wind tunnels then at full speed turn sharp back into the wind. This wind will then loop them round increasing there speed and they will come back through the same wind tunnel head into the wind. This creates a horizontal power dive and they can sail through the gap without a wing beat.

When you consider that the wind is blowing at 25 or 30 knots these birds must be doing upwards of 80 or 90 miles per hour.

This is incredible to watch and takes a lot of split second timing and precision flying.

It is not for the faint of heart or the indecisive.

These birds fly for at least 30 to 40 minuets before they start doing the manoeuvres. IM sure they are testing and learning the exact flow of the wind. Feeling where all the back eddies are and where the wind breaks are for resting and recollecting before swinging out into the Gail again.

I love this and I think the birds do to but it is dangerous and a few birds have been injured

Flying kits of fast low flying homers with smaller kits of high flying rollers tumbling a 1000 ft above them as a separate performance is also another way to create sky performance using pigeons as the medium.

The rollers must be put up at least 40 minuets before the homers or the kits will integrate and become one kit which will neither go high nor stay low.

If you flag the rollers to go way up and then release the homers the two kits will stay separate and a good kit of rollers will stay up for several hours. The homers will behave as if there is a hawk about when they see the rollers at elevation and will stay tight and fast just at tree top, they will not range more than a quarter mile from the loft. They will perform a lot of tippling evasion type manoeuvres and power dives into clear areas coming within 20 or 30 ft of the ground.

I believe that this behaviour keeps the rollers high because they think the pigeons below are being hawk chased.

Again we are only limited by the diverse types of pigeon breeds we can work in combinations and our imagination.

I have a small kit of perhaps 20 birds that are fully experienced with flying the falcon.

Order of success rate of raptors working a flocks of loft flown pigeons.

1 Cooper's Hawk

Stealth sneak attack. Usually attack loafing pigeons on the loft roof

(Although it takes more birds than any other prey type, (70-80% of the diet))

They are persistent and will work a flock from dawn untill almost dark

Short chases usually less than 100 yards Will take pigeons out of trees and on the ground.

Will enter loft if trap is open

Aerial success minimal after pigeons are in the air for more than 3 seconds

2 Peregrine

Use sun as cover for Stoop from great heights Test stoop at flock attempt to scatter.

Only take birds on the wing Light or differently marked pigeons are first targets

Will hunt as a team

Single out weak or young Fluttering or frightened flight attacks attention

Pigeons that break from the flock become targets first

3 Sharpshinn

Stealth attack ground hunters. Wait and watch for pigeons to relax low level attacks using brush or buildings

Very short chase will take birds hiding in trees Will follow pigeons in through the trap

4 Red Tail

Will take young pigeons on the wing and also ground attack

Can make formidable stoops Weak or young will be chased down

Equal ground tree and air catches

5 Merlin

Take young pigeons in flight and also enter trees

Rarely attempt to take birds off the roof but do bluff dives to drive the pigeons into the air

Will make very long level flight chases some lasting for half hour or more

6 Bald Eagle

Will make aerial attempts Mostly prefer to take young birds out of trees.

Will make roof or ground attempts Will make long aerial chases but lack agility

7 Raven

Will attack tree perched pigeons with limited catch

Single out weak or injured mostly young birds

Will hunt as a team and chase for long periods Can fly young birds to collapse Drive them to ground and take them

8 Barred Owl

Will day hunt young pigeons on the loft or roof.

Will night hunt any wayward birds that do not trap in before dark

Several species will work the flock in unison.

Coopers and Peregrine will work together.

Coopers driving the pigeons up and the Peregrine driving them down

Cooper will snag any injured bird as they try to come down

Ravens and Eagles will also

Ravens and Eagles will steal the kill from any or all other raptors

These are all mature birds none under three years old, all blue bars and checkers and they have all survived many falcon attacks.

This is the most spectacular flying you can ever witness. The out come is decisive either you win or your dead, this to me is the ultimate test for the pigeon and the flier. These birds are champions every one. They are so much more than just speed.

Between 15 and 20 birds is the optimum number for flying the falcon because if you fly more they tend to get in each others way and can be split off from the flock and that is when they are taken.

15 to 20 can stay in a very tight formation which the falcon can not stoop into without fear of damaging its own wings while passing through the kit.

My observations show that if the flock stays tight, does not panic and stays as one unit they can out fly even the mighty peregrine.

The falcons even when hunting as a team will give up after about ten stoops at the flock. If they can not scatter the pigeons they can not take one.

If I know the peregrine is hunting I will always fly this team first and usually within the hour the falcon has given up and left for easier prey elsewhere.

These are extremely valuable birds even though they would probably never win a race or a ribbon in the show pen.

I have no need of racing. No need to compete in shows. No need to breed to any set of standards.

I work with pigeons because it is in my blood; because I love the birds which have helped sustained so many of us over many generations.

Although I admire the work done by fanciers in breeding fast racing birds or beautiful show pigeons, on some levels it seems quite limiting and the full joy of pigeon keeping and flying is lost.

I need not prove to anyone the true value of my birds and I could care less how others judge the quality of the pigeons I fly.

My pigeons are developed in a natural way and are adapted to these very specific local environmental conditions and my personal demands. To date these are the best pigeons for this location as they have proven that they can not only survive but also prosper and expand. Even with around 30 to 40% losses to hawk and falcon predation.

For me pigeon keeping is a symbiotic relationship in which we work together for the betterment of both the pigeon clan and the human family that helps sustain them. This system has been in place over many generations. I feel no need to justify what I love to do with the pigeons that live with me and although I am husbanding them I do not consider myself the owner of them. I feed them and they feed me in return, either with their bodies or with their beauty.

The old saying that we are what we eat certainly makes me a pigeon man.

I cull the birds not by how fast they fly but by how many birds I can afford to maintain at healthy optimal number for the space and care I can provide.

The pigeons speed and agility ultimately, is only important as a means of survival and escape from predators.

Falcon predation actually assists in this selection and many birds that are lost do not make the passing grade.

Pigeons are meant to fly and that is what I do with my birds. I need smart pigeons as well as fast birds. I need prolific breeders so the flock can sustain the predation losses and still provide me some sustenance and adequate numbers to perform in my pigeon flying art program.

The competing takes place every day and the tests my birds are put to are every bit as demanding as racing and showing.

Because we fly to the falcon and we fly to the storm, we fly the challenge of everyday natural survival.

There is no better thing than the flying of pigeons and experiencing the true joy of their beauty. It’s wonderful to take homing pigeons to a distance and see them return, but for me the joy is greater when I'm not competing for money prizes or prestige. The sheer pleasure of having a dynamic kit of homers wheeling through the sky, dancing on the wind, wings flashing in the summer sun can find no equal for pleasure and entertainment.

This is when you really know the dove, love them, live with them, eat them, fly them and are in harmony with the flock and the natural environment.

The pigeon has brought nothing but good into my life.

Flying pigeons is one of the highest art forms and although there are many thousands of fanciers very few it seems discover the real joy of pigeon flying as an art.

copyright (c) Timothy Hume 2004 Feb 8th