A Blytheville man will be part of a nationwide effort on Friday to release doves to remember those who lost their lives on 9/11.
Kent Reed will release about 50 birds during a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Mississippi County Courthouse in Blytheville.
Reed has been training birds for about six years he said. He has participated in racing them and for the past few years, has provided birds for release during patriotic ceremonies, such as Veteran's Day and Memorial Day activities.
Reed is a member of White Wings Over America, who has so far secured "pledges" from bird trainers all over the country to release doves at noon, Eastern Standard Time, on Friday.
"A member just posted a suggestion that we should all release our birds on 9/11," Reed said. The idea gained momentum and now more than 4,000 birds will be released Friday, including at least 50 of Reed's birds.
While Reed's birds are actually white racing pigeons, not doves, they still symbolize peace, he said.
Retired from the Air Force, Reed is a member of the American Legion who started bringing his birds to patriotic ceremonies.
It takes a few months to train the birds, which consists of taking them away from home and letting them fly back.
"I don't know how they know the way, but they do," Reed said. Experts don't know if the birds are simply returning to their food source or a safe environment or what. Some think the birds have an internal compass that leads them home.
Reed starts out training the birds by taking only short distances away, by half-mile increments. Eventually, the distance increases, until the birds can find their home from many miles away.
Training starts at three months of age for the birds, Reed said.
While he has done some racing of the pigeons, in which the birds find their way home from as far away as New Orleans or Dallas, Reed now trains the birds for only a 50- or 60-mile trip, he said.
Once a pigeon is trained, it will almost always return to the same spot. "You can't take someone else's pigeons and expect them to return to your house. They'll usually go back to where they were trained," he said.
Some trainers have been successful in re-routing the birds, but it takes a great deal of time and patience, Reed said.
Training the birds takes consistency, he said. "I sometimes take my birds out every day or even twice a day," he said. "They get out of practice if you don't."
The birds do get to rest during the fall, he said, because hawks tend to prey on the pigeons. "Once (hawks) find the dinner table, they won't leave until the food source is gone."
When that happens, Reed only releases his pigeons occasionally for exercise.
Reed estimates that he will release at least 50 pigeons during Friday's ceremony at the county courthouse.
dhilton@blythevillecourier.com