SANFORD — When Wayne Miller was a boy of 12, he sent away to New York for three pairs of pigeons.

The price, he recalled Sunday, was $9.99, plus shipping.

“It cost me $6 freight to get them by train to Steep Falls,” said Miller. “They were sent in an orange crate.”

That was 50 years ago, but Miller still keeps “fancy” pigeons ”“ pigeons bred for show ”“ and has 250 at his home in West Baldwin.

Miller was among the pigeon fanciers who were either showing or just viewing the feathered friends at the Maine Pigeon Association show, held Sunday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. Pigeon fanciers from clubs across Maine and neighboring New Hampshire stopped by, as did some folks  from other New England states.

Viewers could check out the pigeons, watch the judging, or buy an addition to their flock. Several exotic sounding varieties were shown, from Modean Cream to Pom Pouter, German Owls, Fantails and West of England pigeons.

Inside the hall, there was plenty of talk about birds ”“ but from the birds themselves, well, all you could hear were soft warbles.

Alcide Bergeron of Biddeford is also a pigeon fancier. He, too, started at 12 years old, but the 79-year-old said Sunday it wasn’t until the 1960s when he began the hobby of racing homing pigeons.

“I like watching them come home. It is something to see,”  said Bergeron. “He sees home and closes his wings and lands, like he’s saying, ”˜Where’s the old man?’ They know you.”

Birds are banded for identification when they’re seven days old. Training pigeons for racing starts when the birds are two months old. Bergeron said one typically starts three miles out and waits for the pigeon to come home, gradually building up the mileage.  While hawks and other predators can take a toll, Bergeron estimated 90 percent of the birds come home.

When a race is called in New England, the clubs hire a truck to transport the birds to the release location, up to 500 miles away. The distance is measured via a Global Positioning System. When the birds are released, the precise time is noted and then the waiting game begins.

Bergeron estimated it takes about three hours for a homing racer to fly 150 miles. When the birds arrive, the time is noted ”“ right down to the second.

Jonathan Ouellette, 12, is one of the younger pigeon fanciers in the area. He started when he was four, he said, learning from his grandfather, Claude Boucher, and now shows the fancy birds and also races some.

“It’s pretty fun,” said Ouellette, who works part-time bagging groceries to help fund his hobby. “People say it’s expensive, but that’s why you have a job.”

Bob Gagne of Biddeford,  president of the Maine Pigeon Association, said keeping and showing or racing pigeons is a hobby that has been around for a very long time.

“It is the oldest hobby there is,” said Gagne. “It started with the Egyptians.”

Gagne started, he said, with “street birds,” when he was 9 years old. Gagne quickly became a pigeon fancier, and at one time kept up to 500 birds.  He now has about 200 at home.

Indeed, according to online encyclopedias, pigeon keeping has been around for about 10,000 years and the sport of racing pigeons became popular in Belgium in the mid-1800s. Pigeons were brought to America  by European immigrants.

Racers have been used by the military and two birds played significant roles in the world wars.

In World War One, The U.S Army Signal Corps carried homing pigeons and one notable bird, Cher Ami, saved the day on Oct. 4, 1918. According to historical information on the Internet, Cher Ami was the last carrier  pigeon sent from the 77th Infantry Division, which was bogged down behind enemy lines in France. Shot at and wounded, Cher Ami  managed to deliver the message, saving 200 soldiers.

In World War II, the pigeon G.I. Joe saved an Italian village and the British troops occupying it from bombing when G.I. Joe arrived in time to let the Allied bombers know their own troops were occupying the village.

Bergeron said he’d like to see more young people join the ranks of pigeon fanciers and said interested folks of all ages can reach him through his e-mail address at: birdman@xpressamerican.net.

Pearl Gagne, Bob Gagne’s daughter, said she too has the pigeon fancying bug. She, like Bergeron, said there’s no feeling like waiting for the birds to come home.

“It is a wonderful, wholesome hobby,” she concluded.

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.