Welcome!
My grandfather’s love for animals has a great impact in my life. Little critters he kept amazed me. I raised birds and animals in my home, chicken, ducks, turkeys, parrots, canaries, dogs and fancy pigeons. I used to have hamsters, turtle dove and one kite for pets.
Before my teen years, I remember my father and I were frequent visitors to my father-in-law’s house. While visiting, we would fetch drinkable water from the Artesian Well located in his backyard. We collected several jugs that would last for three days. I noticed a team of racing pigeons flying in the sky. I introduced myself to the neighbor fancier to learn more about these fascinating birds. He was very nice and accommodating. I became one of his frequent visitors. There were times I would empty the content of the jugs just to have reason to go out to my father-in law’s house to fetch the water. It was an almost half kilometer travel and my main objective was to see the neighbor’s racing pigeons.
I spent one season with my new friend. Then I had this thought to acquire few flyers I can race myself. I was 11 years old at that time and I thought of a good approach to convince my father to build me a loft. He objected but my persistence had a positive result at the end. My father finally gave me a consent to race pigeons. My joy and happiness during those days were beyond description. It was the start of my racing hobby. Racing pigeon required so much of my time but I made sure that it did not interfere with my formal education.
After 20 years, I have done countless renovation and modification to my lofts and they are still evolving. I have visited many fanciers within and outside my flying area. I even travelled to Slovakia to meet several great fanciers and volunteered to basket their pigeons for the race.
Madalena is my village, V.N. Gaia is my city and Porto is my town. The Portuguese district is where pigeons and fanciers are plentiful.