"Fly By Night" is site specific, intended to commemorate New York City's own history of rooftop pigeon lofts, which are disappearing.
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All around the area were pigeon lofts. All of his friends loved pigeons. They had to smuggle their pigeon purchases into their homes, because their parents did not like the dirty pigeon mess.
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Pigeon trainers conducted various administrative and operational duties. Pigeon trainers were required to construct and maintain immaculately clean pigeon lofts. Upon arrival of a new shipment of birds, pigeon trainers sorted strong, healthy birds from sickly ones. Healthy birds were placed into the lofts, while sickly birds remained under isolate care until they regained their health.
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Numbers more than trebled between 1978 and 1998.Benvie (2004) p. 70. At the other end of the population scale, a single pair of snowy owls bred on Fetlar from 1967 to 1975. In 2009 it was reported that the Scottish Government have decided to proceed with a controversial plan to relocate sparrowhawks found near pigeon lofts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Dumfries at a cost of £25,000.
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After the Revolution, it was largely used as a stone quarry. A painting by Jules Thibon, Les ruines du château de Ventadour, painted in 1860 and in a private collection, shows its state in the 19th century. Since 1969, it has been the object of a restoration project by Pierre and Françoise Pottier and a handful of volunteers. Visitors can see a square tower, two pigeon lofts and a fortified gateway.
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The current penthouse used to be the Pigeon lofts. The site now occupied by the North Bridge Brasserie originally held the reception and trading rooms where bartering over advertising took place. In 2001 the Newspaper moved to their own purpose built offices in Holyrood and the building was renovated into The Scotsman Hotel. In 2017, the hotel once again came under Scottish ownership when it was purchased by G1 Group, one of the countries largest hospitality groups.
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Telegraph facilities in the building were linked to Charters Towers and to units further west as well as to Victoria Barracks, Brisbane. Part of the first floor was also used as living quarters for the Area Signals Officer and Operations Officer. During this period, a concrete bunker was constructed at the rear of the property to house a cypher group who worked to decode Japanese messages. Pigeon lofts were also built in the yard to supply ships and aircraft with carrier pigeons.
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Most fanciers have at least two pens for their pigeons and often fanciers have more than two pens or possibly multiple pigeon lofts. Extra pens allow for the keeping of spare, unmated females and males which can be useful to replace existing pigeons which might perish from disease or predation. Because it can be difficult to determine the sex of a young pigeon it is also handy to have extra pens for pigeons that have been weaned but which have not given external indications of their sex yet.
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The new owner built between 1605 and 1609 two farms in an L-shape in front of the castle and, in the corners, two pigeon lofts containing 4000 pigeon holes. The southern loft still has its spiral staircase dating from the time of Henri IV. Also added at this time were a chapel (1578) and new accommodation extending the earlier building to the south. Under the First Empire (1810), the castle was bought by Monsieur de La Chaslerie, maternal ancestor of the count of Beaucorps-Créquy (Créquy family). The two gatehouse towers, already greatly reduced in height, were completely removed in 1953, in order to allow access for the owner's wife's car.
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