EVEN the smartest homing pigeon can lose its way, but for a bird to miss its destination by 5,000 miles is a navigational error of epic proportions.

John Stewart entered Judy and three other birds in a race last month from Bourges, France, to his home at Hadston, Northumberland — a distance of 596 miles.

Two of the birds made it back the following day, one has not been seen since and Judy turned up halfway round the world in the Caribbean island of St Eustatius, in the Netherlands Antilles.

She was found by Ryan Pologne and Wendy Collins, two British expatriates, at their home on the island. They saw Judy’s identification number on her leg ring and reported her presence in an e-mail to the North of England Homing Union, which contacted an astonished Mr Stewart.

Had the bird tired of the brisk Northumbrian weather and made for balmier climes? Mr Stewart, 69, who has kept pigeons for 47 years, thinks it more likely that Judy was an unwitting passenger on a ship.

“I’ve been asking around all weekend and nobody has known one to go as far as this before,” he said. “It’s the talk of the village. She’s a grand little flyer, but 5,000 miles is a heck of a long way for a little pigeon.

“She likes to do things the hard way. It was only a short hop across the Channel but she decided to disappear halfway round the world.

“When they don’t come back within three days you think, that’s it. Sometimes they turn up a week or two weeks later. You then send them back to the same race the following year and they come in a bit sharper the next time.”

Mr Stewart admitted to being quite jealous of his bird. “I wish I was in the Caribbean rather than in Northumberland,” he said.

The couple who found Judy reported: “The bird seems very tired and thirsty but healthy. The beautiful pigeon is still here and doing well.” They also said that Judy appeared accustomed to dogs, which came as no surprise to her owner, as his own dog mixes freely with his birds.

Mr Stewart has replied saying that he would not be able to come to collect his bird. “It would be a bit of a journey to say the least, and I think she’ll probably quite enjoy life in the Caribbean. It should be a lot warmer than Hadston,” he said.

Dave Power, secretary of the North of England Homing Union, said that the bird would not have been able to fly to the Caribbean unaided. “The pigeon must have got off course and landed on a ship. One day it’s in one port, and days later it’s miles away.”

Mr Stewart, who has lost a number of birds over the years, is now pondering the fate of Punch, Judy’s mate, who has still not shown up in Hadston. He wonders whether Punch has stowed away on another ship heading for St Eustatius.

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