On a cold, windy afternoon a flock of white doves circled the sky above Devonshire. For reasons not apparent to those standing on the ground, all 20 birds suddenly made a sharp turn in the sky.

It is this non-verbal choreography and grace that has made the dove a symbol of peace and hope in many cultures. Many people are now choosing to release doves at weddings, baptisms and other milestone moments to represent hope for the future.

Until recently dove releases weren?t really an option for Bermudians. All that changed when Ellen Lopes, her husband, radio-host David Lopes, and their friend Esther Martinez started up a dove-release business called Harmony of Doves.

For a fee, they provide people with a decorative cage or basket containing two doves to symbolise a newlywed couple, or perhaps 20 doves to symbolise 20 years of marriage. The doves, which are actually white homing pigeons, are released in a dramatic display of unity.

The couple?s 50 or so white doves are just some of the animals that Mrs. Lopes and her husband keep at their house on Lightbourne Lane in Devonshire. They also have chickens, cows, various types of ponies, dogs, cats and various other critters.

One day they were perusing their copy of Pigeon Debut (yes, Pigeon Debut!) when they came across an article about the dove release business.

?We had always talked about going into something like dove release,? Mr. Lopes told . ?Then one day we said, ?let?s do it?.?

Mrs. Lopes said that although they had agreed to go into pigeon release, it was about six months before they did anything concrete.

?In the meantime I went on the Internet and I hooked up with a gentleman in New Jersey who is one of the bigger bird release people,? she said. ?After talking with him quite a bit, I found out that he and David had a lot in common, because they had both raised birds for 40 or 50 years. That is really what he did. Then he decided to do the release programme some years ago and he developed it into a business. He has been extremely helpful the whole way and given me ideas.?

She partnered up with her long-time friend Esther Martinez, who currently works for Bermuda Plant Nursery.

Mrs. Lopes tends to handle the business side of Harmony of Doves while Miss Martinez and Mr. Lopes tend to handle publicity and the actual bird rearing and training.

?I am really excited about this,? said Miss Martinez. ?I like doing something different. A friend of mine always wanted doves at her wedding and had always given up on it until she heard that we do this.?

So far Harmony of Doves has released doves at several weddings, the baptism of their own grandson, and at the very sad funeral of a child.

?Releasing the birds is a nice feeling and it is a lovely, emotional thing to see them flying,? said Mrs. Lopes. ?The doves are very symbolic. They are good for weddings, because doves mate for life.?

To start their own flock of homing pigeons, the Lopes imported nine breeding birds from the United States. The breeding birds can never be released because they would simply attempt to fly back to their home in the United States. However, their chicks, born in Bermuda, have imprinted on the Lopes? farm. Mr. Lopes brought out a chick from the pigeon loft. Like swans, these birds aren?t the most beautiful thing when they are little. In this case, the chick?s beak looked as if it weighed more than the rest of its body. ?The nicest thing about this is seeing the birds develop,? said Mrs. Lopes. ?It is nice seeing them out together. Seeing them fly is beautiful. I have really only started handling them this year. I was afraid I would hurt them, but actually they are pretty sturdy. It is amazing when you look at their wings and their feathers and the beauty of the bird itself. It is amazing what the bird can do.?

When Miss Martinez went into the cage of 50 or so doves, to show what an adult looked like, they put up quite a kerfuffle. Gone were the birds of harmony and peace. Instead the wings of 50 birds flapped around Miss Martinez. Little bits of white bird fluff filled the air.

When she finally did catch number four ? they are all banded and numbered ? he was content enough to be taken outside.

?We can?t tell the pure white ones apart,? Miss Martinez said. ?Out of all the birds we hatched about four were born not all white. There are a couple of ones in there that stand out, personality wise. There is one with a yellow band that is a little bit bigger, and he tends to be a pain.?

The birds are numbered so that when they return home, the Lopes can tell which ones might be missing.

?The experts still can?t figure out why they have that instinct to come back, but they do,? said Mrs. Lopes. ?They are very strong fliers.?

Mr. Lopes said the furthest they have released them from home is only Hamilton, but homing pigeons have successfully returning from over 300 miles away. ?Occasionally, you will lose one,? he said, ?or one will not find its way home. Usually, though, they will all come back.?

Mrs. Lopes said some people are concerned that the doves will become part of the feral bird population on the Island when released. ?One of the big concerns that some people have is do they come back home? Where do they go?? she said. ?They come home, and they are not your traditional pigeon that you see on top of City Hall. These pigeons have been bred from good stock to start with.?

Another concern that people have about arranging a bird release is that the doves will suddenly turn on the guests like something out of a horror film.

?They are not going to peck you,? said Mrs. Lopes. ?They are not attack birds and they are quite friendly.?

At weddings, the doves are usually released right after the ceremony, so they aren?t in the basket for very long. And Mrs. Lopes said they don?t seem to mind being in the basket, anyway. ?At the most they are in the basket for an hour,? she said. ?They are very quiet in the basket.?Mr. Lopes said that when the birds are shipped to Bermuda, they are in boxes for much longer, for at least 48 hours.

?We have had birds twice that have missed the Atlanta flight, and they put them on the flight the next day,? he said. ?They were fine.? The birds are exercised every evening, in good weather. When they are released, many neighbours in the area come out on their porches to watch. Mr. Lopes has trained them not to land on the roof. Instead, they land on a bar and go back into their cage on their own.

The birds are not just a business venture to the Lopes family but well-cared for pets. Therefore, people arranging a release have to sign a contract saying they understand the terms of the release.

?There are some things we don?t do,? Mrs. Lopes said. ?For example, we won?t release them in bad weather. We won?t release them in the rain. We won?t release them at night. They are our animals and they are worth something to us. We care about their safety. We want to make sure they come home. We don?t just gather up birds and say ?okay go, we don?t want to see you anymore?. This is David?s hobby and it is our business so and we do want to care for them.?

As the birds continue to wheel around in the evening sky before going home to roost, one bird pulls ahead of the flock. He is not white, but black and white, and visibly bigger than the others. Accidents happen, even in the pigeon world.

The Lopes think he is the result of a behind the cage dalliance between a breeding dove, and a rollback pigeon, which the Lopes also raise. The rollback pigeons are known to fly quite high, then drop in a roll, then fly again. The result is this little bird flying at the head of the pack. ?He can out-fly the others,? said Miss Martinez. ?We haven?t used him a release, but I think he would probably come back with the others if you let him fly in the group.?

Miss Martinez said she can?t wait for Harmony of Doves to take off. (No pun intended).

?We have a few bookings already and quite a few people are interested,? she said. ?It is like everything - you just have to fit everything into the plans you have. I have already been talking to the hotels. The next thing are bridal shops. A lot of people call pet stores here.?