Lisa Cilley owns a flock of about 60 homing pigeons, also called “white doves,” which she releases at weddings, funerals and Memorial Day events. The following is an edited interview.

I love to let them out in the morning. They’re so pretty. I just go sit in the chair by the house and watch them fly. If you get a beautiful day, white birds flying against a blue sky, they’re absolutely gorgeous.

Every morning, I come out, open up the trap door and say, “Everybody come out!” and they all go out and fly around. When they’re done, some of them sit on my rooftop for a while or play around on the ground — but I encourage them not to play around too much — then they go back in the trap door.

Of course, because of their color, they stand out, so we have to be careful with the hawks. I haven’t had a lot of trouble with hawks this year, but a couple years ago, as soon as I’d open the loft door, they’d hear me and start circling.

I’ve learned, in the spring, not to let them out until the leaves are back on the trees. I’ll wait until the birds from down south are back, and then I’ll start flying them. And I’ve learned I don’t let them out between noon and 2, especially in the summertime, just because it seems like whenever I look in the sky at that time of day I see a hawk circling.

I spend a lot of time out here. It’s a little sanctuary. If you come out at night they’re all quiet, then as soon as you open the door they start to make talk and noises. I love to listen to them.

I just think it’s so neat that you can have these beautiful birds, and you can let them go somewhere miles away, and they’ll return. You still have to train them to know where home is, but I’m totally amazed by it.

Some people say it’s the sun, some people say it’s magnetic fields, some people say they use landmarks to navigate their way home. I don’t know what it is.

Seeing them fly, it’s a memory you have forever. It’s something symbolic for people, like when a person dies and their spirit is set free.

You take a chance every time you let them go, but they always come back.