KEVIN SPENCER'S
NEWS FROM PORTUGAL
Hi again Elimar readers. As a follow up to my previous article explaining about the sport here in Portugal, I thought you might be interested in seeing 2 of my birds' eyes. They are both very long distance birds, my bird from Dax last season and my Barcelona bird this season. Only 12 pigeons made it back to the Algarve from Dax in 2011 and my bird flew the furthest of any bird clocked in race time, a distance of 970km in extreme heat and finished 7th. I am very proud of its feat as it was my very 1st attempt at prepping a pigeon for a race further than 600 miles. I put it straight to stock and I have bred a few from it for the coming season. It raced under my sick friend's name last year, Antonio Dias. The bird was 7th national, 146th international Algarve/Andaluzia. Ring no. 2008 8558232.
See this link for confirmation (you may have to cut and paste): http://acdfarocolumbofilia.com.sapo.pt/
The other pigeon is my Barcelona bird from this season who 6th section or zone for birds flying 950km or more. He raced under my name, ring no. 2008 8557554. Only 9 birds made it in race time to our furthest zone 5. Our bird once again flew the furthest of any bird clocked, again in sun and heat never experienced in most of Europe.
I have attatched the eye pics for your interest. The 1st eye is the Dax hen and the 2nd is the Barcelona cock. In my opinion these 2 birds are the equal of anything I have ever seen and the hen will be a super breeder.
My Dax hen
My Barcelona cock
All I can say about the breeding is that the Dax hen is from the Roosens family. Antonio, whose loft my wife and I are looking after, doesn't do pedigrees but the family has always done well for him in very tough races. The cock pigeon from Barcelona is a Bostyn, an old breed of 2 day pigeon founded by the great Pol Bostyn; they are quite rare nowadays. Again no pedigree but the family always clock in when the chips are down in these tough races.
On another note, we had hotspot 1 with the Somerset OLR today and just missed out on some prize money (the story of my life). We finished 8th Open. We are Mistral Marauders.
Best regards, Kevin Spencer, Algarve, Portugal.
See the link below to read Kevin's introductory Elimar article on the sport in Portugal, or go to the Loft Reports & Articles section on Elimar.
http://www.elimarpigeons.com/AnIntrotoP.htm
