JOHN DAVID'S
RAMBLINGS
In South Wales everyone is complaining about the daily attacks on our pigeons by peregrine falcons, goshawks and sparrowhawks, and even buzzards have been recorded going for pigeons. Only yesterday a buzzard was seen attacking a wood pigeon by a good friend of mine and John Dixon (Dixey) found a buzzard in his pigeon loft.
Peregrines are attacking our pigeons on a daily basis bringing with it terror to our pigeons on an ever increasing scale. I have had three such attacks on my loft in the last few days. Only yesterday morning after a peregrine strike (they could be seen in the sky) 12 birds went missing from the flock while taking exercise at 11.25am. The others dived for cover under the overhanging trees above my loft where they stayed for one hour. One returned after two hours and another after two and a half hours and five birds returned at 3.30pm flown out. Two returned just before dark with one injured. One turned up at 10am the next morning leaving two missing, obviously victims of this peregrine strike. Later on after 5pm my late breds were out for exercise and again following a further peregrine strike two were gone, and two went in a similar way two days earlier.
Everyone I talk to is experiencing similar problems while training their pigeons. It does not seem to matter what time of day the birds are trained (tossed). Whether it's early morning or later in the evening, birds are getting split up and are returning single up many hours later, with the inevitable loss of one or two birds and others injured.
Hardly anyone training in Wales is reporting birds returning in one batch as we once expected a few years ago. Now fanciers are holding their breath when birds are returning from training as it is becoming a daily ritual for them to take very many hours to return from just a 25 mile toss. Fanciers are becoming more worried than ever over the incresing scale of these attacks and many are wondering is this the beginning of the end for the sport of pigeon racing we all enjoy? I attach a report in the local press about a goshawk caught attacking chickens in Pen-Y-Coedcau, which is a few miles from where I live.
Reproduced by kind permission of the South Wales Echo.
John David, Havachat Bungalow, Mwyndy, Pontyclun, RCT South Wales. CF728PN. Phone 01443-226809. Email
