Les J Parkinson - What’s on my mind.
We are moving along quite fast with the races, and we are now halfway through the young bird season. The decision I must make now is, do I send them right through the program or give them about 5 races and stop at that with thoughts on next year. As you know I only restarted racing again for the 2023 young bird season so am in the early stages of building a team. I have 35 yearlings who have all been raced, so ideally could do with 25 from this year’s crop of young birds to go into them for next season. If we were club racing across the channel, I don’t think this would have entered my head because I would have expected them to go to at least one, if not two channel races as yearlings. In fact, in the past, I have sent yearlings to Saintes National and had a good race at 530 plus miles with them. I know a lot of fanciers won’t agree with me but jumping yearlings into channel races now is not the same as it used to be in the days when they were first sent to the club channel races before sending them in the specialist races. When they were sent with the club birds there were often several thousand going up together, so they were big batches all heading in the same direction, helping one another home to reach their destination, this was education for them. I feel it can break many yearlings before they get started and that’s the last thing we need to do with the future of the loft in mind. For instance, this year I prepared the yearlings who had not been any further than Wincanton146mls, to go to Carentan with the National where I would have expected them to have seen off the job reasonably easy. However, had I known they were going to Fougeres I would not have sent them because they were not prepared for the extra time on the wing, and it turned out to be not the best of races. Many will not agree with me but when it comes to such distances an extra hour or so on the wing makes a big difference. These things happen in pigeon racing, and we must accept them.
YB Racing.
Let’s go back to the young bird races and the weekend of the 10th August when at times I wondered if even the pigeons knew where they were going. Ebony sent 10 and I sent 10 with the Mid Cheshire Fed and I said to Peter, anyone who beats Ebony will win the race and he was the one to beat her. It was a strong west wind and at times I watched pigeons going over as if they had no idea where they were going. I must admit I didn’t see where any of ours came from, Peter sees more than we do because they come over the house. The back of the house faces south so you would expect them to come from that direction but no such luck, we see others going past but not our own coming straight on, unless they are past before they realize. I sat on my chair with my back to the house and didn’t see one pigeon arrive, not one out of the 32 on the day. I must say it wasn’t only ours that decided to wander around looking for a nice loft to drop into, others were in the same position, it was one of those days. We got all the Mid Cheshire birds but those missing were all entered with the South West Cheshire Fed. Peter did tell me last year that losses were higher in the SWCF than the Mid Cheshire Fed which I found odd at the time but I am now finding that is the case. With not wanting to lose any more I am going to keep them in the MCF for the rest of the season and see what we end up with. As with all races the winners were bang on form and made the lightest of work with the race. Speaking of losing pigeons, Lizzie had a call on Saturday 10th August from Nigel Shaw reporting one of our pigeons that had been entered in the SWCF race from Mangotsfield that day. His fellow member Joe Glover was telling me the story about Nigel having three go through the door together, his two were 1st & 4th fed, the other being mine, pity he didn’t take the ring number, he was working on the plastic ring phone number. Last year when we only sent to the MCF and had a good team left but this year things are not going so well. I don’t put it all down to the mystery of the fed we are competing in, there could be any number of reasons. On the weekend of the 17th even Mark Smith, who is one of the longer fliers in our club was telling me that his even came back out of the north that day. This is not just a UK thing, fanciers all over Europe are losing pigeons far too often. I lost 6 out of 33 on that day competing in their 4th race of the season. Yes, funny things happen to our pigeons when they are in the sky.
Winners.
I have a photo, and winnings of a very god yearling raced by Nigel & Wendy Shaw from Shavington.
1st 827b 168nls
1st 607b 109mls
1st 388b 109mls
1st 105b 168mls
1st 89b 80mls
1st 84b 138mls
1st 58b 80mls
1st 70b 168mls
1st 26b 168mls
1st 119b 109mls
2nd 886b 109mls
2nd 696b 80mls
2nd 302n 168mls
3rd 102b 109mls
4th 505b 168mls
4th 153b 109mls
4th 88b 80mls
5th 98b 138mls
7th 601b 138mls
9th 613b 80mls
9th 601b 138mls
Ferral pigeons.
As you know we have feral pigeons on the top of the house, they have bred out in the open this year. The solar panels on the roof have all been wired so they can’t get under them, but they are nesting in the open air just below the ridge tiles where they meet the solar panels. What does surprise me is how well they exercise around the area, they look so much at ease, and you can’t hear them flying, which shows how well they have, I suspect, unintentionally conditioned themselves. Tried to get rid of them but having no luck, I am beginning to think we are stuck with them forever and a day.
Gone but never forgotten.
We attended the funeral of Geoff Kirkland on the 12th August where everyone had good words to say about him. The 11 times 1st National winner was a true gentleman of the sport and never had a bad word to say about anyone. It was nice to see leading figures from the sport in attendance, which highlighted just how well he was thought of in the pigeon world. I did learn something and that was how the “SNAKE” got his name, when the cock returned from a race, they saw a snake in the pond and the name of this superstar of the racing and breeding world stuck. The “SNAKE” was a real ACE at both racing and breeding with many fanciers gaining success from his line. As I say there were top winners from the sport there and as I looked around, I could see faces that I knew but couldn’t put a name to them. I asked one of Cheshire’s top fanciers and I was glad to find out that I wasn’t the only one in that position. Just before we left a very smart young man said to me, “You don’t remember me do you” the first thing that came to me mind was, the face yes, then he told me his name and I was quick to point out “The man with the picture on the wall” he quickly pointed out that I remembered that, how could I forget. Anyone who has visited Arnie Tonks will know what I am referring too, that’s if the picture is still there after all these years. Anyway, they say, once you are gone you are forgotten, I have never thought that was the case, because people like Geoff Kirkland are never forgotten and all for the right reasons. RIP mate.
Les Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: +44 (0)1606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
E-mail:
Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com
