Les J Parkinson - What’s going on this week.
The young birds are not as keen as I would have liked them to be at this time of the year, this probably being brought about because there are different ages in the two adjoining sections. I could have separated them, but I would have had to change the doors around, so I left them, a case of putting a job off that I should have done. I also kept them in longer than I probably should have done and when I looked at them there were some that had cast as many as 4 flights but had good body feathers on them. I eventually got round to letting them out and after 3 days there was not much sign of them going up, so the trusted tennis ball came out of retirement and up they went, not all but most thought they would test their wings. No doubt most fanciers will not like the idea of starting them off with a tennis ball, but I have done it many times and not ended up losing them. A tennis ball is like everything else; they get used to it. Last year I rolled the ball along the landing board, and they got used to it, they just parted and let it go by. I was at the late Bill Lyon’s loft many years ago on a race day, not many went through that gate. I was surprised to see the washing out; Bill could see that I was surprised and said that “Pigeons will get used to anything” I have found through carrying on doing things when the pigeons are out, they do get used to anything. I remember Frank Holbrooks, who was a prime example, he would be making changes to what became known as the Magic Roundabout Lofts, why I still don’t know. Anyway, the pigeons got used to his knocking and banging they would ignore him and go straight into the loft over his shoulder, even on a race day.
Channel racing
There are rumors going around that we could get back to channel racing in a similar way that we were used to in years gone by. Club/fed channel racing is where we educated our birds for the Nationals but in recent years as we all know that has not been the case. I don’t know whether this is all fact or fiction, fact is what we need it to do because the sport needs bucking up in a big way. The losses in National racing are probably partly caused by a lack of experience for pigeons going across the channel, especially for the longer flying fanciers. There are of course fanciers who like the longer channel racing whether in the local federation or Nationals. If we could get back to normal channel flying, we would have a few more happy members. It is a fact that there are fanciers who have finished pigeon racing because there is no club or federation racing. When people complain about racing pigeons across the channel, especially into the North West where they can get a bit of distance, don’t they realize birds migrate thousands of miles with ease. Yes, we know that racing pigeons don’t migrate, but they are still a bird whose main aim in life is to fly. Take a racehorse, forced to race round a course, we all know that they would not do it if they were not forced too, whereas a pigeon is a natural born flyer. What we could say in favor of both is that racehorses and racing pigeons are well conditioned which makes their job much easier.
Strays
We don't hear of many strays being reported, I know that from what we have lost this year. Oddly enough our worst races have both been from Cheltenham, which is only 88mls, so it is not an out-of-fight distance for the pigeons. The first one was when the Mid Cheshire Fed transporter broke down and they had to get it taken in for repairs while the pigeons were still on it, that was done in time for the pigeons to be taken to the race point. However, with the losses that fanciers experienced I think they would have been better kept at the race point (hindsight) overnight so that they could have a good rest period before they were liberated. The people concerned worked hard to get the transporter fixed and the pigeons to the race point so well done to them on that point. However, it is clear that the pigeons were stressed based on the way they returned or in many cases failed to make their home loft altogether. Elimar ended up with 11 missing and two were well below par for the following two weeks. I am glad it wasn't just me who had losses, if it was, I would be looking at the remaining pigeons in a different way. Then we had another Cheltenham when with all good intentions officials of organizations made the decision to go for early liberation after the weather forecast was for a heatwave the following day which did not happen. Instead, the day turned out strange and by the end of the day there were a lot of pigeons missing. One of ours ended up in Leyland with Paul Johnson who called to let me know where she had landed. This was handy because Lizzie was going to Leyland to help her son Reece move house, so she brought the blue hen back with her. All in all, we had two races with the old birds from Cheltenham and both saw quite a few losses. I had a smile at myself when I was looking through the losses, I lost more from these two Cheltenham races than I did from two National FC races from across the channel. As for my own losses so far this season, more than expected but that's the way it goes when we are starting to build a new team of racing pigeons. I am still in the process of building a team to compete in the National FC races and as anyone who enters these races will tell you it is not easy. If you have a bad race from the channel, it is a bad one and losses are higher than expected. Channel racing was much better when we entered through the local club/Federation program. See comments above. When it comes the reporting strays, I am sure most fanciers don’t want to know. I came into the house a couple of weeks ago and Elizabeth was on the phone, a non-fancier had a tame pigeon that wouldn’t leave. There was a phone number on a plastic ring, so she phoned the number and was surprised that the fancier concerned said he did not want the pigeon back, not what pigeon racing needs. The problem is the public sees a racing pigeon and starts to feed it, so the pigeon stays because it thinks it’s going to be ono a good thing, being fed and watered. Here at Elimar Lofts we missed the first race but then appeared around the top 10 on all races until this one from Cheltenham which is just short of 89mls, just like a good fly around home. We didn’t appear on this one when the velocities for the first 40 started at 1990ypm down to 1416ypm. This obviously tells us that something has gone wrong somewhere along the line. There are only 4 pigeons on the 1900ypm mark with a further 2 in the 1800ypm bracket but then we are down to 1700ypm where 14 made the list. So that means from an entry of 663 birds which were well down anyway, there are only 20 birds who made more than 1700ypm when the wind was giving them a helping hand. What went wrong, as in these cases we will never but where there’s a race there’s a winner and you must give credit to those winners. Before finishing on this one it would be interesting to know if many more from this Mid Cheshire Fed race had pigeons reported higher up in the North West.
BOP
A strange thing happened on Friday 27th June. Elizabeth & myself were sitting having a brew in the back garden when something caught my eye entering the garden from above. It was a sparrow hawk that landed on one of the clay rabbits Elizabeth has in the garden. Before I could get my phone out for a picture the BOP was away. Not sure whether it was a cock or hen, this is the first time I have been anywhere near one of them.
Les J Parkinson. 15 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: 01606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
E-mail:
Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com
