Les J Parkinson 2016.
What a year it has been for pigeon racing fanciers all over the country, I think it has been a year when everything has hit them and in some cases hit them hard. We have the perennial problem of birds of prey and that is never going to go away. I don’t know how many saw Countryfile on Sunday 11th September when they were on about the reduction of small mammals in the fields, this came from the State of nature report. They had a specialist on the job that came up with the idea that it was the way farmers go about their work with intense farming systems that was the cause of the decline. I had to email them and tell them what a load of rubbish that had come up with, and someone got paid a lot of money to do that exercise, when you look at the conclusion what a waste of time it was. The last thing they put on show was a % on the decline and the increases of certain species in the wild. Small birds and mammals were on a considerable decline and guess what the birds of prey were on an increase of over 1000% for the same period. All they had to do was ask the pigeon fanciers about the effect birds of prey have on the smaller birds and mammals, we would have told them for free why there is a decline in these areas of wildlife.
I cannot understand why people get paid so much to do such surveys when the answer is clear to see without wasting their time and at someone’s cost. Surely there is something more constructive they can be doing for the wildlife if that is what they are really interested in, the welfare of small birds and mammals. Or is this a case of one those situations where they need one of those “Jobsworth” people, you know the ones who have nothing to do so get sent off on a wild goose chase, there are lots of those in this world. We are just on the edge of Middlewich and we don’t have to go far to see birds of prey and they are always hunting for something. With the increase in them the small birds and mammals are always going to suffer but the people who can see what is going on are not listened to. For that reason I cannot see why these cannot see it either, or is this case of them closing their eyes because they don’t want to see what is actually happening. Birds of prey are also taking thousands of pigeons year after year and with their increase that number is going to rise and there is nothing that we can do about it, at least legally but we don’t recommend breaking the law these people have more money for support than we do. Racing pigeon’s is well down in the list for people who think and I do say think they are doing a service to wildlife by protecting the BOP population when they are in fact doing it no good at all, why are the wrong ones always protected and that is in all walks of life.
As we know there are areas where we are overrun with BOP but try telling anyone who is into them is a none starter, they don’t want to know, they cannot see past the end of their noses. What about our own racing, in general the racing this year has not been good and there are a lot of fanciers who have not been able to complete a season. It is a fact when something is wrong people look to blame someone but let’s face it some of our officials have a tough time because you cannot please all of the people all of the time. The race controllers are more often than not blamed for bad races when it is not always down to their judgment. They have their information from the specialists in weather forecasting but how often are they right. Only last week we watched the weather forecast and they said we were going to have the hottest September day here in the North West, what happened we had thunderstorms and floods. Yes some parts of the country did have the good weather but not here in the North West as predicted on the North West news. I have heard it said that we should have professionals to give us the forecast but on the evidence we had last week they have less chance of giving a correct forecast than the man with the stick going across a field. That far from correct weather report was not a one off and our local nominated controllers are looking to them for a little guidance. On a race day the facilities are there for the controllers to look at with cameras spotted around the country to see what is going on and there are plenty of fanciers who are willing to take calls and advise on their local weather. I was talking to a race controller during the season about the races and he was saying that in some cases it does not matter what the weather is like because some fanciers will send no matter what. There is no doubt that a lot of pigeons are lost because they are not ready for the job and at some point most of us can own up to that. We look in the loft to see what we can send on a marking night and then when we have selected them look again and pick others out with thoughts such as “It’s only a short land race they can go” and then proceed to send pigeons that would have been better left in the loft. The problem is if they come up against a harder race than expected many fail to reach home and fanciers sit there scratching their head asking themselves why they have not come home.
Don’t always blame the race controllers and convoyers because it is very often the fault of the fancier for entering the pigeons in the first place that are not in the right condition to go. Yes I do agree that there are times when pigeons have been tipped up when they should not have been, panic has set in because the transporters have to be back home for the next race. That is not something that happens on a regular basis but has been known to happen in the past and we do wonder when they are liberated in some of the conditions they have been let out in. I must add that in general race controllers and convoyers do a good job for their organisations and they are let down by the predicted weather forecasts.
Let’s move on from that subject, I was talking to the Mid Cheshire Fed secretary John Allbutt recently about the future and he said the clubs are getting smaller and there are not enough birds to go round. This is an ever growing problem and over the years there have been far too many clubs allowed to form when there are clubs in the area, they being formed because someone cannot win or have their own way against the majority in a democratic vote. Instead of forming new clubs they would be better off working harder and they would appreciate the results they achieve against better competition. You need good fliers in clubs/federations to give the rest something to aim for and when that was the case in Middlewich many years ago everyone did better in the bigger races. Before Dennis Gleave passed away we all had someone to aim for and this made everyone put more into their pigeons and they achieved good results. There are a good group of fanciers in Middlewich as there are all clubs but there has to be a target to get the best out of fanciers and if that target is not there others ease off and that is not what the pigeons need. Once you do ease off it means you are putting less into the pigeons and that reflects on the performances. We also have the other angle that fanciers look at racing pigeons and that is in the National racing where fanciers don’t compete because they think they are not good enough but that is not the case. I always work on the basis that “If you don’t compete you will never know” there are many fanciers out there who are good enough and if they had a go they would at some point gain good results. The sport is now in the position where there are many small clubs who do not have the members to make it all worthwhile but you can still compete for the federation.
I was talking to Geoff Bebbington on this subject and he was saying that pigeon racing has got to the position where they should have a central marking station for the federation. I understand what he is saying because some clubs have got to the position where there are not the members to send and the federation loses out. Going even further in the Mid Cheshire Fed they now have channel races where some clubs don’t even send because there is a lack of support. However if they had a central marking station where they could mark and have a pool system it would be worth competing for all the members. They would have something to aim for and to go to the next level and what is there to stop those federation members as a ground entering into the Nationals. I am confident that fanciers would get far more satisfaction out of their racing, we need to move forward in the sport and to do that we need to make changes because of the decline that we are experiencing. We do have the two local feds more or less covering the same area and joined together they would make a good organisation to race in but there are so many different feelings between some of the members it is highly unlikely to happen. I very often hear about this happening in other areas so it is not just in the local area where there are clubs with not enough members to make the send worthwhile it is all over the country.
What are we going to do over the winter months, no doubt the usual, go to meetings and not really make any significant changes that will take pigeon racing forward. I know there is a feeling that to get anything done there are too many steps from the everyday club fancier to the top RPRA meetings to get any significant changes made. The reason is some areas don’t have the same problems as others and that will never change. Fanciers see things differently from one area to another so one stops another’s progress. We need a team of 5 people to get and come up with the answer but that is never going to happen. Why, because some areas of the sport will want certain people being on that 5 man committee. You can bet they are going to be the same people who are not helping the required changes to be done at the present moment therefore we are always going to be in a stalemate position. My problem is I eat, sleep and drink pigeons and I will get up in the middle of the night because I cannot sleep thinking about what is required in what I am doing and more importantly what is needed in pigeon racing to go forward. Next morning I have heard Elizabeth say many times, “What got you out of bed in the middle of the night this time” then when I tell her I finish off with something like, “No matter what I say major changes will not happen because the people in the positions to change are stuck in their ways and won’t listen” and that is fact, they always have a reason why significant changes cannot be made. Yes I know I have a business in pigeon racing but I built it with the fanciers in mind and it works well. But my main concern has always been the welfare of pigeon racing and no individual is higher than that even though they think they are. I have probably mentioned this before but I once applied for a job in the sport and was way down the list and when I heard who the others were I had a good laugh to myself. A few years later I was talking to a well known and respected fancier within the sport and I asked him why I got no further with my application. He said and there was another top fancier there to back me up, “You didn’t go any further because they know you get on with the job and do it well and they don’t want that they need to hold the strings” and that is what is wrong in the sport. Anyway just me having a good old moan about the sport I have always loved so much and also talking to so many people over the year that is how many of the everyday fanciers feel and not just me.
Below is the reply received when I contacted Countryfile.
Dear Mr Parkinson,
Thank you for getting in touch with us here at Countryfile. I am sorry you felt we were wrong in our look at the State of Nature Report. We did ask the lead author about the rise in predators in the film and he agreed that it was part of the problem, but not a big part I am afraid. We tried very hard to show that farmers had not done this on purpose, indeed they were following government policy at a time when Westminster was worried about food security and the country going hungry after the war. We were trying to show it was a different time and a different attitude rather than wildlife being destroyed for no good reason. Indeed the farmer and son we featured to highlight those changing attitudes were very happy with the result. Once again if you were unhappy with the film, I do apoliogise.
Yours
Alex Baxter Producer, Countryfile
