L J Parkinson

The words keep ringing in my ears, “It’s been a long time coming” yes, the loft is up and full of pigeons with help from some good friends and a good job done by Matt Fretwell and his team at Ecco Lofts who jumped in at the last minute to make sure I had a loft to race pigeons too this year. To his word, Matt had the loft up on Wednesday 19^th April just before the second race of the season. I was surprised how fast the lads worked, they were going along at such a rate I basketed the pigeons and moved them in that day, every day is important at this time of the year. I was taking care that only those I felt were worthy of a box going into the new loft. They had all been vaccinated by Peter Latham, so they were quite an easy job to do on this occasion. What we did do as we put them into their new home, and I have to say a proper home for their first time. Anyway, going back to what we did do, that is with the help of Kim was to one spot them and wing stamp them. I needed to get everything up and running on that day because the young birds were arriving with Highflyers the next morning. This was a full day’s work, I think I am getting too old bending up and down picking pigeons up, nice job to do though.

One of the inside of the new Ecco Loft, already running out of space. 

The young bird section is only 6ft with 40 box perches, so I had to use one of the old bird sections because I had too many for their own section. This was not something I wanted to do but the young birds are the future of any loft, so I had to give them space. I have been asked why I was persevering with the yearlings and 2yo’s that had spent their life to date down the side of the house. Well, I am hoping to get a few out of them that will perform well and give me a head start on the longer races. If I didn’t have the old birds, I would be the best part of 2yrs away from where I need to be. In these situations, it’s always handy to know in pigeon racing that there are always people ready to help, and help they do.

Going back to the old birds, when it came to sorting them out, I had been spending time with the old birds, handling them and before the day of moving them the decision was made not to put some in the old bird loft where space was a special place to be. With losing the section to young birds I had to be very selective because before I started, I knew there were far too many for the two remaining sections. What has been nice is to hear from the number of people we know and some we don’t really know, who have been giving us encouragement these last few months, especially when I was down, and things were not going to plan. Yes, I was on about the old birds, when I put them in the two sections there were still too many and the problem was there were far more cocks than hens. So, I decided to leave them for a few days, open the trap and see what happened. I gave them 6 days to survey their surroundings before giving them a chance to cement their place in the loft. As I said the young birds arrived Thursday morning and just after tea, I was told there was a pigeon on the loft, one of the young birds had got through the bob wires, I need a count to see if this one has gone back into the loft, it if is I have my first one flying out, Hehe.

Racing.

The first race of the season saw 102 members of the Mid Cheshire Fed enter 2,006 birds into the Worcester race held on the 15^{th of} April with them being liberated at 10.30am in a light north wind. To me and many more this is a week too early, but it suits those who want to race, and they get an early start in enjoying what they want to do after the winter months and that is race pigeons. Even so the result does show there are top fanciers keen to get going and make a good race of it, which, looking at the result, their goal was achieved. As I type these notes it is the Friday, day of basketing for the second race and I am hearing that there are still a few who are not ready to send their birds, at this rate I will be starting at the same time they are, if I don’t lose them all when I let them out. When I look at the fed result’s I consider the conditions and where the winners are, in this race we had a light north wind, perfect for racing and finding out whose pigeons are fit and ready to go. In this case it was the top winning lofts in the fed for a few years, 1^st 2^nd 7^th & 8^th with vels of 1505/1503/1490/1489ypm go to Ray Lunt racing with the Lymm FC being split by Curtis-Wall-Lunt 3^rd 4tfh 5^th 6^th with 3 on 1501/1500ypm. These pigeons took the first 8 in the North section of the federation against over 1,300 birds from 70 lofts, and I expect them to be the lofts to beat again this year. A prodigy of Ray Lunt’s is Craig Wilkinson with sons Noah and Oscar who are 1st 4^th 7^th 8^th south section with his first being 9^th open 1473ypm. Craig resigned from Middlewich FC but later rejoined so a good decision.

We have Craig Wilkinson’s sons Noah and Oscar, the Grizzle being their section winner.

Making up the top 10 in the open and Kingsway winners Mr & Mrs J Jones on 1471ypm. Other club winners are J Stewart of the Cheshire FC. Mr Sidney Rogers & Son top the list in the Frodsham FC. Tyldesley sees R & D Gaskell leading the way and all those already mentioned too at least the first 3 in their clubs. Other club winners are P&E Mainwaring Halmerend FC. T Adamson Leigh & Atherton HS. B&D Hooper Newton FC. D Lowe Rudheath WMHS. John Hankey Ashton in Makerfield HS. W&P Brown Earlstown FC. M Williams Greenbank. S Spataru Runcorn DHS. M Magee Sankey Bridge HS. D Everill Wrinehill HS.   

Ebony

Remember me writing about Ebony wanting to race pigeons, no one thought she would think about it again after waiting so long. Well, the day after the loft went up, she called round and is going to make herself a member of the local club and race on her own. For this year we are going to have two ETS systems set up and she will race her young birds in what is currently an old bird section. I had a talk to Matt at Ecco Lofts, and he has converted one of the old bird sections for her to fly on her own. All I need now is an ETS base station, we already have the pocket clock and pad. Jimmy Newall said at the time he would breed her 6 youngsters and true to his word, Ebony will shortly have them in her own section.

Home again

Just to let you know, the young bird that got out through the bob wires has returned and gone back in the same way it came out.

Les Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ. Tel: +44 (0)1606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com