L J Parkinson

Well, the old birds have come to an end, after a lot of work and over 20 training tosses, they did not do what I expected them to do. Was it a trial worth doing, yes it was because I now have the experience that I can use in the future. Plus, I would expect others to have learned from my experience and the writing I have done through this, what can only be described as an experiment. Yes, I got a few to their first race but that proved to be unsuccessful, so after writing so much about it I will draw a line under the old birds and concentrate on the young birds. They are a part of pigeon racing that we cannot do without because they are the future of any racing loft. I have a 24ft loft with 35 young bird perches and three sections with 12 boxes in each. Unless I decide to race widowhood, I will not be using all the boxes in each section, famous last words on boxes against birds housed. For the rest of this year the 12 boxes in each section will be converted into 24 perches with a “T” piece in each box for about 16 young birds in each section. That will give me room for about 60 young birds with enough perches empty to satisfy their needs.

The first session of freedom for the young birds was on the 14^th May when the 51 established youngsters all came out and surveyed their surroundings. Less than half went for a fly, but they had their first experience of freedom from the loft. The only issue was three of them would not go into the loft and spent the night sitting on the windowsill at the back of the house. All three were back on the loft roof the next morning so all was well after their first home liberation, they did enter the loft when the morning feed was taking place.

Ebony has not had her few youngsters out as they are younger than mine and she does not yet have her full quota yet, they will be here in the next two weeks. Six of these were offered by Jimmy Newall to Ebony the first time I mentioned that Ebony was interested in joining the racing pigeon club. If you remember, it was Ebony who got me back into racing pigeons after a blue hen hit the patio window and stunned herself. Ebony saw her and asked if we could keep the blue hen and that brought us back into racing. The one problem I had was that I did not have a decent enough time to breed our own because of the number of pigeons housed down the side of the house. Anyway, we had offer’s straight away, and the loft was soon full of young birds, and we do thank friends and fellow pigeon fanciers for their generosity.

When I was racing before I nearly always brought in 6/10 young birds to add to the team because I always believe that by chance you can come across a future winner or breeder. So, this year I have plenty of those chances to get a few good birds together and if they fly as well as they handle, we could be onto a good thing, all will be revealed as the young bird racing gets under way.

By the time you read these notes I am hoping that all the young birds will have arrived so that we can get them out exercising and ready for the first race. So, we all know, as pigeon fanciers, adding young birds to an already established team can hold proceedings up so this will not affect us because we have two empty sections to put them in. The benefit is I have no old birds, so their sections are available for the next few months.  As the season progresses, we will let everyone know how their birds are going on, let’s hope there are a few winners.

I have now bought a van for training, with Elizabeth and myself having COPD it would not have been wise to put them in the car. Ebony’s dad Steve is doing most of the training, we could not expect to put 5/6 crates in his car, especially with the number of young birds we have, famous last words. I will be able to do some training myself because there is a bulkhead in the van so the smell or any dust is away from the driver, and I do not like driving at all.

Charity

As you know we always have an account where we can put the money for charity birds that we are offered. You will also be aware that we had a clearance sale with the birds from Tony Moglione. We also had birds from Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw, Ray Lunt & Philip Kent. Then we had some from a fancier in South Wales who wants to remain anonymous. We have fanciers donating and others have gone to the previous donation we made. The sales totaled just over £12,000, we are leaving the £200 plus in the account to start our next fund raiser, these are ongoing so you can donate anytime, rest assured 100% goes to charity, my first fund raiser being in 1974.

The presentation took place at Elimar when Tony Moglione and daughter Alison were there to meet Wendy and Naomi from the John Shaw Foundation for Epilepsy.

Wendy was there as a representative and put the following forward. “This morning Naomi (our Treasurer) and I were asked to visit a lovely family and their friends in Middlewich. We helped Evie Moores to get an Embrace 2 seizure watch. As a 'small thank you" the family did some fundraising with a huge amount of support from some pigeon flyers. They donated their racing pigeons for Evie's great grandad to auction off through his business Elimar Pigeon Services. We were presented with a cheque for the money raised. It was a cheque for £12,000, yes £12,000. We couldn't express how grateful we all are. We're going to be able to help so many young people for some time to come. Amazing! and a special thanks to Tony whose grandson has epilepsy, he auctioned off all his pigeons and donated the proceeds to us. THANK YOU”

The reason we chose to run this fundraiser for Epilepsy is because Alicia and Jim’s daughter Evie suffers with this problem. This then brought in Tony and daughter Alison whose son and grandson suffers with the same problem. Over to Alicia & Jim who can tell you more about it and being from a pigeon family why this charity event started.

“On December 1st, 2021, our whole world turned upside down.  Our beautiful daughter Evie who was 11 at the time got ready for high school as normal came downstairs to open her advent calendar and all of a sudden totally out of the blue had a Tonic Clonic Seizure but at the time, we didn't know that's what it was.  An ambulance was called we waited what seemed like a lifetime and spent the rest of the day in hospital. After many different tests we were discharged home & told to watch Evie closely and we would return again in two weeks to see a specialist doctor. Well, that was seventeen months ago, and, in that time, Evie has been diagnosed with Epilepsy after many appointments at Alder Hey and Leighton Hospital.  Evie is still going through different assessments as unfortunately her epilepsy seizures are not yet controlled; we are about to try our fourth medication. In August 2022 I heard about the Jon Shaw Foundation I found the website online & read about all the wonderful things Wendy and her fantastic family and team do all in memory of her beloved son Jon who sadly passed away due to SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy). I got in touch with Wendy & Wendy and her team donated an Embrace 2 Seizure watch for Evie to wear which will let us know when a seizure is detected. As a parent waiting for a seizure to happen is just the worst feeling as there is nothing you can do about it but knowing there is something that Evie can wear that will give us a warning 24/7 even during the night, it's just that peace of mind knowing she is that little bit safer. I've said to Wendy and her team that thank you just isn't enough so as a family we all made the decision that we wanted to do some fundraising for the Jon Shaw Foundation to help other families as we had been helped. So, Evie's Great Grandad Les who owns Elimar Pigeon Services decided that he would do a charity pigeon auction to raise funds for the Jon Shaw Foundation”

(Les) We have been running charity events since 1973, when a few hundred pounds meant a lot to someone in need, and we have continued to help others. We, in the pigeon fraternity, have always been generous to other’s and let’s hope that continues. As I have pointed out Elimar has an account especially for charity so if you decide at any point to donate towards the next charity that we support let us know, all will be appreciated. I would like to thank Evie’s dad Jim for taking the photos (better photographer than me) on the day of the presentation, much appreciated. Also, thanks to Andy Colby for taking the photos of the pigeons which were a great help to the sale. Who knows, the next donation from Elimar to charity might be one that is close to your own heart.

Racing

The South West Cheshire Fed race from Wincanton saw 58 members sending 1,056 birds that were liberated at 2pm in a light north east wind. The first club to cover this week is the Hankelow club where the master does it again. Yes, Joe Glover is 1^st & 2^nd club 1^st & 4^th Fed on 1454/1449ypm finishing ahead of Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw 3^rd & 4^th recording vels on 1443/1442ypm. Next on the fed result are Mr & Mrs Richard Young racing with the Crewe West End where they are 1^st club 2^nd fed on 1451ypm. Richard had Alan Williams hot on his tail coming home 2^nd club 5^th Fed clocking up 1448ypm with fellow club members Bob Humphries 3rd on 1419ypm followed by 4^th placed R Parker on 1397ypm. Winsford HS saw their winners Mike & Keith Hitchin come home with the first 7 in the club to go with 3^rd 7^th 10^th fed with vels of 1454/1449/1443/1442ypm. Jones Bros & Karen Jones from the Middlewich 5B are 1^st club 6^th fed recording a velocity of 1447ypm ahead of M & H Smith who take the next three in the club all on 1446ypm to gain 8^th & 9^th Fed. In the Greenbank FC Martin Williams tops the list with a vel of 1426ypm ahead of John Peever 2^nd & 4^th on 1390/1384ypm being split by Tommy Hulme & Son with a vel of 1385ypm. In the Duddon PFC K W Walker & Sons take the top sport recording a vel of 1431ypm with Adamson & O’Hanlon 2ne on 1411ypm, R Johnson 3^rd with a vel of 1391ypm with K & K Rowland 4^th on 1390ypm. Just one more club to mention and that is the Halmer End FC where Dave Everill had a good race collecting 1^st 2^nd 4^th with vels of 1401/1389/1372ypm. Stopping a clean sweep of the top four positions are P & E Mainwaring whose first bird clocked up 1378ypm.

Let’s move on to the Mid Cheshire Fed who were at Mangotsfield when 117 members sent 2,195 birds to be liberated at 2pm in a light north east wind. Although the velocities were good on the day, I hear that the birds didn’t have it easy with some stretched out on the way home. A name that we see on the fed result with some regularity are Mr & Mrs J Jones from the Kingsway club, this race being no different where they are 1^st club 1^st section 1^st fed with a yearling on 1494ypm. Also, in the same club we have Mr & Mrs Sylvester 2nd club 5^th section 7^th open clocking up 1478ypm with Mr & Mrs Carl Hickman taking the next four positions in the club, section and fed all on 1473ypm. Sankey Bridge winner Steve Cooke had a good race taking the first three in the club plus 2^nd 3^rd 4^th section 2^nd 3^rd 6^th open with vels of 1484/1493/1480ypm. M & H Smith from the Middlewich club had a good race collecting 1^st & 3^rd club 1^st section 4^th open on 1481/1440ypm being split by fellow club members Peter & Dawn Latham on 1456ypm. Eric Taylor tops the result in the Acton Bridge club where he is 1^st & 2^nd club 2^nd & 3^rd section 5^th & 8^th open recording vels of 14801478ypm. Other club winners are John Hankey in the Ashton in Makerfield HS on 1442ypm ahead of A Smallman & Son 2^nd ahead of Hesketh & Wilde 3^rd. In Cheshire FC J Stewart tops the list on 1454ypm while taking the top 3 positions. Another team taking the top 3 are W & P Brown racing in Earlestown FC, their first on 1452ypm with less than a yard between them. In the Frodsham HS Geoffrey Warburton continues to be up there taking the top two positions with the winner being on 1351ypm leaving 3^rd to Sydney Rogers & Son. John Peever takes the top two places in the Greenbank club the winner being on 1438ypm followed by Tommy Hulme & Son 3^rd. in the Leigh & Atherton HS the winning vel is 1438ypm to the loft of J Chadwick ahead of N Bramhall 2^nd and Simon Kennedy 3^rd. Steve Carroll takes the top three in the Lymm FCon 1461ypm.Moving on we go to the Newton FC where B & D Hooper record a vel of 1470ypm top the list ahead on G Smith 2^nd & 3^rd. Over at Rudheath WMHS the winner is D Lowe of 1442ypm while Dave Pritchard is 2^nd and S Herbert & Son Keith 3^rd. Meanwhile the Newton FC sees A Oates take the top spot on 1441ypm with S Spataru finishing in the next two positions. Tyldesley IC saw a clean sweep for P Baker with the top three with a leading vel of 1461ypm. That leaves the last club, alphabetically of course, Wrinehill where Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw take the top three positions with a winning vel of 1458ypm.

Photos

This week’s photos were taken at the charity presentation by Jim Moores.

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