STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

Blandford YBs 2012

Well time has certainly marched on with the young bird programme and it will soon be over. It seems as if it has just started but with the fed starting a week later because of bad weather and a race being cancelled also because of bad weather, it seems to have been a bit of a rather abbreviated season. There is no doubting you cannot beat the weather and that is one of the most important aspects of racing. It does ultimately determine in a lot of cases the actual winner, although first class birds will always shine regardless. The race controllers have been really forward thinking about the young birds’ welfare because with no young birds there will be no future lofts and at present it is hard enough to try and build up a good old bird team. This year for most folks has been the worse racing season that can be remembered. I have spoken to a few elderly gentlemen who say that this is the worse year that they can remember for about 50 years with them suffering the worse losses ever. It has been a widespread thing over the whole of the UK this year if you read some of the reports in the pigeon magazines or look at some of the quotes on the vast array of pigeon websites that have sprung up over the years, and everybody is nearly in the same boat and that being they have lost a lot if not all the best birds they had.

You can hear a lot of stories and one of the most popular that I have heard is that the Olympic Games has been blamed for a lot of the losses purely because of the vast amount of radio waves that are in the air with all the security that has gone on. There certainly has been an increase of air wave security because of terrorist threats and also huge media coverage and all this is being sent through cyberspace. But none of this can be proved as the cause. Also hawks get the blame for everything that gets lost racing and this is most definitely not the cause in my opinion. OK, hawks will do a lot of damage but there is no way they can be blamed for all the losses. Older and wizened men I have spoken with [excluding JL Gibb] seem to think a lot of it is down to the fact that some of the birds are just not up to it health-wise because they think too many birds are being bred which are only to make up numbers. I suppose all of us are guilty of this at some point but ultimately there are also a lot of very good birds that are lost for no apparent reason. So what is the answer? If I knew that I suppose I would be a very clever man because nobody can come up with a conclusive theory. I have also read in magazines about things like the solar flares and the K-index that gets the blame at certain times of the year but again when someone predicts that there will be bad losses on a certain week when these things are predicted to be high then why if that is the case do certain feds have excellent returns and others have bad ones? That is one theory that I disregard because it never works out the way it is predicted and no matter how bad the weather is there will always be birds that make it home on the correct time. There will always be someone who has near perfect returns and there will be his club mates at the same race who suffer bad losses and there is no explanation for that. Well none that I know that is a fool proof reason.

There is another theory which baffles me and that is the so called fool proof idea of eye sign where the experts are 100% sure that they know just by looking at a bird’s eye if is going to win a race or not and also they deem this to be an accurate way of predicting what will breed a fantastic winning bird. Why then if they are so sure they can predict a winner do they send loads of birds to a race? If I was certain I could say which bird of mine was going to win the race then I would only send that when instead they send loads of birds which cost them a lot of money. No the only thing that I worry about with eye-sign is the fact that I want my birds to have two eyes, one on each side of their head and that is the only thing I want to know about eye sign! But this season nearly every body that I have spoken with or heard about has lost vast amounts of young birds and if this carries on much longer I think pigeon racing will eventually become a thing of the past. I do personally know a few folk who are finishing up this year because of the birds they have lost and it is a bit soul destroying when you put a lot of time and effort into breeding and racing only to lose most of them. My wife and I have lost about 24 youngsters this year but strangely enough we never lost a single bird while training, they were all lost at races. One of our members lost a vast amount of his birds before he even got to a race but I suppose we put up with these things because we love racing.

I don't think if racing continues this way, by this I mean the losses that we will carry on regardless because my wife loves every bird we have and she gets very upset when we lose birds. Now she tries to stay away from the race birds because she does not want to get attached to them but even so she still gets upset when any get lost and I suppose for the first time I am starting to feel the same way as her. There are also pigeon men who don't care less what happens to some of them and it is no use thinking they do not exist because they most certainly do. I have encountered a few of them, especially when you report a stray and you get the same old story. You could write a book of the excuses that are spun to you when they will tell you anything except they want the pigeon sent for, but on the other hand we have met some fanciers who have been extremely grateful when you report a bird of theirs. So like a coin, there are two sides to everything about fanciers. Lately I have seen a lot of birds being reported by non fanciers who do their best to get lost birds home and we ourselves have had a few birds reported to us by non fanciers. They are delighted when you arrive to pick your bird up and they seem interested to know all about the bird and where it was and why did it get lost. It is a pleasure to tell these folks all about the bird but again there are two sides to fanciers regarding speaking to non fanciers who have done the right thing by reporting the birds. I know of some cases where these non fanciers have been treated dreadfully by these so called pigeon fanciers. I have read stories such as that on pigeon sites and I think there was an apology recently in the BHW by the RPRA because of a fancier who was abusive to a member of the public who was only trying to help. And we wonder why some of the general public look down on fanciers and also why some folk look on pigeons as flying rats! There should be no questions or anything, if a member of the public has rescued one of your birds you should be extremely grateful and get it back as soon as possible and thank them very much.

Also if you send birds to a race you should be expected to get them back if they go astray and if you genuinely cannot afford to do this then the simple answer is do not send them to a race. Yes I know it can be expensive if you lose a few but there is no excuse at all. If you send it then it is your responsibility to it them back. We ourselves have spent a bit of money on repatriating lost youngsters, not to mention the petrol and time used for picking up some as well but we are always grateful to get any back. We never got any of our old birds reported at all and we would have been glad of getting a few of them back but we have had a few young birds working back. Just before I started writing this, a young bird landed on the loft so we are hoping that in time a few more will work back. Most years you will get the odd one working back when racing is over and for us racing is now finished for the year and the birds are now confined as there is no point in losing birds needlessly at home. Having said that, the birds all have a large aviary at the front so they get plenty fresh air all winter and on sunny days they can sit out on the branches we have across that do for perches.

Maybe I should now get on with this young bird racing and the fed was at Blandford where 88 members sent 1526 birds. As would be expected in this wind, the winners would be on the east side and this proved to be the case but with not so many as I had expected to be at the top of the fed. Having a fantastic race were R&J Goodwin and son from Ipstones taking the first three places on 1542 and two on 1541 and another on 1508 with the next two places also going to the east with Prince bros from Alton on 1517 and 1516. Next were Mackirdy bros also from Ipstones on 1508.5 followed by Proctor bros from Milton on 1503. Mcgraw, Clegg and Preece from Berryhill were next on 1502 and tenth fed place went to Kev Bowers from Maclesfield on 1501. So there we have the top ten and some very good results in there. Well done to everybody who sent to this race.

Onto some club notes now starting again with Ipstones where nine members sent 168 birds and taking first two places here are R and J Goodwin and son on 1745 and 1727, J White on 1723 [nice to see you nearly at the top] then Burton and Jones on 1713. Macclesfield now where 8 sent 159 pigeons and taking first and second is Kev Bowers on 1501 and 1500, the first birds being sent paired up and is a bird bred by club sec Bernie Barrett, a Janssen from his stock loft x with Louella lines. The second bird is a hen returning to the perch and is a home bred Soontjen x Shellens with both parents being prize winners. Rick and Simon Geary are third on 1492 with a cock sent semi widowhood and is home bred, a Soontjen x Huybregt which is out their good stock birds. Fourth is Ben Walton on 1481 and they missed Ben at HQ so there are no details of the bird but Ben is putting together a nice team of birds and hopefully he will be among the prizes in the future. Hayfield now where 6 members sent 169 birds and taking a well deserved first and second was Chris Mourne on 1406 and 1308. Dropping down to an unusual third place is J L Gibb on 1376 and fourth place went to Hayfield’s oldest father Steve Warhurst on 1312; he must be taking wheatgerm oil on his cereal. Packmoor now where they have had a good race with Jeff having 100% returns but well off the pace [his words] and in first place was A Cliff on 1483.9. Next was W Burgess on 1483.7, third were T Woolrich and son on 1473 and fourth were Walley and Wilkinson on 1440. J & R Mclatchie won the first share of the pools plus the nom and A Cliff won the second share of the pools which will be tucked away in Andy's Xmas fund.

Well that is all for now and the fed moves on to its longest inland race next week from Poole. I hope everybody will support the fed in this race as it has been a hard season for young birds but hopefully a lot of members will want the birds down to the coast.

If you have anything for me you should know by now how to get in touch and good luck for the remainder of the season. The more birds that are sent the more money that the fed will have in the coffers for next year and now is the time that clubs should be starting to think about next year and have some members ready to put their names forward for any positions that might be vacant next year. It would be great if the positions already held, were held next year by the same folk as they are doing a great job at present. Bye from TG.