The Joe Murphy Column
‘A few things worth thinking about’ by Major Neilson Hutton; Firstly, I must apologies for not keeping this story going on a weekly basis, but with our daughter taken into St John’s hospital for a major operation. I have not had a spare moment to sit down and continue with the story; I hope fanciers will understand. Some are convinced that part of the trouble is the clashing of convoys homing to widely different destinations. The number of pigeons racing every week has increased and it is only when the races reach around the 200-mile mark that the travelling pigeons are broken up into small batches to negotiate the bottlenecks created by the hills of Cumberland, Westmorland and those within Scotland itself. The federations at their AGM’s settle by popular vote their programme of races and dates with little regard to what others are doing. Surely some liaison between neighbouring feds, would prove helpful. The formation of a loose combine for the early races with separate liberations would be worth trying, while from the financial angle a tight combine could take over later on. Now that Road Transport has taken over there seems little point of transporters making a long journey half-full. One would think that the success which had attended the old established Scottish Central Combine would encourage other federation groups to get together. Years ago, the old quarrels and rivalries kept some federations at loggerheads with each other, but surely the younger fanciers are still being influences by these. It is quite possible that some federation officials are reluctant to surrender some of their power and influence to other preferring to be big fish in a small pond. The racing pigeon unions of most countries where pigeon racing is carried on are members of the International Federation. This International organisation had carried out a number of surveys and experiments in connection with the sport and have issued their reports. The space at my disposal will only allow me to make a few observations on their findings which I hope will be interesting and informative to the reader. While to most fanciers the fact that pigeons can be trained to fly at night is not new; one or two conclusions reached from the Federations experiments are very significant. The conclusions reached were that pigeon do not guide themselves by the East, nor by the Sun or for that matter from visual memory as propounded by some theories. This nocturnal orientation which permits pigeons to blindly direct themselves toward the area of their lofts is in complete accord with the hypotheses that they are guided by waves set up by the district (zone) in which the pigeons concerned have their habitat. My experience has been both in normal civilian racing and in the variety of conditions met with in the Army, I believe that the further pigeons are away from their lofts, the less time do they take to clear off in the right direction for home. Yet when liberated close to their loft they will clear off and then come back again perhaps several times before disappearing for good. This pattern of behaviour is in keeping with the idea that pigeons become attuned to whatever it is being given off from the zone where picking up the signals from this zone and flying towards it. A long distance away these signals and the zone and flying towards it. A long distance away these signals and the zone and flying towards it, a long distance away these signals decrease the zone increases in size until the voyaging pigeon is completely surrounded by the signals thus being deprived of this means of orientation and from then on has to depend on visual memory. This means of course that pigeons liberated close to their lofts have to depend on their visual memory built up from past experience in training and racing. I have worked on this idea for a long number of years now but do not think that we have the complete picture as yet. It is encouraging to me to know that the international experimenters from two different experiments carried out by different people have provided confirmation of my own conclusion regarding the probable means by which pigeons navigate themselves to their home zone. Whatever it is that creates and attraction I have the notion that its strength varies from time to time and day to day. Have you ever noticed in our Scottish National raced that one-year fanciers in one district de exceedingly well yet at another time not one of them are in the hunt or at lease well up. We know that certain weather conditions may and certainly do favour one section at the expense of another, but this phenomenon of which I write operates irrespective of which section has the advantage or disadvantage on any particular day. Furthermore, if you care to study SNFC race results over several years you will observe it not unusual to find birds belonging to an area or club being timed very close to one another, while a club or area close at hand draws a blank. An example of this I could not help noticing the success of the members of the Coalburn Club in the SNFC race from Rennes 1967. There are no less than 10 birds timed between 4-07 and 4-37pm this being exactly half an hour, and they had 14 birds all told in the money. The positions taken by these first ten birds were as follows; 4th section 22nd open; 7th section 27th open; 10th section 31st open; 24th section 59th open; 26th section 63rd open; 29th section 67th open; 30th section 68th open; 35th section 79th open 38th section 84th open and 41st section 87th open. During these vital 30 minutes the neighbouring clubs Douglas Water and Lesmahagow who usually do very well; had one bird each; the Lesmahagow bird winning 9th section 30thopen and the Douglas Water bird winning 23rd section 58th open. Another feature of the Coalburn club members success was the age of their winning pigeons. There were 4 x 2-year-olds; 3 x 3-year-olds; 2 x 4-year-olds and one 5-year-old. One of the experiments was to follow a convoy of racers from a plane trying to keep them in sight from start to finish. Here I was rather disappointed that the distance flown were not given. They found that pigeons did not fly as many migrant birds do, some in an inverted V formation with an obvious leader or in a line one behind the other. Pigeons on liberation rise and circle as they gather into a complete group. There being no leader, they all seem to want to be ahead of each other forming a large front in a crescent moon formation. The observers have never seen a single pigeon forge ahead of the other members of its group and go off on its own, but have found birds breaking away from the extremities of the crescent and others loitering behind apparently unable to keep up with the others. They found that pigeons under normal conditions fly at between 100 and 150 feet and will not rise to fly over an obstacle if they can fly round it. I can vouch for the fact that they do not like flying high, having liberated scores of pigeons from many different types of planes and using several different methods to get them clear of the plane. Once clear of the slipstream and into what we might term undisturbed air they drop rapidly to house or tree top level. As a race progresses the original large crescent shaped flock start to break up into smaller groups. This process is helped by the division created during the negotiation of obstacles met on route. In tail wind pigeons fly much higher than usual, so they do not meet so many obstacles to divide them. In consequence they tend to remain in much larger flocks and reach their home zone in large numbers, whereas in a head wind they fly close to the ground making use of all the shelter they can from the wind and if their journey is a long one, every obstacle they meet with tends to divide them and single birds become isolated with the result they arrive home one by one. Cross winds have much the same effect and in addition they tend to drift the pigeons off their true course. On such day’s pigeons arrived from the direction into which they have been pushed by the wind. Regarding the effects of Radar, Radio, and large centres producing electrical power, no evidence was observed of any hesitation or deviation from their course by the travelling pigeons which passing over or near such centres. Disasters are usually the result of human error plus the unforeseeable deterioration of the atmospheric conditions en route. Meteorology is making steady progress and may very soon be able to warn of disasters. There is another type of disaster; what it is and what brings it about is a mystery. Experienced convoyer’s and controllers will all have had some experience of this mysterious phenomenon. The sky is clear and visibility good with a favourable forecast-the race controllers and convoyer’s have no hesitation in deciding to liberate their charges. The pigeons clear alright and in fact the next convoy for release has already taken to the air when the first birds liberated came back and circle round while the second lot appear to cleared, but soon over the race point are a host of pigeons flying to and fro in all directions. Gradually their numbers decrease as small batches are seen clearing in all directions. I believe that in one of the early young bird races this season the birds were coming back after appearing to have cleared. A friend of mine during the war was stationed at one of the popular race points in the Midlands and one morning witnessed the liberation of several Scottish federation birds. The birds cleared normally but over an hour later they came back and kept circling the race point. By this time the convoyer’s concerned were on the train on their way home totally unaware of what had happened. In fact, there were birds still flying about around as darkness fell. The reason which so upsets the pigeons’ normal powers of orientation with such disastrous effect is a mystery. The report’s conclusions are that trial liberations should be made before a general release of the race birds is decided and if these control releases are unsatisfactory, then some method of warning other convoys in the vicinity should be made. Personally, I feel that when a disaster happens the details should be sent to the Met Office immediately. Data collected from these reports may prove useful in determining the reason for these disasters and of finding means to avoid them in the future, not to mention increasing our knowledge of another angle to this ever-fascinating sport. See photograph of Major Hutton to go with this report which was first published in 1968.
Major A Neilson Hutton International Known Author
Pentland Hills Federation
Before I highlight the news from Barry Kinnear and Andy Miller with the Trophy Winners from the federation for the 2024 season; I have to apologies for the lateness of these appearing. I have not had a lot of spare time lately; due to traveling to visit our daughter and spending most of the day keeping her company. As she has been on crutches and therefore required help with some chores etc. which Margaret had carried out for her. Plus, we also took a couple of days away to Arbroath to see our grandchildren and also to try and relax. So, to the above 2 fanciers Andy & Barry my apologies for the lateness in publicising your result.
The Backpath Lofts Old Bird Average was won by K Wright of Danderhall velocity 1324.09. The Marshall Winter Memorial Trophy for Young Bird Average was won by A Baillie Danderhall velocity 1298.89.
The Bobby Graham Memorial Trophy for the Combine Average won by Black & Robertson of Danderhall velocity 1299.62.
The Maidstone Old Bird Federation Open trophy to K Wright of Danderhall 1st Open. He also won the 4 Longest Old Bird Races Average with a velocity of 1310.46
The Old Bird Points trophy was on by F & W Robertson of Danderhall with 28 points.
Newark - (relocated to Bubwith) young bird federation Open; the birds were returned home to the marking stations due to inclement weather.
The 1st Federation – SNFC Gold Cup winners were W Kinnear & Son of Danderhall who won 8th section 46th open. The A.M. Pringle Memorial Trophy for the Best Average Federation Maidstone & SNFC Gold Cup won by W Kinnear & Son of Danderhall velocity 893.42.
The 3 Longest Young Bird Races Average won by A Baillie of Danderhall velocity 1297.68
News of the Kettering race flown on 13th September with 25 lofts sending 216 birds. Taking the first 3 places plus 7th are Helen Aitken & Sons of Woodburn club. A Walker of Danderhall is 4th with A Baillie winning 5th & 9th places. Black & Robertson are 6th & 10th with G Cameron of Easthouses winning 8th place. The federation wish sincere thanks to Freddie Robertson for providing the federation with the use of his transporter free of charge on 31st August and the 7th September says secretary Helen.
Jim Hannah Montage
Danderhall Racing Pigeon Club; held their Kettering Open young bird race with 28 members prepaying 141 birds; the actual entry was 18 members sending 108 birds. These were liberated on Friday 13th September (SNFC) with a 9-00am into a light south west wind. Taking top spot was Newcombe & Black of Traprain club winning £350.00; A Walker of Danderhall is 2nd winning £752.50; J McNeil of Traprain wins 3rd 12th & 13th places winning £227-50p; Black & Roberton of Danderhall are 4th winning £1021-50p; A Baillie of the same club wins 5th lifting £262-50p; A Walker from the same club wins 6th plus £145-30p; The Winter Family also from Danderhall club win 7th & 8th positions plus £154-90p. W Kinnear & son wins 9th & 14th open winning £75; Sinclair Thomson & son of Traprain club are 10th winning £45; S & S Tierney of Danderhall are 11th winning £40; with Jim McNeil of Traprain club winning 12th & 13th places plus £65; 15th position is won by F & W Roberson who won £20. The Annual Jocky Brown Memorial Trophy (yearlings) was won by A S Thomson & Son. The Annual Sporting Challenge Trophy (Young Birds) won by Newcombe & Black; The Joe Murphy Trophy for the best average from the 2 races won by the Winter Family. My thanks to Andy Miller who has supplied me with the Federations results on a weekly basis, cheers mate.
Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE or you can also view online editions on: www.elimarpigeons.com www.fancierchat.co.uk www.pigeon-chat.co.uk - www.Pigeonbasics.com - Pigeon Racing the Basics! - thecanadianpigeoninternational.com www.internationalracingpigeon.com Who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland?
© Compiled by Joe Murphy