Wings in flight 2023 with Les J Parkinson
In the 80’s I set about gathering information on racing pigeons and the distances that they are most likely to win at. This was based on the way we used to race pigeons at that time, but that has now changed because of the way fanciers now feed and train their birds has improved considerably. Yes, I believe the wing theory doesn’t work the same for the fanciers who are at the top of their game. Obviously, it all depends on where in the country you live and what distances on land you can get to, that may sound odd, but it isn’t. Why? Because the other major point is who is racing those pigeons because there are sprint lofts who don’t move out of their comfort zone and are careful where and when they send their birds, I don’t blame them, that is their enjoyment, they do have pigeons for all conditions in their lofts. I remember talking to the late Denis Gleave about competition and why he only sent to a few races against the fanciers racing on the Manchester side of the club, I was green on this point in those days. Denis looked at me and smiled so I left it at that, he didn’t tell many people much about racing pigeons, a few but not many. Anyway, getting back to the wings and distances they would race and more importantly win from. I remember the winning days of Denis and he did win; he was one of the best in the country at the time. He had pigeons for all distances, and I didn’t handle a lot, but what I did handle I took note of their wings. He had a few good pigeons that never went further than the coast about 180mls. Then he had pigeons that went across the channel, and as I recall they had much bigger back wings. Over the years I have visited many fanciers both here and, on the continent, and handled a lot of big winners, the wing does matter. This was that original article, and I had emails from publishers of other pigeon magazines asking if they could use it and none were in the UK but much further afield, I should have charged them instead of getting a free copy when it was published. This was the article as it appeared and on reflection I probably should have brought out before instead of the other one because of the in-depth information included.
“Over the last 28yrs I have written many articles under various names about different aspects of racing pigeons and the sport in general, I think that now is the time to re-evaluate those ideas on what I have seen over the years during many loft visits. I have touched on the wing and the theories that surround it in my notes and as promised I am going into more detail mainly for the comparative new starters of the last 10 to 15yrs. There is no doubt about it the flight of a bird has come a long way since the first known bird in flight which was the Archaeopteryx whose fossils were found in limestone in the Southern part of Germany in 1861. The fossil is thought to be from 140 million years ago, how they come to that conclusion I have no idea however this fossil did give the ornithologist an insight into the first birds of flight because the fossil did have both reptile and avian characteristics. Even so the new breed of animal (the bird) did not develop a great deal over the next 25 million years but then when it did change different species began to evolve. The evolution of birds and their survival rate has made them one of the outstanding forms of life in the world; they see everything from the air and survive in all sorts of conditions on all continents. Over the years different birds have developed and their wings became suited to the requirements of that line. The racing pigeon is no different it has changed considerably over the years and has become suited to the distances it is expected to cover. What suites one fancier in the breeding for a distance may not suit another, which is why every fancier cannot have a team of birds to cover all eventualities? If they did there would be no real challenge to racing pigeons. The wing of the racing pigeon is no different from any other part of this racing machine, which is generally developed to near perfection. There have been many theories over the years and through extensive breeding to near perfection of the distance that the pigeon is required to fly. Experienced fanciers have bred pigeons for their preference in racing i.e. the wing for the sprinter or which in the modern day of racing can be anything up to 350mls. Years ago, such a distance was classed as middle distance but with the improved knowledge gained by the observant fancier the sprint distance has been increased. This also applies to the middle distance of 250 to 400mls; these races have been covered by more and more pigeon's yearly. In fact, if you do not clock on the day from 400mls then something is wrong. The long-distance races are upwards of 550mls where the numbers clocked are considerably reduced unless you get favourable conditions, even so there are fanciers who clock from such distances with a greater degree of regularity. After 600mls we are practically always looking at second day birds. We know that the Central Southern have this idea of "At dawn we go". However, there are very few pigeons that will do that kind of distance on the day from such places as Pau even to the South Coast where they are covering a band of 500 to 525mls to the shorter flying members. I have very often thought of how many pigeons try to make it across the water late at night and fail to reach their destination. Most of the racing done in Britain is on land because for the majority of fancier's there are good races without crossing the water. Obviously depending on where your loft is situated you can get a couple of hundred miles plus on either North or South Road points. For those fanciers living in the central part of the Country the racing is good because they can get a good land race before crossing the channel which they then get in the last two thirds of the race. Now for the Southern fanciers who want to race the Nationals it is unfortunate that they must get their birds across the water early in their season if they are to succeed in the big races. We were down at a Blandford lofts many years ago for a Guernsey race and could not believe the problems that the Southern fanciers have from such a short race. What we must remember is that the velocity of a particular race will also have a bearing on the winners as will the wind which is why so much must be considered when you are preparing pigeons for sprint, middle- or long-distance races. Why should this be, well on a hard day with the vel's dropping to 1000ypm we generally find that the fanciers who do well in the longer events are higher up the result sheet? That makes a big difference to the way we pair the pigeons and that is why we should be very selective with our choice. We must never make the mistake of rating a pigeon as an all-rounder on the strength of one win in the longer events if it has a proven track record on land but never raced across the water. If you do class a pigeon as an all-rounder, then you must consider the vels on the day as well as the distance. It is a fact that some fanciers will not put a pigeon into a channel race that has a good track record in the land races; this is wise because the pigeon is only built for sprint races in the first place and the wing theory will tell you that this pigeon is not going to make the distance. So, what have we picked up so far with the wing theory, the main point being consideration to the conditions of the day? I remember winning a 120ml race when I was working at Foden Trucks at Sandbach and every lunchtime we would sit around and have an inquiry about all sorts of things. One Monday in the early days I went in as pleased as punch because I had won the race on the Saturday that was until the late George Stubbs pulled me up saying that you cannot class a pigeon as being good after winning in a tail wind. Which brings us back to the wing theory and which wing suits which distance? Because no matter how much the comment hurt at the time, he was right, and it makes you wonder just how much some of the top fanciers know and keep it to themselves. Now having read that let’s go back to the new introduction to the article.
Picture one Picture 1. Dark Hen winner of prizes to nearly 500mls and has been twice 2nd Niort. |
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Picture two Picture. 2. Is a sprint wing and when the pigeon was tested at 300mls he took rather longer |
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Picture three Picture 3, This is a wing that will put any bird up amongst the winners up to 400 to 450mls |
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Picture four Picture 4. The wing of the out and out distance pigeon which has a complete full back wing |
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Picture 5 Is of what many call the chicken wing that is misused in a lot of photos, why because the |
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If you look at the birds that soar high above in search of food such as the eagles, vultures, buzzards, and seagulls etc they all have big back wings which effectively keeps their use of energy to a minimum. When you look at the birds that fly long distances in migration, they all have big back wings in comparison to their body. In the pigeon world we have fanciers who have a preference to distance racing, and they breed for that purpose which leads to this type of full wing. Pigeons, like birds that are migrating know that geologically they have a big task ahead of them with the distance that they must cover and therefore they do not put all the energy into the faster wing beat. The problem that the pigeon has with flight is that it is a high cost of energy, which is why the sprinter who puts in the faster wing beats cannot cover the longer distance races. I was once in conversation with a local fancier about one of his pigeons and the wing theory and the term came up "Chicken Wing" and that proved to be his best 500ml pigeon, again the full back wing that a pigeon needs to cover greater distances. You can make the chicken wing by pulling the wing right open but that is not the position of the wing when the bird is in flight. There are many fanciers who would like to race from the longer race points but very rarely get the bird’s home. The reason for that is, they are racing their birds in the shorter events and breeding off those that get amongst the prize winners but for the longer races you must be more patient if you are going to get into the big league of National and International racing. Now what happens with the fanciers who successfully race the distance is they are selective with their breeding and only breed from the pigeons who have set a standard of racing which will lead to success in the longer events.
The steady pigeon that has the breeding will always come through. There are odd occasion's when the distance pigeon will produce a sprint to middle distance pigeon and when this arises, and you look back through the breeding you will see that this has happened before and therefore a throwback. These throwback pigeons will not necessarily produce the distance pigeon even though they have come from the distance pigeon in the first place. This is where you get all distance loft coming into its own. One thing always infuriates me when you go to the pigeon shows and there is a competition on selection of wings for what distance. In the first place I have no idea who takes the pigeons picture of the wings, but they should learn how a bird uses it's wing before they take the next one, then take the photo and ask the question. Taking a photo of a wing that is being stretched out to put it in its full context is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard in a nursery, if you are going to do it get it right and there is no danger of misinterpretation. Always remember that at the end of the day the fanciers must know what they are doing or else you will not get anywhere. Knowledge is helpful but not what we need to win the race. What does matter is how you put that knowledge into use” Brought back memories of some good birds I used to race especially photo 4 he was a real good cock who flew some races for me that I most enjoyed from the distance in the National. I have always thought to myself, if this cock had been in the hands of a fancier who knew the distance inside out, he would have been in the books as one of the all-time great pigeons ever to grace the sky. When you look back at racing and the pigeons you have had there are always those who stand out. Mine would be a pigeon I called “Elimar Joe 90” he was a Chequer Krauth cock bred in 82 and named by Kenny Latham. The other is wing number 4 in this article, a cock who found distance racing so easy, I am talking near 700mls in the NFC. Moving on to the present day, do I still agree with what I wrote all those years ago. The answer is yes because I wrote that for the fancier who wants to race from the short to the long-distance races and enjoy what they are doing. I also agree with the fanciers who want to compete in the sprint races up to 300mls, that is what they enjoy doing so why change. Up until Covid and then the changes in how we race across the channel, more fanciers were getting an odd bird further down the road. Covid and getting involved with DEFRA has ruined our channel racing because many don’t want to be bothered with all the paperwork and what we need to do. However, that doesn’t alter the fact that the wing theory is a very good guidance to those who want to start at 60mls and still be having a go at 650/700mls and enjoy what they are doing. Until I looked, I didn’t realise that it was nearly 40yrs ago since I wrote the original article. It is going to be interesting to see how the birds that I have go on, they were al bred in 2023 from various fanciers. What I can say is that since I thought about reproducing this article I have been going into the loft and looking at the wings of the pigeons quite a lot. There are some DVDB in there and they mostly have the sprint wing, there are also some off direct Syndicate Lofts birds, and they are a mix of sprint to long distance racing. After each session of looking at the pigeons I have come back into the house and looked at how they went on racing. It was interesting because most of the birds towards the front were sprint type wings. The problem for me, is time on my side, I am of course referring to building a team in the end section to compete in the 600/700ml races, I don’t want to throw them away. I have retained the original photos because they were the wings, I originally wrote about, and they have done what is described in the details. We all have an opinion of all aspects of pigeon racing, who right and who is wrong gives scope for discussion.
Les J Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel 01606836036
Mobile 07871701585.
Email; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web site www.elimarpigeons.com