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Les J Parkinson - What’s on my mind this week.

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Les J Parkinson - What’s on my mind this week.

What a waste of time for the stock birds this last week has been with something disturbing them, which resulted in 8prs leaving their eggs. What I couldn’t understand was that the top row of three boxes had not gone down at all. As we know the dominant pigeons select the top row, so why have they not laid. Well, I have had all sorts of ideas put my way and the one I favor is the squirrels who are always knocking about around the garden. The reason I say squirrels is because there is no sign of anything climbing up the back of the loft to get in through the vent at the top of the loft. Squirrels could quite easily jump the 3ft from the outer fence onto the loft. I have hopefully cut that entry off with netting all the way across the vent at the back of the loft. I think it’s now a case of seeing if they go down better next time.

Contacts

I get many calls, emails etc. about pigeons and now and again I find one that I want to add to my notes, such as this one.

“Dear Mr Parkinson. Just received my postal copy of BHW today (Monday) Sometimes it comes on a Thursday. How are things today, anyway sad to hear from you and it seems like weeks since you were in print. Do hope you are okay also, the family, it is one thing that can bring us to a stop. Health and Family are so very important and must take precedence over pigeon matters. Hope you will not mind me writing you on pigeon matters, have been reluctant to do so as don’t like my name in print should you want to mention my writings in these parts I am regarded as the idiot, I never do any good with pigeons, but I still enjoy them.

I must refer to subjects you have written about in the past and apologize if I write out of context, multiply clocking’s, I am amused by it but do understand members wanting a print out all of their arrivals but for some it's a way to boost their status and show how many they can beat others with, I don’t mind that. I only clock one and once I have one home, I take my clock out. If I am lucky, I might get on the 2nd page but then I count how many are in after me from the top fanciers that have filled the first page, always an interesting study.

Another subject you once mentioned Ionizers for the loft, obviously thinking of clean air I thought of air extractors and bought two Flettner extractors at £75.00 each! then a 3 &7/8th drill bit plus a drill adapter did not fit my drill. All the Flettner extractors are like what is seen on top of Vans turning in the wind. They are advertised on YouTube as being suitable for pigeon lofts, my pigeon shed has an apex roof, 1" thick boards plus 2 covers of roofing felt. I tested the drill bit on a piece of waste wood first. My brother-in-law came along and helped me with drilling the holes and fitting the extractors. They were placed just below the ridge on the back of the roof, this back faces East and is ideal for high pressure days in summer when we have East and North East winds, they spin quite well. On calm days they don’t spin at all. I am still thinking I need more ventilation; my brother-in-law suggests louvre bricks. I am in the shed looking at the back wall thinking how to take out a horizontal piece of wood to fit an 8" X 4" louvre brick when I thought other fanciers just drill holes and I got a big drill bit 3 7/8th a big hole. So, I set about drilling holes, hard jobs on steps. At one stage I lost my concentration and grip, and the drill flew round, and the drill handle hit me hard on my chin, I thought I was going to lose some teeth, as it was, I just had a sore chin for a couple of days. I didn't tell my wife I managed to cut holes in the back and two end walls, the front is open the holes were covered on the inside with 1/2 square mesh and the outside with white pigeon loft louvers not the same as your idea with ironizers, all with the same idea of having clean air in the shed. Will it make any difference? I don’t really know; I am a poor fancier so might not notice.

Another subject and please excuse me if wrong. I believe you wrote an obituary to the late Geoff Kirkland. Once I read the notice I re read his book and was impressed (again). His main thoughts were that good pigeons were the all-important factor, how true unfortunately I never met Mr Kirkland. Another passing recently was Mr Frank Bristow didn't live too far from me but didn't meet him either, or Mr Frank Tasker although was at a meeting once when he was there. Perhaps that is one of my faults, I never met a legend, so their intellect and success is never rubbing off on me!!! However, I do like reading pigeon books and I am afraid they haven't made any difference either. Could write more but will leave it there. My main concern is hoping you are ok and that one day we see your excellent writings back in the BHW. With every wish and Regards John”

John, you should never knock yourself on the way you are with pigeons, always remember, “Win or lose it doesn’t matter, to compete is the thing” I once heard those words from Alan Woodcock, and he is right. There are still a lot of fanciers out there who race pigeons because they love what they are doing, and you don’t have to win to prove that, but it does put the icing on the cake when you do win a card or two. A fancier racing pigeon for the enjoyment, is a happy pigeon fancier and we need more of those. If you are a high-profile fancier and are not winning the pressure is on and you make mistakes and don’t enjoy racing at all. When that happens you need to take a step back and re-evaluate what you are doing. The problem is because we are so involved there are times when we are scratching our heads wondering what is going wrong. We then start to overthink everything and at times make things worse than they really are.

Regarding past fanciers, I met Geoff Kirkland many times and he was always the same, a calm fancier that did show when he was in the loft. In all the times I met him and there were many. I cannot remember him raising his voice, he didn’t need to because when he was talking people were listening.

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