Glassfeather

Very nice.

Hi Snowy, Nottingham is on for certain, and it looks like it will be a good event, not sure about Stafford on the 17th.

Hi Snowy, Locate the video file with windows explorer, right click on the file, a drop-down menu will appear, look for 'send to', another drop-down, select 'Compressed(zipped) folder', a folder will automatically be created called 'something.zip' about half the size of the original file. Hope this helps.

There are some good photos of exhibition fantails at the fantail club site: http://www.angelfire.com/dc/fantail/2004/photos.html Indian fantails here: http://www.zyworld.com/kevin~keeler/Indians.htm

Hyacinth, We have New york Flights here: Henrik, He is a Spanish Marchenero Cropper : http://www.geocities.com/glasgowfeather/colitejo.htm

This is me and my geetar...

Well done Bayview, Westy and all... Very nice show racer, I can see why it stormed ahead...

No they are not mine Speight, I took those photos at the East of England Show, in Peterborough a couple of years ago.

Hi Blue cheq, I don't actually keep any VPC blowers so I'm not a member, I am a member of the British Blower Show Society. Jim does keep some Spanish Croppers.

Hi Tony, I fly all my pigeons. Spanish croppers are great fliers and I have always flown pouters. As Speight says, they need to be conditioned for the show pen and many people don't fly their birds or only allow them to fly in an aviary.

Hi Blue cheq, This isn't the YB show, this is the championship show. Shame about the muffs, I did something similar, though not quite so bad, I turned my Marcheneros out of their pens so their tails are dirty now.....so it goes

Well done Maddy, nice pouter.

I have just heard that Nottingham Pigeon Fanciers Club show has a license to be held on 28th December at the Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, Boundry Road, West Bridgeford, Nottingham. This is a good show with some beautiful fancy pigeons and good classes of show racers, well worth a visit.

Hi Speight, Yes I think feeders are needed for LF tumblers, you may also need feeders for Gaditanos because of the large crop. I have Jiennense and Laudino Sevillanos which raise their own babies. They are very territorial by nature but a box about 18" deep x 18" high and about 3' long should give them enough space.

There is a website about them here: http://www.sv-althollaender-tuemmler.de.vu/ They were part of the Variety Pigeon Club here in the UK but I don't know about that now the VPC has split into different groups...

If you haven't seen this already, it is worth watching: http://www.valiantmovie.co.uk/

Hi Jimmy, What you describe here is a process called 'acromatosis' and it occurs regularly in recessive red pigeons. The birds you describe as chocolate are actually recessive red so both the 'dirty' mealy cock and the cheq hen you paired him to each carried a recessive red gene. There is a fancy breed called Vienna Whiteside which are self red in their juvenile plumage then moult out with white wing-shields. Obviously a lot of selection went on in the development of this breed but it is the same process and it also occurs in 'whiteside' English Long-Face Tumblers. The 'dirty colour' of the mealy results from a modifier which is actually called 'dirty', with the symbol V, a dominant autosomal (not sex-linked) Whiteside Long Face English Muffed Tumbler:

I see where you are at Bruno, I'm just being a bit pedantic about the nomenclature as I learned about pigeon genetics using these symbols. Why is it that females are heterogametic in birds and reptiles?

Without wishing to complicate this : Grizzle is inherited according to basic Mendelian principles. Grizzle is an autosomal modifier, inherited independently of the sex (Z & W) chromosomes, and independently of the pattern locus. This means that Grizzle can be inherited in combination with any of the basic patterns and any of the basic colours as well as recessive red(e) and recessive white (zwh). Grizzle has been tested against normal, wild type, (blue bar) and designated dominant status and the symbol (G). In combination with wild type, it is possible to determine wether a bird is hetero or homozygous by its appearance, but in the presence of other modifiers and other pattern alleles it is not always possible to determine a birds' hetero/homozygosity for the grizzle gene. A punnet square is useful to demonstrate this segregation. Each square represents 25% or the 1:4 ratio of a mating between grizzles. (G)=Grizzle and (+)=normal(blue bar). As you can see a pair of grizzles can produce all three phenotypes: normal, non-grizzle; heterozygous grizzle; and homozygous grizzle, in both sexes. There are alleles at the Grizzle locus: slight Grizzle(GS), and tiger Grizzle (GT) also designated dominant status.

Single factor (Heterozygous) Grizzle Cock Double factor (Homozygous) Grizzle hen

Like many fanciers, I was introduced to pigeons by my Dad. The pigeons I was introduced to were slightly different from the tumblers and homers, Dad was never involved with homers, he flew pouters in Glasgow during the 50s & 60s, it was hugely popular then and still is all over the world. The Spaniards have their very own culture of flying pouters, it is as popular there as racing is here and it is also very popular in Holland. When I was much younger, I was a big Spiderman fan and of course I wanted to do all the fantastic things he could do but I lacked webbing. (I liked the Man from Atlantis too but again, webbed fingers) I was prepared to settle for a Spiderman outfit so I at least looked the part, except all the costumes I saw looked more like pyjamas. Anyway, in order to get such a costume it was necessary to travel to Glasgow (2 hours away in a Hillman Hunter-1970’s British motor) along with my Dad who was taking his surplus pouters to the shop. This was a day out for my Dad and I guess it was a bit of a nuisance for him to have to take me and seek out a superhero costume in Glasgow city centre but that wasn’t his only motive for getting me interested in pigeons. First stop was George Dunn’s ‘doo shop’ at the top of Duke Street at Parkhead cross. It was a converted pawn shop, four stories high, similar style to those in the background of the picture below. Feathers and dust everywhere, budgies chattering, canaries whistling, cockatiels mimicking all sorts of Glaswegian phrases, and in the pens behind the ancient, solid 2 inch thick wooden counter were ‘doos’, just like my Dads’ and I was intrigued. George knew we had travelled and as soon as he sorted out a cup of tea for Dad, he went to the chip shop next door and got some chips and a bottle of pop for me, the beginning of a ten year tradition but I was just catching a glimpse of a very old tradition. After that I always went to the ‘Doo shop’ and Spidey was more or less forgotten, I certainly wasn’t going to be seen in Spidey pyjamas anyway. I could tell a lot of stories about the doo shop, one springs to mind about the Pakistani with a broad Glaswegian accent who had swapped a bird and as he put it into his box said to George: “I hope this isn’t a shooter!” (A bird that would fly straight back to George on its release). George replied: “It would do well to shoot back from Pakistan!” All in good humour, typical ‘pigeon patter’. Anyway, I was curious and on the journey home and every other journey after that I would question Dad about the birds as well as discussing our own birds, the birds we were taking to the shop and so on… I was intrigued by the stories he would tell about the birds he was flying against when he was younger, well known birds called ‘Leather wings’ and ‘Golden Boy’ and how they were ‘uncatchable’. What got my attention was the fact that these birds, over time, would accumulate sufficient cash to feed themselves, while other owners would be paying for their birds out of their own pocket. Of course I came to realise that this is what they were all about and it still amazes me now to think that the birds I have share some of their genes with birds flown by an Arab nomad maybe 12 or more centuries ago. All pigeon breeds have history I know, but there is something that just falls into place for me when I think about thief pouters. My first pigeon was a Voorburg Shield Cropper hen (http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/Glassfeather/shield.htm). When I was a kid I had to walk a mile to catch the school bus and most afternoons on my way home from school that hen would come flying across the field to meet me. She was very tame and perfectly marked, quite difficult to achieve. Shield marked pigeons should be all white with just coloured feathers on the wing shields, the ten primaries on each wing should be white but it is often found that they have 10x9 white flights or 9x9, or 10x8 and so on. That hen was 10x10 and I never bred another Voorburg marked like that. Horseman Pouter flown in Glasgow A Voorburg Shield Cropper A Spanish Cropper, more here: http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/Glassfeather/buchonb.htm My little boy teaching 'chick' to drive.

Sorry I didn't come back to you guys on this sooner, have been a bit busy as my wife just delivered our baby daughter on thursday. Thanks to all of you for your response, I have to say that I was really just hoping for someone in Bromley to say they would be happy to talk to the guy. I understand the concerns about media involvement, I can't really see a newspaper being interested in what pigeon fanciers think except to highlight bird keepers as possible vectors. I appreciate the info you have provided Bruno and it would be nice if we could rely on a journalist to put these views across in a beneficial manner, but I simply can't give any assurances about the guy, I don't know him or the paper, he just contacted me. Anyway, I'm afraid I side-stepped and referred him to the RPRA website.

I received this e-mail today and I don't know anyone in Bromley so I thought I would post it on the board as there are likely to be people with a better understanding than I have who might like to respond to Robert: Good afternoon, I am writing an article about racing pigeon owners fears about bird flu and am hoping you can help. I am looking to speak to racing pigeon owners in the Bromley area. Do you know any you can put me in touch with? Best regards, Robert Fisk Reporter News Shopper Tel: 01689 885725 Fax: 01689 875367 Robert Fisk [rfisk@london.newsquest.co.uk]

Ted, Stafford is held at Bingley Hall, Staffordshire County showground on Saturday 17th December. Nottingham is on 28th December at the Rushcliffe Leisure centre, Boundry Road, West Bridgeford, Nottingham. Graeme