sarg

I'm helping out John Westacott, he was 1st open nfc 2008 with a red hen that was lionheart on the sire side and cattrysse on the dames side from the davenports game lady, cracking hen, still flies out now.

Not a great night for us, the best team won, our tactics were wrong from the start. Wish the other home nations the best of luck for the rest of the tournament

Most of the races got cancelled down here due to forecast, but up till now its patchy cload with blue skies, with little wind all morning. Bet there's some cheesed off fanciers lol

Not a feather here, but saying that there's only been 2 timed into section d, so we guess all our birds have crossed with the flock and wind way up country, now got another days flight back down the coast. Chucking it down all night and not stopped yet, oh well, feel sore for my mate.

987, good luck

Didn't stop down here till 9pm, this morning is total blue skies, but a strong north westerly wind, good luck all

My mentor has 3 away to Tarbes for Friday, 2 hens sitting chipping eggs and one cock sitting 8 days. Forecast doesn't look good for Friday though, getting excited and learning loads along the way. Anyone else away

Great result for them, several on the sheet. A great result too for M &A Watson and son from Cornwall 5th west section 7th open, that's some going into Cornwall probably flying alone.

Well done

Well done

Thanks everyone, I pretty sure he fly's a mixed family but mainly based on the cattresye family excuse the spelling.

Been looking at getting into the pigeons for ages, wondering if and how, money to get loft blah blah blah, when yesterday I was driving to Newton Abbot I noticed racers flying and circling a small housing estate no more than 4 miles away from home, hasten to add I stopped and watched em for 15 minutes till they dropped, place noted, drive around, notice on gate read,lost pigeon and wife, reward for safe return of pigeon lol. Knocked on door and a gentleman answered, I said who I was and was it ok to ask questions, well I can only say he was a true gent, asked me in kettle on, answered all my questions, could help me out with most things like clock, baskets, drinkers ect if I wanted, gave me some books to read then said lets have a look at some birds, I couldn't believe it, this man didn't know me from Adam and was so helpful it was amazing. I asked what his favourite distances/races was whilst he showed me this cracking red hen, he answered national racing, that one he said is quite special, 1st open saintes 2008, I couldn't believe it, as we talked he said he also got a medal for flying near on 1000 miles and clocking his bird, wow that's nuts. Any way as it happens he is now diabetic and ain't allowed to drive, so I am going to offer my sevices to train his birds for him, hopeffully he will take me under his wing, teach me a few things before/if I go solo. As you can tell from my ramblings I am excited to say the least, one step closer to getting pigeons. Last but not least thankyou Mr Westacott, you were a true gent.

I know I'm off the flight line, we had rain early doors, turning to misty drizzle low cloud till 9ish. Now the rain has cleared with high cloud cover no sun. Wind, south westish 10mph with sine gusts. Love this sight even though I ain't got any birds, keep it up lads.

Wish you lot were closer to me, I'd be jumping at the chance to learn and help a local fancier, no one closer than 10miles keeps pigeons.

jeese, that's bad reading this post. This was just watching for about 15 mins this morning, within 8 miles of me i know of 4 peregrine nest sites, bet there's at least double that really.

There is a bird of veiw point no more than three miles from me, but i wouldn't bother using it, just sit in my garden for 15 minutes and you will see all you want. I've been off with a appendicitis operation that went wrong, so 2 operations latter I've been sitting in the garden drinking coffee designing small lofts. This has given me time to survey the air space, this morning I've seen, so far a sparrowhawk sat on my roof for 10inutes, 2 buzzards circling on thermals and 1 perigrine cutting across the skies, Christ its no bloody wonder when i went to the club and asked about starting up they all said i wouldn't bother! There's no pigeon fanciers within 5 miles of me, if i let out any birds surely they would just be cannon fodder so too speak.

i was lying in bed, hospital bed that is after having a serous pendicitus op that's gone slightly wrong, any how looking out the window yesturday between 1 and 3pm, black, raining hard and would you believe it pigeons racing in from the channel and heading north straight over my window, who says pigeons don't fly in the pouring rain. Anyhow these were coming in over Torquay for those of you that's interested. Best of luck lads, one day that's going to be me waiting at my loft. Thanks also to pigeon basics, your just about keeping me insaine

sorry don't post much on here but still searching/researching about pigeons, came across this that might help you. Type GPS pigeon project, into youtube and look at geroma island release, its interesting viewing, speeds, hieghts all recorded

Hi all, been browsing through the site and saw this post, reminds me of how us bee keepers were a few years ago. Before 1992, all was well in bee keeping, except it was slowly dying out do to no take up of youngsters. Then vorroa(parasite) entered the UK, same as usual, us humans thinking the grass is greener on the other side, and import better bees from abroad. Not that they are, and brought in the parsite with them. Bees took a massive hit, a lot of the old boys gave up completely due to the extra effort/money required to look after bees. They then found a treatment that helped control the parasite, but again the ill informed or lazy/ money orientated keepers left the treatment in the hives all year, much like over treatment with anti biotics, the parasite became immune to the treatment. Such is the human desire to win/ make money all sense goes out the window. Varroa is here to stay now, we have to work with it, much the same as the perigrines. I personally cannot ever see perigrines being culled unless like badgers they transport a deadly disease. Chances of that happening must be remote. I believe your answers, like the bee keepers have done, lie in the youth and advertising. Bee keeping associations now run basic courses for every new member, with a basic exam at the end so feeding/ rearing/ diseases are all covered, and it costs around £50 each, money for the club. Surely this is obtainable in a club. We get into schools as often as we can, give a talk, and make it interesting as possible for kids. But I think the biggest thing that would help is getting to the county shows. There is always a fancy pigeon tent, why not get the association to get bill boards up, a small loft, clocks anything that will captivate the thousands that walk through the tents every day. Advertisement and getting the numbers. Back into the sport is surely the key, then with swollen numbers of good fanciers in the sport things may change in the future Take this post as it comes, as I say, I am new to the site and as of yet don't have pigeons, just doing loads of research first

Thanks again guys for your help. Yes I can see cleaning and getting tame birds being a plus in a small loft, ad well as a smaller feed bill. The big issue is the losses, I guess everyone had losses, but small teams it must have a bigger impact on, with no way of correcting it. Thanks again all. Sarg

Thank you all, lots of reading to do and talking with the wife, but it looks possible at this point. Any more opinions greatly received Sarg.

Hi all, can I please ask for some real constructive advice. I am a complete newbie, no loft, no birds etc. Always been involved with country sports, fly fishing etc, got chickens and bees. Anyhow when I was a lad growing up on exmoor, the local game keeper had a loft of pigeons, they have always fascinated me and the wife said why not look into it. So I went off to my local club on marking night to have a look and chat. Unfortunately there was a massive argument over boxing the pigeons whilst I was there, and I kept quiet because of the tension. Generally I get the impression they are a good set of gents, but I got the wrong night, and when I did get to talk to a few, they weren't that cooperative/supportive which I guess is totally natural. I did get the impression most had lost nearly all there young birds this year with fly aways whilst training or exercising, plus perigrines causing a issue too, I must admit I have seen 5 locally to me in the last week. Anyhow my question to them and you is, I can only fit a 8x4 loft in my garden, is it a practical, can I race from this, how many Birds and if so how would you set it up and system. Ie I don't think I could have an open loft, they would get hammered by hawks/ perigrines. Any advice would be appreciated even if it's "I wouldn't bother" which is the impression I got from the club. Cheers Sarg