red dog

Well done Kenny This is his first fed win , he only took up pigeons a few years ago , a top class cattle and sheep man, and a real grafter it was just a matter of time before he got a foot in the door, a real asett to the club I hope the ball keeps rolling for him

Look like buzzards wont bother the doos too slow, they do how ever kill kestrels and take over their range there has been a 65 % drop in scottish kestrel numbers, by and large due to them, referred to as intraguild predation by the raptor enthusiasts who dont like to admit their policies have been disastrous.

They get fine bits of string carried back for nesting material wound round the toes when they birl in the nest, this cuts off blood supply to toes and they lose them. I used to watch the streeters from a vantage point in the brunel bar at paddington station , loads had fine string or thread caught round toes very few had a full complement of tootsies.

I live on Orkney and have worked in the artic circle in Norway, in summertime late June and July it does not get dark up here its the land of the midnight sun. We have all night barbies, as the sun goes down in the west its already rising in the east I would not mind a crack at an Oslo race. What ever race point there will all ways be people who lose out by position but the north fanciers are really humped by the Liege point, Broughty ferry same dist as Falkirk dearie me. The fine pigeon that scored into Dundee from this point surely flew a lot of north sea to do the velocity it did. At some point liege birds will be released in a wind that forces them to cross at Den Helder or up into Denmark and the northern fanciers will clean up the central belt will get hammered and the gold cup will be returned smartly to France.

Yes,I have seen this,hens that would sit till hell froze over rising off eggs on a saturday race morning at maybe 10 o,clock and looking to re-pair,whether it was telepathy or not,their mate did not return,there is more to it than chance, fanciers I respect have told me of the same thing.

I think the problems arise when youngsters get lost, when they carry an SHU ring they can be sorted out into a stray basket according to fed initials and and be sent up to their area relatively simply .If they have an english ring on lord knows where they end up but it could be trouble to get them home'certainly name or phone rings can be fitted but there seem to be people about who are happy to steal a chip ring off a bird and for their own reasons take an address ring off as well. Many people who report birds are not fanciers and don't think to look for wing stamps.I was asked about this matter in my own club It is surprising that guys would spend hundreds on stock birds then quibble about a few coppers on the price of a ring, when the money is going to their own union or fed which would have to raise fees for all fanciers to cover shortfalls in income.

Proper creosote is the best wood preservative available .I served my apprenticeship in the Scottish Tar Distillers where they made the stuff.Its made from coal tar latterly obtained from the coke ovens of steel works.at the very end of the fractionating process the heavy end was boiled and it split off creosote and pitch for road tar.Carbolic acid the old style jeyes fluid was derived from the same base.Proper creosote has naptha crystals in it a substance which used to be used in moth balls and kills insect life which is why beer mats soaked in creosote were put under nest bowls.Proper coal tar stuff can be obtained from agricultural merchants.As far as being a carcinogen goes you would probably need to drink it or paint it on your skin . There were guys in the tar works for 40 and 50 years it was no worse than any other chemical plant. There were never any cats in the tar works sooner or later they had tar on their feet and when they licked them the phenol content killed them.

Possibly an opal grizzle opal can be recessive so it can be bred from birds that don,t show it . Two years ago I bred one, a blue ground opal from a pair of blue chequers . It is an attractive mutation .

This whole thing is a farce , the R.S.P.B has been responsible for the shooting dozens of goats in the past, whether it was called culling or killing did not matter a lot to the goats,and of course S.N.H.were aware of their acts. No doubt they will be keeping heads well down over this one. Ethically I think their is something shabby about about people who pose for photos grinning over a corpse , but I believe this is part of a bigger and broader campaign against shooting estates, there has been a steady drip of stories recently, shooting blue hares, disappearing eagles and falcons,etc but the reality is that this mince is getting a hearing at government level by people who would not recognize a bird of prey if it hit them between the eyes.

Where does all this end ? In a race to sell rings will they start issuing them in August or September ?

Does anyone know where we can obtain some "snibs" for the flaps of geraldy baskets, we only need a couple and few spares say 6 in all. Don,t want to send to Germany probably cost the club more for postage than the things are worth.Is there a British agent for their gear? red dog

Thank you well handy

My pal Holder Firth got wheeched down to Aberdeen on the air ambulance for an emergency operation on Thursday night.The nick he was in the doos would be the last thing on his mind so i went round yesterday and set his clock up .after i timed i went up to his bit and sure enough his wee hen was home and i think beating me by nine minutes .Holder is 75 and just took the game up 5 years ago this is Orkney clubs blue ribbon race and he will win it.This is the best result he has had and will be a boost for him on his way to recovery. Thank you for all the interest in the Highland and island birds.

clocked from Battle to Stenness 13:37 approx 576 miles

thanks for the info don,t think they will come this side of the firth but you never know , we always get a few injured or hawked ones turning up and the local people are very good at taking them in .

27 miles that's about the same over fly Jim Donaldson gets from Hamilton

I sent some birds to last sundays peterborough race with N.O.S,about 450mls to me. Our club Orkney shipped the birds over on the ferry on wednesday afternoon. Mr Budge of Thurso was kind enough to collect the crates and give the birds bed and breakfast in a garage at his house before shipping on to Wick then on to Elgin to meet the N.O.S transporter. One of my doo,s a wee blue hen did not make it on the day but turned up today, Monday," flown out" back at Mr Budges' house and walked in through the doors of the garage!.She is very tame and waited to be picked up,and put in a basket for a feed and a drink.She had never been there before, and could only have had a fleeting glance at the outside of the garage as the crates were carried in and out,but had enough savvy to go there when she needed feed water and shelter. Pigeons really do think more than we know ,and know more than we think.

sold my hoover it was just gathering dust

Throw them at the ceiling if they stick probably need a fresh pair

I throw eggs etc on top of the compost box for the hoodie crows and i have some chickens laying in outside boxes,whose eggs the crows are allowed to steal, as chickens lay at different times of the day it keeps the crows interested and floating about most of the shift. My youngsters are given a breakfast then locked out for 6 hours very few are lost round the loft . If you see one rook its a crow if you see 500 crows they are rooks.

They erected a turbine at the headquarters in Sandy then tied themselves in knots trying to justify it, it would make a cat laugh

found in orkney su16 ne 4502 call 01856761140 after 5pm

Mr laszlo,s pigeon homed on monday 570 mls to Orkney. The club has been going for 35 years and there hasn,t been that number of birds managed the trip from the english coast. Birds that can manage the trip are as rare as hens teeth. mr laszlo is a novice flyer in his first season . The pigeon was bred by and gifted to him by Jim Linklater Orkney club would like to thank the SNFC and Mary Pryde for helping us to test our birds from the distance .

PM sent

please post address or postcode of Boness HS clubroom thankyou