Pompey Mick

Very nice set-up, though I would fit a handrail along the front of the veranda and up the steps. (from experience). You easily lose your sense of position when watching a pigeon circle the loft.

Just a few more air miles Keith, plus the Road distance looks very similar.

The Milton Homing Society has included Marmande in its 2010 Race Proposals for the Solent Fed. For those Solent Fed. members on this site, I would like to point out that the distance from Marmande to my loft in Milton, Portsmouth (near Fratton Park) is 438mls 1046yds. It is situated due SW of Bergerac.(distance to me, 417-98 ).

Bartholomews of Chichester stock limestone flour, (where Gem Supplements is based). You have to pre-order first. http://www.bartholomews.co.uk/

The 'trouble' within the sport only affects existing fanciers, it will not deter anyone from starting up with pigeons but it may curtail his invovement in the long term. The biggest hurdle the sport of pigeon racing has to overcame is the perception of many of the Public, and all of the local authorities, is that 'animals' are dirty , disease-ridden and a threat to Public Health. The latest Ecoli outbreaks with the children attending animal farms only causes to harden this attitude, also Bird Flu and Swine Flu all have animal connotations. We often hear of the amount of diseases that a pigeon 'carries'. how many pigeon fanciers have ever contacted any diseases from their birds. The biggest threat to human health is from fellow humans, yet whilst vetoing the movement of animals when a disease is present there is no such restrictions on human travel. We are all animals. There have been many health reports that have found that regular contact with animals improves the immunity system and this helps humans ward off potential disease threats. It was stated during the latest TV coverage on the Family Farms Ecoli outbreaks that farmer's children never had this kind of problem due to their regular contact with animals. Until we emphasise the positive effects that being involved with birds and animals have, the number of youngsters coming into the sport will be minimal (if Mummy has anything to do with it). Perhaps we should target the retired age group, this is a group of people who are normally settled, have ample spare time and could be encouraged into a sport that has minimal physical effort apart from the animal husbandry, and a sport where age is no barrier to success. This would also give an opportunity for youngsters (grandchildren) to get involved.

A wedding occurred just outside Govan in Glasgow ... To keep tradition going, everyone got extremely drunk and the bride's and groom's families have a storming row and begin wrecking the reception room and generally kicking the living daylights out of each other. The Police get called in to break up the fight. The following week, all members of both families appear in court. The fight continues in the court room until the Judge finally brings Calm with the use of his hammer, shouting "Silence in Court". The court room goes silent and Ronny (the best man) stands up and says "Judge.. I was the best man at the wedding and I think I should explain what happened". The Judge agrees and asks Ronny to take the stand. Ronny begins his explanation by telling the court that it is traditional in a Govan wedding that the Best Man gets the first dance with the Bride. The judge says "OK". "Well", said Ronny, "After I had finished the first dance, the music kept going, so I continued dancing to the second song, and after that the music kept going and I was dancing to the third song, when all of a sudden the Groom leapt over the table, ran towards us and gave the Bride an unmerciful kick right between her legs". Shocked, the Judge instantly responded, "God, that must have hurt!" "HURT!" Ronny replies "He broke three of my fingers

If you are letting your birds pair naturally and all the birds are settled in the loft I wouldn't bother with doors. I would also alternate the opening side and I wouldn't have two openings together in the corners. I.e all the top layer boxes right hand opened with the layer below left hand opening and so on. this helps prevent accidental entry by another pair. If the birds are still together now I would put the boxes in the nesting position, if you can separate the birds leave the cocks in the nesting box section.

Is it the usual tendency for widowhood cocks to fly for 1hr plus, are they looking for their hens? Can you expect 'Natural' pigeons to readily become widowhoods and fly accordingly, or is it an inherited trait. When I first raced pigeons in the '60's I was into YB racing and in the early years I used to have to stand on top of my loft with an old football rattle to make my YBs fly for an hour. As the years passed the need for flagging decreased and it become the norm to exercise for an hour+. Was this an inherited trait ? Did the pigeons pass this knowledge down through their genes. Is it the same for widowhood cocks, do teams, that readily fly now, pass through a learning period when they had to be encouraged to keep flying and then pass this down to newer members of the team as the norm.

Does Tauris & Bricon obtain a fresh radio signal for every time you use it like Unikon. If you are in a poor reception area how do the other ETS systems obtain a current radio check. Do they just rely on a battery powered radio clock which is in effect a quartz clock unless it regularly receives radio signal updates.

This programme includes a piece on the illegal killing of BOP in Scotland, I wonder if pigeon fanciers will get a mention? 'Katie Knapman joins the Wildlife Crime Unit in Scotland as they investigate the illegal shooting and poisoning of birds of prey.' Perhaps the SHU should ask for a preview.

9/10 FROM NEWTON ABBOTT (110 ml) EVENTUALLY, FIRST BIRD 11.20, BIRDS CAME SPACED OUT OVER A FOUR AND A HALF HOUR PERIOD. FINE & SUNNY HERE WITH A FRESH NE WIND, I THINK THEY GOT CAUGHT UP WITH THE MULTITUDE OF LIBERATIONS SPREAD OUT ALONG THE SOUTH COAST WITH AN 8.00am LIB.

I would have thought that the only time a ' National' flyer uses a clock instead of his ETS is when it's an International, then you have to cover your ETS times by clocking both rubbers within 15 mins. As for the fuddy-duddies ruling this sport, when I bought my first Junior in 1965 it was designed for thimbless clocking. "No chance", says our Union, "we cant have this sort of forward thinking, what about all the Toulets and Le Con users they will be at a disadvantage." It has taken 45yrs for our Union to allow us to have the benefits enjoyed by our Continental cousins. This is the sort of negative attitudes that prevails in a lot of our regions. I think the best plan being mooted is that the Regions will be dismantled and a central elected body take its place. There is to much of a Council Type bureaucracy in place at the moment. The RPRA should concentrate on Ring registration, Distances, Approved timing systems and promoting the sport. Let the Clubs sort out their domestic rules.

He's only done it again, this time he wins the Solent Fed from Yelverton 1984 birds from an entry of just four birds. He never fails to amaze, he had intended to send North, but as the South Rd section were struggling for competing members he unselfishly switched his entries to bolster their numbers. All this with a T3 as well. http://www.kdwebsolutions.com/solentfed/results.html

It was at 12.00 Sat 29th Aug. that I received the sad news that one of our members, Bob Rose, had passed away. He had been suddenly taken into hospital the day before and had suffered a failure of his pancreas which caused a heart attack which led to his death. He had recently celebrated his 80th Birthday and ,although suffering badly from Arthritis in his hands(ETS was a godsend), still competed with his pigeons with the help of ex-member Pete Whitehill. He recently competed in the BBC Lamballe timing two of his three entries and also recorded a decent time in the BBC Bordeaux race. This shock news put a complete dampener on the day, as I had known Bob since I started in pigeons in 1963, and my pleasure in winning my first YB race for four years was somewhat muted, I've named the winner 'Bob'. As Bob only raced a small team of YBs he was asked early on Friday if he was sending that week to which he replied ' No, they've done enough for me this year'. Sadly next year will never come. The funeral will take place at Milton Cemetary, Portsmouth on Thursday 17th Sep at 2.00p.m.

This is a site of Amateur Weather Stations, gives a good overall SW Channel picture, these are reports, not forecasts. http://www.chaseruk1.co.uk/mml/

Cloudless skies with a Westerly breeze here in Portsmouth 07.00, no warmth yet.

Depends what you mean by 'Channel birds'. In my loft every OB is a 'Channel bird' and quite a few YBs if you count Guernsey. Our shortest Channel race point is Picauville 99mls, Guernsey is slightly further 112mls. After a couple of Inland openers every race in the Solent Fed OB programme is from France, so Channel birds are two a penny down here. Most of our Club races are short to middle distance so practically any pigeon strain should be capable of Channel flying for me.

Glad to see such positive reviews as I have just this minute purchased this book on Amazon £14.99. The Brian Denney section interested me.

CSCFC libbed at Guernsey 7.30am, birds cleared Guernsey well.

Lovely clear blue skies with a Lt West wind here in Portsmouth. http://www.chaseruk1.co.uk/mml/

I only sent one and got him Saturday, a fellow Club member got 2/3 ,another had 2/6 and the most consistent BBC flyer in our Club got 6/10 on the Saturday. There was a lot of heavy cloud in NW France and the Channel that morning, whether any of it was rain bearing remains to be seen. The BICC delayed their Lib because of the cloud cover. Portsmouth had a beautiful sunny day but at New Milton up to Winchester there was torrential rain until 9.00am, this weather passed just North of Portsmouth and was thundery. Maybe the pigeons encountered similar heavy showers en route. None of this was forecast.

This is the latest photo of my recent new loft, it is more of a 'garden' loft now. I built a small removeable pen to put on the landing board to allow the YBs a better view and to be able to put a bath out in the pen.

12 to Kingsdown with the Solent Fed. Looks like the South Coast is going to be pretty busy this weekend with libs. 7 at Kingsdown, 3 at Lulworth, 2 at Poole, 5 at Portland, 1 at Lyndhurst and 7 here in Portsmouth.All this plus the Bournemouth Air Festival. Solent is looking for a later lib, not before 10.30.

Portsmouth 07.15, Early cloud breaking up, sun breaking through, calm.

Portsmouth, Grey skies, no rain, Lt SW wind. http://www.clanfieldweather.co.uk/live.html