Walter swanston

I am afraid that outside of pigeons with me these days its books, books and more books I know it might sound boring to some but I have been a voracious reader all my life.I have about 1000 books in the living room.

I got six right away and I am nearly 80 years old anyway a Scotsman sees a guy cupping his hands to drink from a burn He shouts " Hey wee man dinny drink that it`s fu` o` coo sh**".The man shouts back" I am English I cannot undrstand you.Talk English."The Scotsman shouts back "use both hands you`ll get more"

OK give us our independence, give us our country back and we will stand or fall on our own but remember we will always be a nation which looks after our young people ,our sick and our elderly which is the true mark of a civilised society.

The Scottish Government give the Scots, free prescriptions, free bus passes for the elderly,free university education for our young people,free health care and has frozen the council tax.The Labour Party----The party of the working people------descibe this as a something for nothing culture and suggest means testing all benefits.What`s going on??

Thank you I wpuld never have thought of that

Has anyone got an opinion on what is the best dogs for a pigeon fancier I am leaning towards a couple of Border Terriers.

Good luck Paul and welcome to Pigeons Basic.My sister is in Sydney she is from Ayr in Scotland (about50 years ago)

That is great news Lindsay, as a former victim of bowel cancer I have some idea of what you have gone through.Onwards and upwards.

Hope you do`nt get hit by herons, goldfish ponds last about one day here in Moffat

Great enthusiastic attitude from most Solway fanciers Stephen sadly not universal.

This kind of co-operation between federations is quite certainly a step forward and I would definetly be interested in doing the same again at the end of the young bird season next year.If I am still in office in the Solway I would be glad to meet Lanarkshire officials to formalise a race from Stafford for all West of Scotland federations.

Tiger, you have put your finger on what is the real issue here.For about 5 years now I have tried to spread the word that the future of pigeon racing is in co-operation between federations.What is the point in transporters going down the road half empty?

Thank you for your comment Scott, sometimes decisions are requested of me which do not permit of a meeting on account of the time scale and the rapidly changing circumstances and I always think its better to do something than do nothing.I always take advice on these matters and my biggest mistake would appear to publicising it on a pigeon website,A mistake I will not make again it has brought me nothing but aggravation.

Michael There will be one liberation no separation

I was told Lanarkshire fanciers had approached us I was then asked for an okay and I agreed but I do not know who made the initial approach.

Michael I agreed to do it this way because I was told our own fanciers would object in case their birds were dragged up into Lanarkshire.

The Solway Federation has been approached to take around 20 crates (500 pigeons) of Lanarkshire birds with us to Stafford on 8th. September.I immediately agreed to this with the proviso that a separate liberatiom might be preferable if possible.I believe that the future of pigeon racing is in the co-operation between organisations.

Okay, interesting posts however if a pergrine attacks a group of say 100 pigeons and takes one, the other 99 scramble every which way for safety why do the majority of the 99 not get home once they recover from their fright, does the trama of the falcon attack overcome their homing instinct?

Very interested in your mention about badly designed transport I believe this is a matter which can be seriously improved and I hope to try and do something about it in my own federation.

I am now beginning to wonder if have been getting it wrong for years.Are there enough peregrine falcons in the whole of the UK to account for this seasons tremendous losses?Are there not many other factors to be considered such as global warming and totally changed weather patterns?While there is no doubt that predators are a major hazard in pigeon racing can we become tunnel visioned in blaming them for all our losses.Might be interesting to see what others think

Red kites have been introduced to an area near Loch Ken in Galloway and are flourishing.They are being artificially fed poultry chicks at a local farm.This is very convenient for the tourist industry as it allows visitors to view the red kites eating.At the same time because the poultry chicks aint enough there are significant decreases in the local populatios of lapwings, oyster catchers and sand martins all of which figure on the RSPB list of threatened species.The RSPB says that there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that red kites are responsible for the decrease in these species.I know that Red Kites are not a danger to racing pigeons but the attitude of the RSPB is interesting do`nt you think!