Walter swanston

Sitting watching the young birds flying and drinking coffee at 10.15 this morning, all is peaceful and quiet.Suddenly the phone rings!! A very loud and aggresive voice informs me that he has a young bird belonging to my club member and I better do something about it pronto!! I placate him and he goes off the phone mumbling threats and I go back to my coffee. Ten minutes passes and the phone rings again, the same fancier now all apologetic informs me that the bird in question had been bred for him by my club member and duly transferred. I say "Okay son" and go back to my coffee again I can heartily recommend the life of a pigeon club secretary.

I am sorry to hear your decision Frank, I know how you feel but from the point of view of an elderly man I have to point out that although I have to confess to never having been an expert pigeon fancierI gain a lot of satisfaction in the day to day care of the lofts and birds and in a small way in helping with the administration of my club and federation perhaps you might care to think along these lines.All the best whatever you decide.

In today in Moffat NEHU 2011SUN 1542 with a blue ring on the same leg with the number 20 and a Unikon ring on the other leg.Anyone claiming??

Sorry to hear about your Dad Steven I hope all goes well Please give him my best wishes when you see him.

Very sorry to hear this news.My condolences to Toosh`s family

A Kindle is a great device I have 150 books on mine, saves bothering Yeboah to build me more bookshelves

We must be careful, accentuate everything which is good about pigeon racing and be prepared to clean up our act where necessary, co-operate fully with DEFRA and make sure we can refute any accusations of cruelty made against us.

Yeah, unfortunately you are probably right we might be witnessing the demise of the racing pigeon fancy.

I have just watched this link and find it very thought provoking.I can give you two examples of what I have seen in recent years firstly I know one very successful pigeon racer whom I have heard claim on several occasions that he has never ever disposed of a pigeon.Secondly I personally heard one of the best pigeon men in Scotland publicly claim that the fancier`s best friend was the bin.I cannot comment any further on this other than to agree with a previous post that the less said about this the better and to applaud the vigilance of the administrators of this pigeon site.

Yes I have a feeling you are correct I wonder how commercial hen breeders are affected

Just a thought, my wife (Annelise) breeds hens for an interest and for their eggs.She bred 4 chicks last month Barnvelders and Orpingtons.These chicks are almost ready to leave their ark and roam the place with their mother.I think the chicks might still be small enough to fall prey to a hawk, now the situation as far as I see it is this;if I kill a sparrowhawk to protect my racing pigeons I can be sujected to the full force of the law whereas if I kill the same predator to protect Annelise`s domestic fowl I am ok or am I?

173 birds away froim Lockerbie to Garstang

E.Hind &Son 1218.6908 E.Hind&Son 1210.0327 E.Hind&son 1209.4497 Davey Robinson 1205.0000 Kenny Thomson 1176.1491 G.A.&L.Firth 1162.1934 G.A.&L.Firth 1156.6104 G.A.&LFirth 1141.8522 J.&B.Morgan 1140.3653 Kenny Thomson 1139.0715 Kenny Thomson 1139.0715

Well done Steven

I have to report that the local hen sparrowhawk flew into a tree and broke its neck, despite all efforts it did not recover and was laid to rest after a muted and private service.

Lockerbie 8 members 186 pigeons

Yeah you`re right that`s probably it

Just had another sparrowhawk attack (unsucessful) ten minutes ago 2.15 p.m.I do not remember being bothered so much by these predators as late into April as this

Like Michael I also try to race pigeons from Moffat and it is becoming soul destroying to try and train them,I keep losing pigeons to falcons and my loft is under constant attack by sparrow hawks, I keep wondering why I am doing this but I am beginning to think about getting them as fit as I can and sending them to race without training if I am goung to lose pigeons I would rather lose them from a race than from training.

Well it might not seem much of an ambition to anybody else but I have about 25 pigeons to race and I will be very happy if I get them back.

Well it ai`nt ideal here far from it but as you say its good to see them coming back from races and I suppose I have just got to live with the problems, but you can see why my friend Yeboah and I have waged an unending war against the RSPB`s protection of predators.I have personally spoken at planning committee meetings and at meetings of the countryside and wildlife committee of the Scottish Parliament, so far to no avail.Which is why I am reluctantly compelled to view the RPRA`s latest initiative with some doubt but I certainly wish them well.

Pigeons flying out under supervision from first week in March Score so far. PEREGRINE FALCONS have killed two SPARROW HAWK has killed one and injured two. The two injured pigeons will probably not be fit to race. The birds will now be kept in loft to preserve their lives so training is gonna be difficult. The first Solway race is two weeks away. I`ve gotta ask ,myself why the f*** do I do this

Another sparrow hawk attack this morning ten minutes ago, saved the pigeon with minor damage to its breast.I thought I might have been safe by April 7th.Clearly not

Thank you Alf thats reassuring

We worked with an Epson stylus D88 until it gave up the ghost at the start of last season.I ran a results sustem and nine members with Unikon ETS off that printer but it was incredibly sore on ink and when I tried to use other than Epson ink it gave me all sorts of problems and as I have already stated it decided to pack in on us.I got advice and bought a Brother laser printer from Amazon which has both a parallel and a USB port .I have installed it into the club laptop and it seems to be working OK fingers crossed.