showman

Well done Barry. Keep up the good work.

Mornin' all.

Happy Birthday. Have a great day. :emoticon-0137-clapping:

Best of luck with all your preparations.

Mornin' all

First to sign !

Already a thread started for this earlier in the morning.

Done

Mornin' all

Truly great effort by all concerned :emoticon-0137-clapping:

Mornin' all

Mornin' all

Too many lights / lamp posts for my liking. OMO

This winter / spring I was going to re-instate our feeders etc. for the wild birds. As we live in a rural area, with fields to our back, we used to attract a fair cross-section of the smaller species, and their presence gave us much entertainment and joy. With one thing or another, it hasn't been followed through. It was all brought back into my thoughts when, yesterday, in one of the young trees on our boundary we had 4 Goldfinches. Out of all the species we used to attract, to my knowledge, we never had Goldfinches here. It was great to see them !! Unfortunately I am in a quandary. If I was to use RSPB guidelines, surely the future of garden birds visiting would be placed in deeper jeopardy ? Yes, I would be providing a constant source of food for them through the winter and early spring. But would I not also be providing a 'larder' for birds of prey, which as we know are protected ? Where do I turn to be doing the right thing ?

Mornin' all

How much are you outside their boundary by ?

Have they removed a race from the programme Pat, or is it going to be a case of pushing the whole thing back ?

By all means, feel free to get it started !

Which bowl do you prefer ?

Just a wee up-date on how they're getting on with the pairing. As reported the pairs were put together on Sunday afternoon, and were locked in their boxes for the night. The boxes in the stock loft are the widowhood type with plastic fronts. Spent Monday letting each pair out for 30 minutes, and to be honest they all found their boxes under their own steam. When all pairs had been through this, I started the process again. Tuesday was spent the same way. The only difference made was when they were let out for the second time, I placed a nest bowl with felt in their box for their return. Over their 4 periods of 'freedom' all pairs found their own boxes, with no mix ups or fights. Sublime ! Again, all pairs were locked in their boxes on Tuesday night. Well, this morning I removed half of the widowhood fronts and gave the pairs their freedom again, this time all the birds loose at the same time. I stood outside the wire door and thought, right, this is when they're going to kick-off! I stood for 20 mins. All pairs left their boxes, fed and watered. No fighting, no problems, just the cocks crowing and chasing their hens. Just back in after checking again, and all pairs are in their own boxes, few cocks crowing and a few in their bowls calling. So far it's been like something you'd read from a book. I remarked to Lorraine (wife) yesterday, that in 40 years of pigeons I had never personally witnessed such a smooth period of pairing up. So.......what's going to go wrong ? Blank eggs, dead in shell, dead in nest......we'll see !! LOL.

It certainly will help Pat. Many thanks for your time taken in returning all these details. Very much appreciated.

Hi folks Our club secretary recently had my loft location plotted and race distances obtained through RPRA. I was given a sheet with race codes and distances on. However, I have no idea what code refers to which race point ! Having a majority of locations in Ireland, the RPRA doesn't have them on their site, so I was wondering can someone help telling me where I can find these 'on-line'. Cheers.

Able to get a few pics to-day The wee stock loft housing the Dordins

Mornin' all

Well, after a fair bit of searching and waiting over the past months, I finally got 5 pairs of Dordins together. It's going to take a bit of time to shape them into something, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. Put them together this morning in their own stock loft, and everything has gone really well. Have to spend a fair bit of time with them tomorrow, so I'll try to get a few pics up then.