Kyleakin Lofts

Tony, ANRF are at Fraserburgh for a Saturday race. Could you give our contact to your controller?

Best of luck everyone.

Correct. They have financial clout and the ears of politicians, so we will never sort that out. Due to the assistance of the RSPB and the political machine, nature has the upper hand and, as I stated, "stole the march". The why's and wherefore's of how this situation has arisen don't really matter one little iota. They are simply facts. Facts that we have to face and, if we truly are a superior species, we have to look at ways to maintain our hobby and attempt to increase our pleasure while so doing. it is hardly pleasurable to see our pigeons fail to return from simple trainers, etc. Perhaps, just perhaps, if we change some of the parameters, we may gain a short term benefit before having to change again.

What are your thoughts for a solution?

Happy birthday.

Good morning all.

Best of luck everyone.

Well done both. At least they are still coming.

Well done Tommy.

I know it is not only pigeons that they eat and thus the reference to wild birds / songbirds. The main point is that we have the ability to change what we do. Nature follows from that. We know the situation we are in currently, we know that this situation was different in the past when culls of BOP were a regular occurrence. We also know that if we make the change it might only have a minimal effect, but it also might have a major effect and improvement to our racing. If we don't try to do something, then things will remain the sme, however, we know that nature is "stealing the march" on us because the BOP problem is becoming worse.

One of the factors that we have to bear in mind is natural. BOP go to nest around mid April, so we are training pigeons to have them fit for racing which starts around mid April. Lo and behold, just in time for hen BOP to fatten up before their long sit. We then race our YB's late July / August time when the BOP have their YB's on the wing and are teaching them to hunt. At this time they kill for fun, tossing their kill over the sky to teach how to catch before progressing onto full attacks. Instead of just the cock bird attacking, we have maw, paw and the kids all having a go. How do we defeat nature? We never will, but we are able to circumvent it for a time. Everyone races the same route and preferably the same race-points. This means there are no pigeons to eat on the other routes. The BOP on these other routes will hunt what they can, but will eventually move to our race routes. After a period of time, be it five or ten years, we change route this starving the overpopulated BOP once again. This should affect their numbers and also bring the general public to an awareness of the dwindling wild bird populations. Start racing later, say mid-May, thus starving the sitting hen BOP prior to her long incubation time. This should eventually cause less fertile eggs in the nest and smaller broods due to lack of available feeding. The problem for us will be that the longer races have to be later and thus our elite pigeons will be racing while the BOP train their YB, but these pigeons will be fewer than a YB flock and also a bit more savvy in regards to dealing with the BOP. Again, this should cause a hit on the BOP population. When we race our YB's the young BOP will have fledged, but hopefully they will be looking for their own territories and there will be some infighting and starvation to reduce BOP numbers. Why should we continue as we have in the past when we are no longer able to cull BOP as we once were able to do? We have the ability to change in an attempt to thwart nature, albeit for only a short time until nature adapts as it certainly will.

Happy birthday Archie.

Good morning all.

Well done.

Well done all.

Well done.

Good morning all.

An area full of top National fliers.

Due to a water shortage in Ireland , Dublin swimming baths have announced they are closing lanes 7 and 8.

Well done all.

Well done.

Well done all.

Well done. Congratulations Johnny and Derek.

Well done that pigeon and its trainer. Congratulations Walter.

Achieving the change at National level is where the difficulty lies. If this happened, the Federations would follow suit. Should the Unions become involved and dictate this?