Bluedoo

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought boundary changes could only be made at the AGM, and would need a 2/3 majority. Also I wouldn't have thought they could do that if your club were fully paid up members of the fed.

Got to ask, why are Mid fed pulling in their boundary? Why would 2/3 of a Fed membership want to exclude a whole club? Don't know the politics and am curious in these days with memberships in freefall.

That might help explain things if it were every week, but you can have great returns one week and very poor the next from same racepoint and similar weather.

Don't think it do would do much for the birds either. Get a couple of flights off the loft floor, try some paraffin on them and see how easy it is to get off. Dont know how you would use it on the loft either, without the birds getting covered as well.

Regarding flying down the east, most Feds moved there because of horendous losses down the west. When you transported by rail, you had bigger convoys, all using the same corridors, yet the losses were not significant. The potential for clashing then was probably far greater than it is today. The pigeons you had were not trained to the same extent. Mine certainly weren't. Didn't have a car. If they got 1 toss a week it was classed as well trained. Is it new feeding techniques, far lighter feeding, birds are flown out in hours with no reserves. Or is it generations of birds, bred from birds that wouldn't know the outside of their loft if they could see it. There seems to me to be a lot of birds that have lost their homing ability (but have wonderful expensive pedigrees). Your stock pigeons used to be your race team. You only bred from proven stock, not what was written on a piece of paper.

Fancy a weekend in Blackpool in January!

I wouldn't worry about it at all. They longer on the wing the more they are developing their muscles, and seeing plenty of the country. If they fly well at home, they are proably going more than 3 miles away from home anyhow. If this weather ever improves, my latebreds go straight out to 15 miles.

Congratulations Kieran, you have to try for your hatrick now. Well done to you all.

Stonehaven overcast and no wind.

"What do they eat? Whilst in cages, the birds are fed a diet of 'wild' (not farmed) foods including fresh fish (important as it contains the vitamins and nutrients needed as the chicks grow), rabbit, deer and some roadkill. In the wild, they are opportunistic hunters and carrion feeders (the diet of birds on the west coast contains remains of over 40 species of bird, mammal, fish and mollusc) - they will catch a variety of fish, birds (including gulls, ducks, waders and crows), rabbits and hares. Larger prey such as deer will be taken as carrion. They regularly pirate from otters & other birds. Since release the birds have been observed eating rabbits, hares, dead deer and sheep, road kill, gulls, geese and swans" Oh and the farmers get compensation for their sheep.

These birds, no. I just wonder how much the RSPB will be returning to the tax payers coffers. No doubt they will post their reply here.

Anyone see this on the BBC this morning? The RSPB thanked Fife constabulary for guarding them. The good citizens of Fife can no doubt sleep easier in their beds at this news. So next time anyone is assaulted,mugged, burgled or any other minor crime and the polis are a wee bitty late in getting there, you'll know they have goo reason. Also nice to see taxpayers money is not being wasted at ou military bases either. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7559305.stm http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/projects/eastscotlandeagles/index.asp

They probably tried but lost it.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page16471

You would still need to record the ring number otherwise there would be nothing to stop someone turning up with a rubber ring off another bird that arrives later.

Sorry Chris, your intentions are great, but you have to get every union behind you. The SHU have tried up here. Could someone confirm if any sparrowhawks have been legally relocated.

A couple of hundred members on here at £5 a time would be pushed to buy a trailer let alone run it around the country, you have to get the unions involved and charge every member. To be honest I haven't a clue how many members there are in UK and Ireland, but you've really got to start talking those figures to even start off. RSPB 1 million members!

Well they manged it in Yorkshire. MOD or not.

You've got to get the people at the top to do something about it. Stick a quid on every member in every union. Yes, you may not have the same problems in Ireland YET. It has started though. You have got to get the public on your side. Every time you get a raptor story its always "persecuted or hunted to near extiction". Tell them the truth, the lost sparrows, why theres been a slug/snail explosion, if you 're wondering the last part...ask a gardener. Big decline in thrushes. Another group to try and get onboard.

YES BUT THEY DONT SHOW YOU THEM CATCHING/KILLING/MAIMING PREY. If Joe Public got to see what a sparowhawk really does to a pigeon or any other bird, and sees them left with chunks torn out of them, and still alive, then suddenly their popularity would soon decline. When the rspb allows cameras to view their precious charges, Joe Public never gets to see the prey struggling to survive. Go to youtube and search on sparrowhawk. If the BBC were to show things like that there would be uproar. They only show the dead prey taken to the nest as on the Oneshow. (Lets give the little cuties a name) When the BBC have done news items on the decline of sparrows,songbirds etc I have emailed in several times asking " why not ask the rspb about the amount of raptors" . Never been read out on air. Sorry for shouting.

Extract from http://www.save-songbirds.co.uk/ "The RSPB has been singularly successful in attracting over one million members. However, it cannot claim that its actions have in any way proved effective in preventing the decline in the songbird populations. It has been succesful in re-introducing some raptor species, but certainly does not find it convenient to tell its members that these predatory birds will add to the killing of literally millions of songbirds every year." This is one of the charities, if not the only one, we should be supporting from the likes of Blackpool.

My experience of drivers/convoyers at Stonehaven, the majority wouldn't know a peregrine if it landed on their transporter. Peregrines at height, against a clear sky and the sun, very difficult to see. Nothing to give the pergrines cover....nothing for your pigeons to get cover in either. Why would feds continue to liberate...lets get home, we dont get payed anymore if we are here for another 4 hours. Think you'll find it does add up.

EEh Mr Erriot, Reet glad thee's finally got yir hand out that cows b*ckside. Is vet'inary better payed than't chemist? Please excuse Yorkshirese. On a more serious note, how often do you treat your birds with this? I don't think I've treated my birds for canker this century. I'm not saying I have never treated for it. I have been using cider vinegar for the last few years, didn't realise it had that effect.

No, i'm certainly not saying do not treat IF they have respiratory. Same goes for not putting them in the crates IF they did have it. Try contacting a local fancier who may be able to advise and either confirm whether or not they have the condition. Failing that professional advice. What I was trying to say was don't treat blindly for a condition you may not have. There are other reasons for dirty wattles.

Thanks bewted. Off my soapbox now.