lost

[Guest monkeynuts71]

its not something i wanted to do but family comitments have ment that i have had the birds on openhole the last 6 weeks in the hope that they would get fit while i didnt have the time.

 

not a pigeon taken or injured in the last 6 weeks,got to the loft yesterday to see barely a feather inside. there were 18 missing out of 27. on closer inspection of the birds in, 1 had half her wing feathers missing,another has not got a single tail feather and a bruised leg.

 

then the person who has abit of land with a shed on it next door to the loft came over with a ring, he went to the shed to see a sparrowhawk all but finished eating my little hen.

 

today i have had some more return but im still 11 missing, nearly all my race team.

obviously i know the sparrow hawk killed 1 but the others??????????? can a hawk take out all a pigeons tail feathers????? ive looked all around to see where the feathers could be but theres no sign anywhere, ive walked through the fields around to see if it was down to the wires but nothing???? i could understand if it was a couple but its all of them. all but 2 of the missing raced last year as youngbirds.

 

the birds havnt even seen a basket this year and most are already gone    

anyway if anybody sees them the ring numbers are

gb09j27114,gb09j27124,gb09t43360,gb07n77318,gb09s14839,gb09j27147,gb09j27139,gb09j27140,gb09j27106,gb09j27149,su09f1663,

the 07 bird i managed to break and has been going out for 6 months, could he have decided to go home to manchester and taken the others with him?????

im totally puzzled, they were either on eggs or babies, 3 dead babies when i got there yesterday so not sure they would have just flown off

many thanks Tristan

[kirky]

sorry to hear this mate but im sure some will make it back.

[kev43]

sounds like a cat or some other predator has been in ur loft they wudnt just leave their young for no reason and for 1 to have no tail at all and no signs ov the tail feathers is really baffling to me ,,,sorry to hear of ur loss hope all goes well and many return for u at this time ov year m8