Tracking pigeons

[Guest slugmonkey]

I think just the opposite imagine sitting ( as you say ) at the pub with your mates watching the birds while having a few pints

You would not miss many birds this way either I think it would add some excitement I know I stare at the screen for hours watching futurity birds log in on the computer when I enter big races me and my friends talk on the phone waiting for the screen to update !!

[DJ]

wouldnt that be great boomerang if we could find an affordable way to track our birds after release from racepoints, i only got started with pigeons after a stray decided to make my garden shed his new home and after finding a mate for him i now have yb,s off them and also more strays and gift birds    i do worry about my birds so if we could track them that would be great   there is great potential for someone to make a lot of cash from this idea so hopefully it wont be too long before we can trace our birds wherabouts          

                                                  debbie  

[alex wight]

Yep Debbie, and i,ll be the millionaire lol not. The technology we have today there must be some way of doing it, and cheaply.

[jimmy white]

Wouldnt it be a good idea to be able to track our birds. My thought is: to have a website set up, that you register for a fee. You are supplied chipped rings, just like ets, you register them with the web site, and fit them to the birds. When there is a race on, and you would like to see your bird/birds progress, you type in the ring number, and it shows you exactly where that bird is. I know this would involve satelites, but if they can tell you where your car is at any given time, using satnav, surely it could work for the birds? Just a thought, and it would give us invaluable information, ie routes, losses. Any thoughts.

 

yes, it would be great,, bet we could learn a lot,, [that we just dont know] i havent a clue how this would work    but great if it did,,   it would indeed give us valuable info. on routes ,losses the ,hows, why,s and whats ,,,even hawk nests  

 

[pjc]

Don't tell the wife about thisor she'll want you to go shopping on a saturday knowing you will get a message etc to say the bird will be home in 10 mins etc! No more afternoons sat in the garden!

 

My concern would be that we often talk about how birds may or may not be effected by mobile signals etc and this would just fill the air with more wave signals!

 

Phil

[invalidusername]

There is hope, but apparently it's a way off.  Have just been reading about a project called ICARUS (International Co-operation for Animal Research Using Space). This is primarily a scientific project concentrating on animal migration - but so many domestic solutions have some from scientific research projects like this.

 

ICARUS realises that only large animals (greater than 300g) can be followed globally using existing satellites, because of power and size constraints on the tracking devices.  No good for small animals and our feathered friends.

 

Transmitters are currently available which weigh 1 gram or less (including antenna and battery) and will emit 20 millisecond pulses at 1 second intervals for a month or more.  But existing satellites can't track them.  So, the ICARUS project is looking at new animal tracking satellites.  It could be that a satellite, named HERMES is the solution.  Of course, it all needs support and backing on a huge scale, but the possibilities are great.

 

Anyway, interesting reading :-)