The Joe Murphy Column

[Ian McKay]

The Joe Murphy Column

 

Margaret and I are just back from a couple of weeks in Costa del Sol and the weather was lovely between 25 and 29 degrees most days, however we came back to 6 degrees up here in Fife and believe me the change was shocking. I had to put on 3 layers of clothes to try and keep warm. We met up with Gwen & George Duthie of Fraserburgh while there and spent some quality time with them which was very nice. This is a very special weekend for Margaret and I as it’s our 49th wedding anniversary and are looking forward to our golden wedding next year. See photographs of Gwen & George and Margaret and I taken while out for a meal together.

 

Gwen & George Duthie

 

Margaret & Joe Murphy

 

Pigeons Can Distinguish Written Words from Nonsense

 

Received another piece of information that I thought might interest readers of the column this states: Already, pigeons can deliver messages and help fight cancer. Now? They can recognise words too...say Anna Green on 21st of September 2016. They may not look it, but pigeons are surprisingly smart birds. With a little help from humans, they can learn to deliver messages; spot cancer cells on a mammogram, and even distinguish between the paintings of Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet. Now, the latest study on pigeon intellect, published in the journal PNAS, finds that the remarkably bright birds can even distinguish between written words and nonsensical strings of letters. Researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand and Ruhr University in Germany trained pigeons to peck four-letter English words as they appeared on a screen, or peck a separate symbol when a four-letter nonsense term appeared. Over time, they trained four pigeons to build “vocabularies†of between 26 and 58 written words. They found that not only could the pigeons successfully identify the words they’d learned, they could often identify new words they’d never seen. Though they lacked decoding skills, the study concluded that the birds were capable of processing orthographic information. That is, though the birds were unable to read and understand the words they saw, they were still able to successfully identify visual patterns (or “orthographic propertiesâ€) that defined words. For instance, researchers observed that the pigeons could recognize “bigrams†(letter pairs) that were associated with words. They learned to distinguish bigrams commonly used in words (for instance, “AL†and “ELâ€) in order to distinguish words from nonsense. The findings are significant, not only because they show pigeons shouldn’t be dismissed as “bird-brained,†but because they reveal that orthographic learning isn’t unique to humans and other primates. In a statement, researcher Onur Güntürkün said, “That pigeons—separated by 300 million years of evolution from humans and having vastly different brain architectures—show such a skill as orthographic processing is astonishing.†You can read more about: Animals - Language - Science –Pigeons- Birds- Amazing facts on the internet.

 

Pigeon racing faces extinction in Australia

 

My sister forwarded an article by Bridget Judd who wrote about our sport as follows; Pigeon racing faces extinction as clubs struggle to attract fledgling talent in Australia. The 'old birds' of pigeon racing have vowed to do away with the sport's traditionally male pecking-order, as clubs struggle to attract fledgling talent.

Finding its roots in Australia more than a century ago, the sport was once considered a working-class pastime, but is now facing certain extinction as swaths of racers retire and fly the coop. "It's hard to attract new people," Rex Perkins, a breeder and racer from Camperdown in south-west Victoria, said. "Between computers and iPads and that sort of thing, kids would rather play games than get involved with these sort of sports." Trading athletics for aviaries more than 40 years ago, Rex has witnessed the demise of the 'old breed' of racers first hand. It is a subject that brings him to tears, and one that prompted him to join Pigeon Racing Victoria, an organisation born out of a desire to make the industry more accessible and inclusive for the next generation of 'pigeon pioneers'. "We want to show the ladies that they can race pigeons just as well as the men can," he said. "We have a lady here in the Camperdown Club and she flies every bit as well as we do. We have to watch out for her a bit actually." The organisation has put forward a range of radical initiatives to revive the sport, including the inaugural Victoria Cup — an image building race offering more than $250,000 in prize money over the 2017 season. Closer to home, Rex remains hopeful more children will take over the nest, and help secure the future of his beloved sport for the decades to come. "We're looking for a book or something like that, and our aim is to try and put a copy of it in every school in Victoria," he said. "We want to give children the opportunity to read about pigeon racing and to understand what it's about." "What happens too is kids get a pigeon and then mum and dad get involved, and we get a family membership." Welcoming the next generation of 'pigeon pioneers' at eight years of age, Brydon McPhee is as scarce as hen's teeth in a sport dominated by old roosters. He is one of around 15 members of the Horsham Pigeon Racing Club, and the only member under 30. For his father, Mark, and mother, Tahryn, what started as an offbeat hobby has quickly become a family affair? "Brydon jumps up and down when he sees a pigeon coming home," Tahryn said. "He could sit and wait five hours, just to see them fly back 300 or 400 miles, because of the bond they have is just incredible." Like the pigeon pioneers before them, Mark and Tahyrn fear for the future of the sport. "It is worrying, you look at our club here, and a lot of the members are at the stage where they're getting ready to hang up their boots," Mark said. "We want to see more kids involved, so just before the start of race season we took the birds to Brydon's school." "The kids were just amazed, and that's what we would like to see, more people taking an interest in the sport so it will still be around in 50 or 60 years’ time.

"Peter Virgona is what some would call the Gai Waterhouse of pigeon racing, and on his best weekend he took home more than $28,000 in prize money. "I've been lucky enough to win the Hop the Water and Horsham Cup twice, the Eureka Cup twice, and the South West Cup," he said. 'Pigeon Pete', as he is better known, has been involved in the industry for more than 30 years, and has whittled the sport down to a fine art. "Pigeon racing really started in Belgium, so we source those pigeons from overseas, buy them off studs and try to find the perfect bloodline for racing," he said. "The really fun part of it is raising those pigeons from an egg, nurturing them up to fly around the house, and then sending them away for a race."

Though prize-winning studs can retail for up to $20,000, the doting 'bird dad' maintains the sport is not divided by class or gender. "It doesn't have to be expensive, you don't have to have 100 pigeons," Mr Virgona said. "It really started off as and will always be a poor man’s sport, so you can have everyone from retirees to tradies racing them." 'Even the Queen races pigeons'.

There is not much difference to the above with the UK or Europe as less and less young people are joining our sport. When I was young we had a ‘Boy’s Club’ and we did not have to compete against established fliers like Peter Virgona mentioned above. We did not have a clock therefore had to run with our rubber to the nearest clock and time in. It was ‘fun’ and I remember having 2 birds come together and by brother and I ran with a thimble each and we cut across a woman’s garden to get to the clock. Low and behold my brother fell and dropped the thimble but I just looked at him and kept running after I had timed in I went back to help him look for the thimble but by the time we had found it the bird was too late to make the result. Happy Days!!!!

 

Good SNFC Birds

 

Before I highlight this week’s good pigeons I would like to thank all the people who commented on my reporting of the 3 pigeons that won Gold Awards in the Scottish national this year. The pictures to go with the article also highlighted the quality of the birds and their breeding. This week I’m going to highlight 4 pigeons from the South section who have won their SNFC Silver Award in 2016. Starting with Scottish National Flying Club senior vice president W J Smith of Maxwelltown in the Solway area with his chequer pied cock SU11S 2948 named ‘SOLO’. In 2013 he won 14th section A from Ypres a distance of 398 miles. Then in 2015 he won 16th section A 32nd open Gold Cup race from Alencon flying 485 miles this year he was again sent to the Gold Cup race this time from Reims a distance of 518 miles and he won 3rd section A 12th open.

 

Our 2nd pigeon to win a SNFC Silver Award is a chequer cock SU13S 3565 flown to the loft of W F Van Nuil of Gretna and is named ‘KIRTLE STAR’. In 2014 he won 8th section A 19th open Clermont a distance of 453 miles, he went back to the same race point in 2015 and achieved the honour of winning 1st section A 4th open. This year he was sent to the Gold Cup race from Reims a distance of 500 miles to Gretna and he won 14th section A 84th open thus winning him the SNFC Silver Award However he was entered into the last old bird race of the year from Roye a distance of 440 miles and again he came up trumps winning 1st section A 11th open therefore he only requires one more section prize to win his owner a coveted SNFC Gold Award we wish him well in this goal and will watch out for his ring number next year.

 

The 3rd pigeon from the south section to win a SNFC Silver Award this year is Scott J Irvine Junior (Loft 1) of Annan with his blue chequer hen GB12V 02753 named ‘One in 5’. In 2014 she won 7th section A 14th open from the Gold Cup race from Alencon a distance of 475 miles, the following year she was again sent to the same race point and won 9th section A 24th open. This year she competed from the inland national from Littlehampton a distance of 311 miles and won 30th section A 217th open and was then sent to the Ancenis race to achieve 16th section A 20th open flying 535 miles.

 

Our 4th fancier to achieve a SNFC Silver Award in 2016 is Dennis Anderson of Annan with his chequer hen GB11N 94158 named ‘Previous’. She has won 4 times in the Scottish National being 8th section A 37th open Clermont in 2013 flying 457 miles. The following 3 years she has competed from Ancenis a distance of 534 miles winning 9th section A 16th open in 2015; then 6th section A 9th open in 2015 and 13th section A 14th open in 2016.

Well done to all the above fanciers on obtaining this wonderful SNFC Silver Award

 

Joe’s Joke

 

Maria, a devout Catholic, got married and had 15 children. After her first husband died, she remarried and had 15 more children. A few weeks after her second husband died, Maria also passed away. At Maria's funeral, the priest looked skyward and said, "At last, they're finally together." Her sister sitting in the front row said, "Excuse me, Father, but do you mean she and her first husband, or she and her second husband?" The priest replied, "I mean her legs."

 

 

Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or Email to joejmurphy1@gmail.com REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE or log onto www.elimarpigeons.com www.fancierchat.co.uk and www.pigeon-chat.co.uk also www.pigeonbasics.com who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland.

 

© Compiled by Joe Murphy