NeilA wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2025 11:27 am Are the 600- 700 mile pigeons the same no matter where due to time on the wing
Or would say a 600 mile pigeon into Scotland that’s flying the flat part of France and the channel a little earlier in the day be a little different from a Barcelona pigeon to England with all the mountains or routes it’s forced to take be another kind of distance pigeon as then they have the water to face after doing 600 miles and more than likely had more extreme heat
I remember mark telling me once some years back he has his fast 500 mile pigeons and his slower but there be there 500 mile pigeons
Obviously Marks focus isn’t Barcelona but his tarbes / Lerwick record is excellent and he had two lines depending on the day
It's reasonable to say that say the Scottish pigeons tackle the channel much earlier in the race than say the UK pigeons face it when racing from Pau, Tarbes and Barcelona (for instance). I think it comes down to a question of stamina and speed though.
Stamina. How acutely bred for lets say a 600 ml race is the pigeon?. Is it steeped in history of 600 miles + pigeons, or is it made up of say exceptional 500 mile + pigeons. There's a difference.
I liken it to say Athletics.
Take Jakob Ingebrigtsen.. He's a marvellous runner from 1500m through to 10,000 metres. When he's racing in the 1500m he's vulnerable if the race is ran slowly and its left to a 100m sprint at the end - because there's others with a faster "kick". So what does he do? He tries to eliminate those lads from the race by making it a harder run race from further out - so they're digging into their reserves more than they want to be, just to keep up
If we liken it to pigeons there's a big difference between say a 600ml race at 42mph than a 600ml race at 34 mph
Those with a comparatively lesser "stamina based" pedigree are more at home on the 42mph than if being asked to dig at 34mph
So I can see why different lines would excel under certain race conditions
