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Re: The thing is about the sport.
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 6:48 pm
by MIL
Historically the faster the races the more gappy the early birds are
That result doesn't surprise me one bit
Re: The thing is about the sport.
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 7:34 pm
by NeilA
Andy wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2025 6:01 pm
Just looked at the first OB race of the BICC from Guernsey last year. There were 166 members sending 1865 birds. Liberated in a strong SSW wind. I admit that racing at this level of competition is very different from club and fed racing. So you would think that the birds would be close together. Mr&Mrs Shaw of Crewe sent 21 and were 1st, 3rd and 4th open with velocities of 2170,2129 & 2093ypm. There was 8 minutes between his 1st & 3rd bird flying 246 miles. The bird in 7th open was only flying 87 miles with a velocity of 2078ypm. Where were all the birds in between? Only the first 294 birds in the result were over 1500ypm.
Racing is a funny old game and a lot can’t be explained.
I would think the opposite to you Andy as the convoy is spread out so more chance of gaps on a 1800 bird send compared to say 3000 in the Worcester fed which is packed of ace sprint fliers
Re: The thing is about the sport.
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 7:43 pm
by Murray
king wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2025 3:51 pm
NeilA wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2025 3:39 pm
You do get crap races like that Andy we had one this year a lad who hadn’t won a club card all year won the fed
We don’t really know why it happened we suspected peregrines at the site scaring the ybs but we don’t really know
I've watch countless libs around York. York/Wetherby/Selby(Bubwith) on both good and bad days and I've never seen the birds leave the transport and head straight for home. So the good & bad birds have left the site together. Now everybody will agree that between the lib point and home end the good birds get to the front.
That immediately reminded me of one time when I liberated back in NZ. The birds arrived on the Friday afternoon. I fed and watered them and took them round the corner to the school playing field in the morning. I put the hampers facing straight north on the line of flight and let them sit.
At 8 am I dropped the flaps and the whole lot just took off straight across the field, over the trees at the far end and were out of sight in moments.
Gone.
Re: The thing is about the sport.
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2025 11:13 am
by PeteDerby
I read an interesting article on this subject by a guy who made some sort of film about tracking pigeons from a liberation site by plane. The details are sketchy in my head but two things did stick -1 that the birds circled and headed off supposedly to home only to return to the liberation site an hour or so later then continue circling for hours until it got to dusk. The writer surmised that something had interfered with whatever it is pigeons use to navigate. Heavy losses were incurred.
The other point was about how in a blow home tailwind the birds stay high in a bunch with the fittest and fastest gradually pushing out in front. Conversely, with a headwind they stayed low to the ground so hills, mountains, tall trees and buildings etc constantly split and resplit the groups. Depending where birds were in these splits in relation to their home line influenced how they did in the race. As someone commented in this thread, it’s not always the best, fittest pigeon thatwins
Re: The thing is about the sport.
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2025 11:38 am
by NeilA
PeteDerby wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2025 11:13 am
I read an interesting article on this subject by a guy who made some sort of film about tracking pigeons from a liberation site by plane. The details are sketchy in my head but two things did stick -1 that the birds circled and headed off supposedly to home only to return to the liberation site an hour or so later then continue circling for hours until it got to dusk. The writer surmised that something had interfered with whatever it is pigeons use to navigate. Heavy losses were incurred.
The other point was about how in a blow home tailwind the birds stay high in a bunch with the fittest and fastest gradually pushing out in front. Conversely, with a headwind they stayed low to the ground so hills, mountains, tall trees and buildings etc constantly split and resplit the groups. Depending where birds were in these splits in relation to their home line influenced how they did in the race. As someone commented in this thread, it’s not always the best, fittest pigeon thatwins
Always be high if the winds up the bum
Pete low in a head wind . Even training mine are telegraph pole height in a head wind skipping over the houses I often think there going to smash into something
Not all pigeon like the head wind and so give different results to a tail wind