Had one reported this afternoon

[Andy]

I had a phone call from a fancier this afternoon reporting he had one of my pigeons. The pigeon in question is GB22B11755, blue pied cock from Buster. This pigeon was 44th combine in the first race. He was lost from Littlehampton last weekend. The strange thing is he was reported in Worthing. This is only about 5 miles from Littlehampton and in the opposite direction to me. The fancier is Fred Hall. He knows me and Trev and remembers our dad from many years ago. Dad died 20 years ago this year. He remembered a lot of the old Worthing members from when I was there.
Trev is going to pick the pigeon up for me.

[Buster121]

Nice to see they being reported, makes you wonder if they got scattered and working back or went to ground avoiding hawks

[Trev]

Nice to see they being reported, makes you wonder if they got scattered and working back or went to ground avoiding hawks

Yes either that or they clashed with birds heading east !! I think sometimes there are too many organisations at the same lib point and they don't give enough time between liberations !! Or the lib points are too close together and the race controllers don't take all this into consideration, I think the other thing that is poor these days is that the controllers only look at the weather either end of the race and not what they might hit on route. I might be wrong but back in the day the controller would have several contacts on route he would get advice from before making his decision to release.

I'm hoping to pick your bird up later today Andy, I'll contact Fred in a while.

[Buster121]

Nice to see they being reported, makes you wonder if they got scattered and working back or went to ground avoiding hawks

Yes either that or they clashed with birds heading east !! I think sometimes there are too many organisations at the same lib point and they don't give enough time between liberations !! Or the lib points are too close together and the race controllers don't take all this into consideration, I think the other thing that is poor these days is that the controllers only look at the weather either end of the race and not what they might hit on route. I might be wrong but back in the day the controller would have several contacts on route he would get advice from before making his decision to release.

I'm hoping to pick your bird up later today Andy, I'll contact Fred in a while.

I have to agree with that Trev

[Andy]

I had another one reported this afternoon in Guildford which is almost due north of where they were liberated. He has a couple of secondary feathers missing so obviously had a lucky escape. The person who has him is training this way a bit tomorrow weather permitting. He said that he is in good condition so will let him up if ok tomorrow and hopefully he will make his way back home.

[Buster121]

I had another one reported this afternoon in Guildford which is almost due north of where they were liberated. He has a couple of secondary feathers missing so obviously had a lucky escape. The person who has him is training this way a bit tomorrow weather permitting. He said that he is in good condition so will let him up if ok tomorrow and hopefully he will make his way back home.

Hope he does Andy

[Andy]

Well he didn’t managed to get home. Instead he was reported again this afternoon in Canterbury Kent. So now even further away. He was reported 80 miles away but he is now 152 miles away.
I am sorting out getting him picked up and delivered back home. I think probably having been hit by a hawk on Friday he is very frightened and won’t find his own way home.
I am happy to give him a chance as he came well in his first race. It is No 54 Blue Chequer cock from Buster.

[Buster121]

Shame that is was hoping he would do it under his own steam, didn't know he had been hawked, hope he recovers well

[Andy]

Shame that is was hoping he would do it under his own steam, didn't know he had been hawked, hope he recovers well

Apparently it’s only a couple of flights missing in one wing otherwise ok.

[Murray]

That's why I am dubious about offers to release lost pigeons and let them find their own way home. I have never had one turn up yet.
I suspect that if a pigeon gives up and goes into a strange loft, it is in a bad way, and has lost it's confidence. Tossing them out somewhere just seems to confuse them more, I reckon.
If you bring them home and put them back in the loft, they seem to quickly regain confidence and away they go again.