Solar storm activity

[CHARLTON34]

So watched a clip the other day about this subject, he is a keen drone flyer as well as his son races pigeons. He went on to say that when flying his drone that if it goes out of sight it has a facility when activated to return back to it's take off point or in his words home.
This didn't happen it crashed a fair way from his house but he could see it & retrieved it back.
So he looked into this a bit more solar storm activity for that day it had a very high (K Index) which would of messed up the earth's magnetic field & possibly the GPS signal to the drone. He went on to say that if pigeons are released for racing when this activity (K index ) is extremely high then this might be a cause of so many going of the radar & failing to return.
Many causes or possibilities BOP, clashing, mobile phone mast's etc, just thought it was an interesting clip from his way of thinking.
Regards Dave.

[king]

So watched a clip the other day about this subject, he is a keen drone flyer as well as his son races pigeons. He went on to say that when flying his drone that if it goes out of sight it has a facility when activated to return back to it's take off point or in his words home.
This didn't happen it crashed a fair way from his house but he could see it & retrieved it back.
So he looked into this a bit more solar storm activity for that day it had a very high (K Index) which would of messed up the earth's magnetic field & possibly the GPS signal to the drone. He went on to say that if pigeons are released for racing when this activity (K index ) is extremely high then this might be a cause of so many going of the radar & failing to return.
Many causes or possibilities BOP, clashing, mobile phone mast's etc, just thought it was an interesting clip from his way of thinking.
Regards Dave.

This is a old wife's tale. The late Bilco was really a champion for this subject. The BHW used to print the K Index forecast for the next 7 days each week. At first glance it was very easy to blame solar flares (a high Index number) but these believers could never explain why a another Fed on the same day very close to them could still have a very good race.
The Sun is 93 million miles away, and because the whole UK compared to it very small, any solar activity SHOULD effect the entire UK. But since 2 Feds very close together can have both good and bad races clearly shows that it isn't the cause.
I raced for well over 50 years, and I never heard of ANY race ever being cancelled due to a high Solar Index.
And as for other causes such as mobile phone mast's, power lines, Radar these too are ruled out as they don't effect ALL birds. Phone masts are everywhere, and they can't be hardly any race flown that doesn't cross at least one set of power lines.
Clashing(at racepoint, not on route), BOP, or bad weather ARE known causes but these are local events that only effect birds at that location.

[king]

"SUN ERUPTION
That brings us to the pigeons. In the past, there were major losses on flights that coincided with sun eruptions. Was there and is there a connection?
Maybe we will find out this summer.
Johan de L, highly educated and very successful fancier in Flanders with Dutch pigeons, reports that there will be sun eruptions next summer that will almost surpass all others in intensity.
He is curious to see how the flights will go.
If that goes smoothly, then we can also check that off as a cause of losses, says Johan.
And 'we' are all pigeon fanciers.
Will undoubtedly be continued next summer."

That was in yesterdays blog from Ad Schaerlaeckens.

Who knows? It's a bit like climate change, I'm not qualified to say whether it is or it isn't real, so I'm certainly not going to believe it just because someone says so.

Solar flares hit a new record in 2024 and yet I never heard any bad race attributed to them? And your right they are expected to increase further in 2025.

[Bowbroom]

People are fully entitled to believe in whatever floats their boat but in my opinion bad returns from races have nothing to do with solar activity and are caused by
1. Breeding from generations of “paper” pigeons
2. Inept fanciers
3. Sub standard race controllers who do not prepare properly and ignore forecasts and can’t be bothered to secure line of flight info
4. BOP strikes
The first 3 can be dealt with by fanciers but there’s not a snowflake in Hells chance of sorting no 4, and losses due to this must be accepted I’m afraid
ATB

[Winfort Lofts]

I wrote an article on this subject on my website a few months back.

As is said on here, sometimes even we most have a bad race, others will have great races!

I say it could be considered a contributing factor, but not a sole reason!

https://winfort-lofts.co.uk/could-the-k ... g-pigeons/

[king]

I wrote an article on this subject on my website a few months back.

As is said on here, sometimes even we most have a bad race, others will have great races!

I say it could be considered a contributing factor, but not a sole reason!

https://winfort-lofts.co.uk/could-the-k ... g-pigeons/

Do you believe in it? And have you ever not sent when the Index is high?

[Bowbroom]

Whilst I did not intend to list my suggested reasons in priority order I’m surprised that you list breeding from generations of untested pigeons no matter how well advertised at the bottom or am I ?

[king]

The main cause of losses in pigeons is the Weather. Also before BOP was a big issue, WIRES were, and still are a huge problem. BOP will take a few and scatter the rest, but the majority should still return. Wires can take out dozens of birds in a moment. Another big killer is road embankments. In head winds birds will fly very low, but when flying over an embankment will raise just enough to clear it, causing them to cross the road at near road level. I saw this for myself just South of York. A whole batch hit traffic without a single bird making it across the road.

[king]

The main cause of losses in pigeons is the Weather. Also before BOP was a big issue, WIRES were, and still are a huge problem. BOP will take a few and scatter the rest, but the majority should still return. Wires can take out dozens of birds in a moment. Another big killer is road embankments. In head winds birds will fly very low, but when flying over an embankment will raise just enough to clear it, causing them to cross the road at near road level. I saw this for myself just South of York. A whole batch hit traffic without a single bird making it across the road.

I agree wires are a massive one
I do think the BOP is getting close now
I’m scared to train past 18 miles as then your 10 miles south of Cambridge and there is so many new builds estates with new road networks going up I believe the peregrine is moving in more to them areas

If you google a map of the National grid, you will see that there can't be a race route that doesn't have to cross power lines. When I was a kid at school I used to walk under a power line just North of York for about 4 miles every Sunday morning and could find dead pigeons EVERY time I went. If I could find them in just a 4 mile stretch of line, how many would there be over it's entire length? Foxes have learnt to find food under them, they probably now know which days to get a free meal?

[goose1]

BOP population increase, poor quality racing has increased. Don't need to look no further. Anyone who thinks BOP aren't the single biggest problem facing this sport either doesn't race or is wearing blinkers.