UkPigeonRacing

Class at it's best

I wonder how you get the family to fly that length of time without a night out
The mental strength I mean
Not just the physical strength it has to be in there brain to keep going
How do you find a pigeon to race 17 hours and not night out

There clearly has to be a capacity in the breeding to be able to sustain such a marathon effort

Then I think its a question of just sheer bloody mindedness and tenacity

You should look at these "Military Rogala" pigeons Neil.

They obviously don't home on the day because the distances (and direction) that they race is utterly remarkable

See montage below. 2,811km converts to 1,746 miles!!!

NeilA wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2025 4:16 pm I wonder how you get the family to fly that length of time without a night out
The mental strength I mean
Not just the physical strength it has to be in there brain to keep going
How do you find a pigeon to race 17 hours and not night out

I've often wondered how many fanciers have given up waiting only for birds to arrive after the fancier has gone. I recall sending to the MNFC yb National some 232 miles. They were up very late and I was one of longest flyers that day. I waited till dark and went inside. A couple of hours after dark I sensed a bird pass the window. I got up and found a bird on the loft. Lucky the curtains were left open.

king wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2025 5:04 pm

NeilA wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2025 4:16 pm I wonder how you get the family to fly that length of time without a night out
The mental strength I mean
Not just the physical strength it has to be in there brain to keep going
How do you find a pigeon to race 17 hours and not night out

I've often wondered how many fanciers have given up waiting only for birds to arrive after the fancier has gone. I recall sending to the MNFC yb National some 232 miles. They were up very late and I was one of longest flyers that day. I waited till dark and went inside. A couple of hours after dark I sensed a bird pass the window. I got up and found a bird on the loft. Lucky the curtains were left open.

I believe Cecil Bulled timed the Owl in 1975 to win the combine when it was a large organisation very late in the half light from Thurso to north London
Hence the name

Some history in what this guy says.

https://youtu.be/zauKIX9Gfu0?si=jWg0B2NVfc6tIAJ3

Yes, I remember some years ago, it'd have been in the 1990's I guess

Nesbitt & Sons fly 8 gardens away from us and it was the MNFC Bergerac

They timed a Haelterman cock in for "about" 5th Open or so

I'm not kidding you, we were all stood in the street outside the school opposite our lofts (where all the fanciers stood) and we just managed to see their cock come. I'm not kidding it was bloody as dark as anything. It was only the stright lights that allowed us to get a glimpse of him

Get very few arriving after dark up our neck of the woods. There's a town about 20 miles south of us and then after that with the exception of the nuclear power station you've hardly a streetlight. It's pitch black (unless you have moonlight of course) you've nothing but darkness, the fells one side of you, the sea the other, and a strip of land about 3 miles wide (less in places)not to mention a vast number peregrines. I think majority get about 20 miles from home at dusk at don't dare come through. Think the latest I can remember timing was 22:10

Of course last year from Trev’s longest race from 406 miles not liberated until 10.30am had 3 arrive between 9.51 pm and 9.55pm and another one at 10.57pm.

MIL wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2025 4:59 pm There clearly has to be a capacity in the breeding to be able to sustain such a marathon effort

Then I think its a question of just sheer bloody mindedness and tenacity

You should look at these "Military Rogala" pigeons Neil.

They obviously don't home on the day because the distances (and direction) that they race is utterly remarkable

See montage below. 2,811km converts to 1,746 miles!!!

Some distance there