Temperature and training

[Anthony webster]

Mike with running dogs ,pigeons every mistake iv made I'm one of them iv had to learn the hard way ,but one thing I'm very gifted with is stock sence n fast eyes I can spot a lame dog in a picture from 100 yds n can pick a idiot bird out pretty quick in team and sence something up in loft with in seconds

I'd say thats a "gift" Ant. Surely that can only be bought about by experience and experience comes about thro seeing it and doing it - doing wrong and doing it again until you get it right.
You guys ain't serial winners for nothing!!!

My weakness dave is patience iv very little pal it's my weakness, I try calm my self but some times it let's me down .

[worm]

sounds class Mike irreplaceable knowledge that 99% of people will never get the likes off again

[PeteDerby]

First trainer today - just 8miles. Got hit by a peregrine as they circled high to clear.

I have a pigeon I call ‘leg down’ (g-son of wing down) as he got shot or smashed up as a young bird, busting a leg at the shoulder and he returned with his leg hanging down as as he flew in then landed in a heap.

I managed to put him back together and he’s cock of the loft now. Didn’t race or train him for the rest of the season last year but wanted to give him a chance to show what he can do as a yearling.

The main batch shot home despite the hit and rest came back over the course of the morning. The last one to drop in just as it was getting dark this evening was leg down - it was him that got hit. Talon across the chest and 50% of his tail missing, but back he came.

I can’t work out if he’s the luckiest, pluckiest, or unluckiest pigeon I own?

[Anthony webster]

Just got to keep punching each day pete ,,no rest for wicked pal

[Albert]

First trainer today - just 8miles. Got hit by a peregrine as they circled high to clear.

I have a pigeon I call ‘leg down’ (g-son of wing down) as he got shot or smashed up as a young bird, busting a leg at the shoulder and he returned with his leg hanging down as as he flew in then landed in a heap.

I managed to put him back together and he’s cock of the loft now. Didn’t race or train him for the rest of the season last year but wanted to give him a chance to show what he can do as a yearling.

The main batch shot home despite the hit and rest came back over the course of the morning. The last one to drop in just as it was getting dark this evening was leg down - it was him that got hit. Talon across the chest and 50% of his tail missing, but back he came.

I can’t work out if he’s the luckiest, pluckiest, or unluckiest pigeon I own?

I have had birds like this over the years, and sometimes it makes me wonder, if it is their reaction to the attack, or position in the group that makes them the target. And have also found, that when uninjured they still return late at night, which I think is down to a loss of confidence, and usually stop racing these birds. I have also have had birds, that have been caught, and injured but their confidence was intact, and have went on to show a good account of themselves at 500 +.

[PeteDerby]

Thanks as always gents. My heart says don’t race him - then my head says I’ll never know if he was any good.

[PeteDerby]

First trainer today - just 8miles. Got hit by a peregrine as they circled high to clear.

I have a pigeon I call ‘leg down’ (g-son of wing down) as he got shot or smashed up as a young bird, busting a leg at the shoulder and he returned with his leg hanging down as as he flew in then landed in a heap.

I managed to put him back together and he’s cock of the loft now. Didn’t race or train him for the rest of the season last year but wanted to give him a chance to show what he can do as a yearling.

The main batch shot home despite the hit and rest came back over the course of the morning. The last one to drop in just as it was getting dark this evening was leg down - it was him that got hit. Talon across the chest and 50% of his tail missing, but back he came.

I can’t work out if he’s the luckiest, pluckiest, or unluckiest pigeon I own?

I have had birds like this over the years, and sometimes it makes me wonder, if it is their reaction to the attack, or position in the group that makes them the target. And have also found, that when uninjured they still return late at night, which I think is down to a loss of confidence, and usually stop racing these birds. I have also have had birds, that have been caught, and injured but their confidence was intact, and have went on to show a good account of themselves at 500 +.

That’s an interesting point you make, Albert. Ever since I started loft flying him and then training chucks before he was hit the first time he’d break away from the group and be back well ahead of the rest. I really thought he was going to be something special.

First chuck after he recovered from the bust up leg he dropped straight onto a farm roof and made his way back 2 days later - I figured his confidence was shattered.

He’s since built back up and has been a real sight to behold. Yesterday, before he was hit, he did his thing and broke away from the group for home almost immediately, then whack, down came the peregrine.

Race him and risk breaking his spirit? Breed off him but what has he done other than have famous grandfather?

[Anthony webster]

Normally pete when u get a single bird from training first especially with baby's it's because they can't keep up the baby's if not fully switched on go roaming during there toss ,you know this because they turn up in the batch so the single one who can't keep up returns first.

[The Maltster]

For me it's always been driven by numbers - and that started from a young child

Aged 6/7 I'd be sat next to Mum on a Friday night and fanciers would present their sheets to pay their money. A lot of the guys didn't do the calculations at the bottom of the sheet so I did it and then Mum checked it. Remember there was like 75 fanciers sending each week at that time. That's a lot of Maths being performed each night there. Week in week out this continued as a kid

When I was in my last year at Primary School we did a "Times Table Test" every Friday morning. 100 questions featuring anything and everything from 1 x 1 through to 12 x 12. You had 2 minutes (120 secs) to do 100 questions. I can't remember anyone getting more than 65/100 in the 2 minutes - but I always got 100/100. Not only that but I'd do it with about 30 secs to spare each time. I was rapid, and it just tested me on everything I'd been doing for years.

My children and until recently G.Daughters went to the same school and there's a display of school records on show in the Foyer. The Times Table record is still mine. On my last Friday I did the 2 minute test with everyone else. Then they tested me on my own to see what I could do in 60 secs. I got 93. When the buzzer went there were 7 questions left.


Aged about 10 or so I started to help Dad do the result. We'd take the sheets home on a Saturday night and do the result on the Sunday morning. This gave me an insight into ring numbers of fanciers best pigeons and I ate it like candy. When 1983 came it brought vaccination into the equation and Dad and me started to vaccinate the pigeons in the area from most of the best lofts. I knew all the numbers of the best birds and it gave me my first real insight into what good birds looked and felt like. It was invaluable.


The next big learning curve came in 1990/1991 when Mum was appointed as MNFC Secretary. By this time I was working and it gave me an introduction into some of the best fanciers in the country visiting our home on a fortnightly basis. The likes of Geoff Kirkland, Harold Hamplett, George Litherland etc. all sat together on the sofa for a couple of hours drinking tea and talking pigeons. It was like my own private Quiz Panel but in our own front room. For once in my life I kept my mouth shut and ears open. I absorbed as much as I could. It was a privileged environment and I knew it

As MNFC Press Officer that then took me into the best lofts and seeing/handling elite pigeons. Again, it was a privileged education, and one I'm been eternally thankful for. Different fanciers taught me different things. Geoff taught me how to spot respiratory from 6 feet away. Litherland taught me the "never settled for second" mentally. Every visit I went on I learnt something (whether it be good or bad).

Happy Memories

Golden days Mike, sadly never to be repeated.
You've met some of the best fanciers
this country, never mind the Midlands has seen .
You'll never forget them magic moments with your Mum and Dad, they should have got a Lifetime Achievement Award for their work with the MNFC.

Like you Mike, I was pretty sharp with mental arithmetic too, makes me laugh when I go shopping and say my bill was £8-42, I'll give the young cashier a tenner, and say do you've want the 42p , and they look at me gone out as they've already entered the £10 on the till and it's worked out the £1-58 change

[Anthony webster]

Brilliant that Mike