On a cloudless day

[king]

Wild birds fly on ANY day. Pigeons CAN also. The day you are scared to send them is the day you should finish racing them.
I'm sure many would take a blue sky over full cloud?
I raced birds for over 50 years and much of that time we raced on days when if flown today, the race would be put back 24hrs or even cancelled. And whilst I don't support racing in bad weather, many will find a reason to not race if they can. The races in the 70s & 80s were flown in ALL conditions, the birds were often slower 900 to 1200, but returns were normally very good. Pigeons that raced back then had a much better constitution and homing ability than many of todays birds.

[king]

Good point too, king. Years ago in New Zealand they would just release the races so long as it wasn't raining too hard.
Yesterday was one of those days here where the sky has a strange, almost electric glow to it is so bright. You don't see a sky like that in NZ. I was uneasy about it so I sent my mate David a text asking what he thought about training youngsters in it.
He didn't reply for a while by which stage I'd scrapped that idea. When I got his reply it was, " Not the best".
And he's an Australian, he's seen these things here for a long time.

I think sometimes you just have to go with your instincts, if something is telling you it's not quite right then don't go, especially with babies.

As you both say, years ago they weren't so precious about the conditions on route, as long as they felt they could get a half decent liberation they would go.
I've personally never worried about it being too clear as long as it's not too hot and humid !! I'd certainly avoid too much heavy and low cloud.
I remember the late Jed Jackson, Google him if you've not heard of him Muzza, a quite incredible man, saying that it wasn't a good sign for racing if the Sun and Moon are in the sky at the same time !! I have seen it a few times but can't say I've ever noticed if there is any truth in it though.

Jed was a great fancier, but another who fell for that old wives tale. The Sun & Moon are always out together (even if you can't see them). They were visible together yesterday and the local birds did well over 1600.