UkPigeonRacing

Posted: **Tue Sep 16, 2025 3:31 pm**

Heres my two-penneth on why so many birds are getting lost.
We all know how good a pigeons eye sight is. When they are on top of the loft you can see them cock their head when they see percy which could be miles away.
The feckin things have become prevalent and are all over thr place.
Our little soldiers will see them in the air when coming from a race. ( if they dont see them, they are likely to be toast) but if they do, they are not going to keep flying towards it. So my guess is they deviate and then they might see another percy so they deviate again and again.
Its not just peregrines, its buzzards and kites, we know that they wont attack a pigeon in the air but a pigeon is not going to actually fly towards any predator.
I imagine he would deviate 4 or 5 times (or more)on the way home from a 100 mile race.
So yes Devo, I do think the bird needs another chance.
Racing has changed, for whatever reason, and imo its not always the birds fault if they get lost.

Posted: **Tue Sep 16, 2025 5:20 pm**

Diamond Dave wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 3:31 pm Heres my two-penneth on why so many birds are getting lost.
We all know how good a pigeons eye sight is. When they are on top of the loft you can see them cock their head when they see percy which could be miles away.
The feckin things have become prevalent and are all over thr place.
Our little soldiers will see them in the air when coming from a race. ( if they dont see them, they are likely to be toast) but if they do, they are not going to keep flying towards it. So my guess is they deviate and then they might see another percy so they deviate again and again.
Its not just peregrines, its buzzards and kites, we know that they wont attack a pigeon in the air but a pigeon is not going to actually fly towards any predator.
I imagine he would deviate 4 or 5 times (or more)on the way home from a 100 mile race.
So yes Devo, I do think the bird needs another chance.
Racing has changed, for whatever reason, and imo its not always the birds fault if they get lost.

Don't think so Dave. If they see a BOP when flying around home they don't fly away out of sight? They just keep flying around. When racing they are unlikely to see the Peregrine until it attacks, because if they saw it before it would make the attack much more difficult and less likely to succeed.
The majority of pigeons when attacked go to ground and can wait a long time before flying again. If a bird is not attacked it should not deviate whist flying home.

Posted: **Wed Sep 17, 2025 9:14 am**

Ha - ha, cheers King.
I genuinely love the way you shoot down my theories in such a nice way.

I am happy to be put right and am always pleased to have the benefit of your extensive knowledge with the birds and matters of the countryside.
It would be good to have a few more results from these trackers to give us an indication of whats happening to the birds en-route but the trackers need to be good enough to give us all the info and not just say when it stops working.
Maybe the next thing would be to have our flocks protected by armed drones on the way home to take out percy before it hits

Posted: **Wed Sep 17, 2025 6:11 pm**

Devo1956 wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 2:59 pm My mate Ray lost one of his hens from a race, he was telling me he got a phone call. From a guy in Larne Northern Ireland phoned him, saying it had come into his loft. Ray told him he could have the birds if he wanted it, a blue hen 2023 ring. The guy said he will let it stay for a few days, and then let it out with his birds. After a few days the hen returned to Rays home, I think it was involved in a smash with birds flying over to Ireland. Do you think this bird deserves another go at racing?

Definitely

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