Glad all survived itMurray wrote: ↑Fri May 20, 2022 9:27 am That's the happy story.
After a couple of hours I was wondering why the young birds were nervous and constantly flying away from the loft.
Sparrowhawk.
I was standing between the loft door and the back door of the house. It's a space of about 3 metres. I was calling the pigeons in when the hawk went through the gap, at shoulder height, at 100 miles an hour. The pigeons went in all directions.
Another hour latter, I finally got them in. They were all over the loft, none were are on their own perches. I spent half an hour sorting them out, making sure they had a feed and they all had a perch.
It was dark by then, so i left the lights on for a few minutes so they could get their minds sorted out.
Next issue?
There's a sparrowhawk needs to go away.
Life in Bendigo.
There was a Federal election in Australia today.
It's a Federal election because Australia has 7 states which are in the Federation of Australia.
You would call it a General election.
I am a kiwi, so I can't vote here. If I was almost any any other nationality, no problem, citizenship is automatic. They don't like New Zealanders. We keep beating them in, well, pretty much everything.
Anyway, I was asked to go to a polling booth and hand out leaflets for a local bloke standing for a smaller conservative party which has captured about 10% of the total vote at the last couple of elections. Think 'The Greens', without the dementia.
So I rocked up at 8 o'clock, and spent 7 hours with a great bunch of people, representing every party from the Greens on one end, to One Nation on the other end. That was me.
I did it at the last election. I wondered if it would be fun again. I was not disappointed. After a few hours we were all mates, the Federal member for Bendigo, the Labor MP, bought her small boy over so I could meet him. He is 1, and beautiful.
When someone had to go for any reason, we just held the line for them and swapped leaflets with each other.
I reckon we have the whole system wrong.
The electoral system is adversarial. We need to stop opposing each other and start seeing how terrific the other bloke is.
Just because i don't agree with you does not mean I am wrong. or you are wrong.
It's a Federal election because Australia has 7 states which are in the Federation of Australia.
You would call it a General election.
I am a kiwi, so I can't vote here. If I was almost any any other nationality, no problem, citizenship is automatic. They don't like New Zealanders. We keep beating them in, well, pretty much everything.
Anyway, I was asked to go to a polling booth and hand out leaflets for a local bloke standing for a smaller conservative party which has captured about 10% of the total vote at the last couple of elections. Think 'The Greens', without the dementia.
So I rocked up at 8 o'clock, and spent 7 hours with a great bunch of people, representing every party from the Greens on one end, to One Nation on the other end. That was me.
I did it at the last election. I wondered if it would be fun again. I was not disappointed. After a few hours we were all mates, the Federal member for Bendigo, the Labor MP, bought her small boy over so I could meet him. He is 1, and beautiful.
When someone had to go for any reason, we just held the line for them and swapped leaflets with each other.
I reckon we have the whole system wrong.
The electoral system is adversarial. We need to stop opposing each other and start seeing how terrific the other bloke is.
Just because i don't agree with you does not mean I am wrong. or you are wrong.
Greetings from the land down under.
Not a surprise at all, Buster. I predicted it in a letter to the paper a few weeks ago.
The Morrison government let the people of Australia down very very badly. Each state has a premier, sort of a prime minister for that state. The premiers have done the people of Australia a great deal of harm with Covid vaccine mandates, lock downs, shutting state borders and imposing regulations which have been horrific at times. Scott Morrison just let them get away with it.
He could have intervened. Section 109 of the constitution of Australia gives Federal law precedence over state law. They could have passed legislation stopping it, but he was too weak.
I wrote that Mr Morrison did not deserve to be re elected. Obviously a lot of people agreed.
Greetings from the land down under.
AgreedMurray wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 11:51 pmNot a surprise at all, Buster. I predicted it in a letter to the paper a few weeks ago.
The Morrison government let the people of Australia down very very badly. Each state has a premier, sort of a prime minister for that state. The premiers have done the people of Australia a great deal of harm with Covid vaccine mandates, lock downs, shutting state borders and imposing regulations which have been horrific at times. Scott Morrison just let them get away with it.
He could have intervened. Section 109 of the constitution of Australia gives Federal law precedence over state law. They could have passed legislation stopping it, but he was too weak.
I wrote that Mr Morrison did not deserve to be re elected. Obviously a lot of people agreed.
I would hate to be a young family trying to survive under the new left / far left government in Australia.
But I am old and I shall just keep doing what I have always done, paying no attention to the woke left, the gender theorists, the climate warmists and the alphabet people.
So, today it was a perfect afternoon, the sun was shining, and the cats had been out while I did the vacuuming. At 3.30 pm I let them all out, and they had a nice fly, a bath, a poke around, and the old birds put themselves away.
Then the young birds, after gathering on the roof of the house, took off!
I don't know about anyone else, but an hour later, when they were fully in their stride, it send shivers down my spine watching them work.
They would do a couple of loops, get into formation, then GO! Down the rise to the Bendigo creek, about half a mile away. 100 miles an hour.
A minute later they would drive over in a straight line and disappear.
Then they would come back, swing round and round, group up, and GO!
Then when they had been doing this for an hour and a half, the younger ones had long since given up and gone in. Too hard.
I had fed everything except the big young birds. Finally they put the brakes on, in 30 seconds they were all in.
They were so hot I left the front of the loft open until they had had a feed and a drink and settled down. You could feel the heat coming off them.
When I took the feed away, closed the loft, and before I turned the lights off, I picked a few of them up. Some of them wriggled. Instead of holding them I opened my hand and let them lie in the palm of my hand.
I doubt that many people would describe keeping racing pigeons as "exciting".
This is.
But I am old and I shall just keep doing what I have always done, paying no attention to the woke left, the gender theorists, the climate warmists and the alphabet people.
So, today it was a perfect afternoon, the sun was shining, and the cats had been out while I did the vacuuming. At 3.30 pm I let them all out, and they had a nice fly, a bath, a poke around, and the old birds put themselves away.
Then the young birds, after gathering on the roof of the house, took off!
I don't know about anyone else, but an hour later, when they were fully in their stride, it send shivers down my spine watching them work.
They would do a couple of loops, get into formation, then GO! Down the rise to the Bendigo creek, about half a mile away. 100 miles an hour.
A minute later they would drive over in a straight line and disappear.
Then they would come back, swing round and round, group up, and GO!
Then when they had been doing this for an hour and a half, the younger ones had long since given up and gone in. Too hard.
I had fed everything except the big young birds. Finally they put the brakes on, in 30 seconds they were all in.
They were so hot I left the front of the loft open until they had had a feed and a drink and settled down. You could feel the heat coming off them.
When I took the feed away, closed the loft, and before I turned the lights off, I picked a few of them up. Some of them wriggled. Instead of holding them I opened my hand and let them lie in the palm of my hand.
I doubt that many people would describe keeping racing pigeons as "exciting".
This is.
Greetings from the land down under.
Sounds like they’re going well Murray. It is great spending time to just sit and watch them exercising. My youngsters are just starting to go now. I don’t let them out until late afternoon for a couple of hours. The old birds are on open loft and are left out when I let the youngsters out.
Back just enjoying club racing for the time being.