Interesting again (13-06-23)
Some won't care, but I think it's worth it: The behavior of our pigeons on their way home. 'Where would my 'good blue' be now?' or something along those lines, we pigeonfanciers have been asking ourselves since the existence of pigeon sport.
But we also benefited from the progress made by science and can now perfectly follow pigeons on their way home from a flight. Their location, course, speed, altitude, any breaks, and so on.
All thanks to so-called GPS rings.
They are not cheap, but the ‘stingy Dutch' have been playing with them for some time, recently followed by a few Belgians.Michel Beekman, who has been studying this matter for years, is one of five people who keep me informed of their findings with those GPS chips. It certainly doesn't make me dumber.
TO THE WEST
Following the pigeons provides a wealth of information. What was especially scary? To see how much almost all pigeons deviate to the west on their homeward journey.
Sometimes soon after release.
Koen, an Antwerp long distance racer, who is using the GPS rings for the first time this year, must also have been shocked when he saw how his pigeons had flown home from Bourges. With a wide arc westward. Over Flanders.
Saturday 10 June we had beautiful weather again. Warm and the wind straight from the east. Few pigeons reached 1,200 mpm. Nevertheless, a few blasted into the North Sea at a speed of more than 1,900 mpm.
SOLVED?
I once wrote an article entitled "The Mystery of the SE Wind."
In it I wondered what was the cause of the poor performance of almost all flights, especially for youngsters, with Southeast winds.
That polluted air from the Ruhr area in Germany was a reasonably sensible explanation.
Or is that scientist from the Middle East right? He e-mailed that pigeons instinctively choose the direction where there is water.
I don't know whether that is the case. But deviating to the west with the addition of a south-easterly wind could possibly (!) explain those much-discussed losses. With the emphasis on possible.
That is why it does not seem smart to release with a southeasterly wind on the west line, which sometimes happens. The many pigeons that land on boats, oil platforms or in England with such winds are significant in this regard.
AT HOME
Of course you can also follow the pigeons training at home with those chips.
For example, last year I got a 'track' (track how a pigeon flew) that I couldn't believe. He indicated that pigeons that train at home sometimes up to 100 km. fly far. This was not possible. Something must have gone wrong somewhere. I thought. Until afterwards I received the same information but now from someone completely different.
But it won't be long before we know more. After all, the more people delve into this matter, the more facts surface.
HIGH AND FAST
Some pigeons also fly amazingly high and with periods also fast.
2,100 mpm and even faster, depending of course on how high the pigeon flies. It is known how different the speed of flying pigeons can be depending on the air layer in which they are located.
In my younger years on racing days about ten times as many pigeons flew as now. That was fascinating to watch. You saw pigeons coming over for half a day or longer and sometimes groups that, as it were, slide over each other.
Because they flew at different altitudes at different speeds.
'Flown at a different height', in my opinion, also explains the mysterious lead victories that you sometimes see with a tailwind. Always with tail winds because with a headwind they all fly at the same height. Or better LOW. And at the same low speed.
Whether flying at the right height is a coincidence or a characteristic of good pigeons I really don't know.
REST
It is also striking how many pigeons sit down (for a while) on their homeward journey. Hard to believe, but a user of those chips comes to 15%. That can be fifteen minutes or longer, but also negligible in time.
The latter is the case if the height is (for a while) zero, but the pigeon still makes speed just above a water surface. Do they take a sip while skimming over the water? It looks like that.
HINDERED?
Furthermore, it APPEARS, so this is not an assumption, that pigeons are hindered on their way home by that extra chip of 5 grams.
Nothing has been proven, but if only 2 of 40 pigeons that were fitted with a GPS ring came up with the result, you have reason to be suspicious.
But it is of course not impossible that the fanciers, albeit unconsciously, only put such a GPS ring on their lesser pigeons. And then the data obtained is no longer representative. It is probably also those lesser pigeons that sit down more often.
PORT
Koen who lives north of the town of Antwerp noticed something else. Not once, but so often that you can no longer speak of a coincidence: His pigeons fly in an arc around the port of Antwerp. Right around it or left. But they don't get over it. Right around it or left. But don't get over it. We know that they cross the water, especially in Zeeland, where it is narrowest, but avoid a port? Strange!
AND FURTHER
Sometimes pigeons do the strangest things.
If you toss them, for example, they fly home almost straight and once being close to the loft they pass it or chose a different direction.
Something you also see with pigeons coming from a race, after they were hundreds of kilometers on course, except for that arc to the west, they fly past the loft within a few kilometers radius. These are exceptions, of course, but they are strange.
CHINA
It is known that the government in China controls everything and everyone. I once heard about this from a Chinese student.
I found it particularly disturbing that the Chinese apparently think it's fine. They don't care. It reminds me of Huxley's Brave New World. Any freedom or individuality is banned in it. Those GPS rings also seem a bit frightening to me. At least for the carriers.
The chip rings also show how fast the pigeon trucks ardriving, when, where and for how long they stop.
What time do the wagons arrive at the release site, so how long can the pigeons rest before release?
That (possible) control over more and more must surely be a sign of the times?