Pigeon or Peregrine ?

[Neil B]

Looks like there is not enough room in the sky for both or any bird of prey the more you read into the "attacks map" and a "Raptor alliance" heading.
Maybe i'm lacking the mental capacity to digest and understand what the point of this is at a time when raptor persecution is rife.

http://www.rpra.org/raptor-alliance/

 

[DorsetDude]

" Currently, birds owned by the 60,000 pigeon fanciers in the UK have no legal protection against increasing attacks from soaring sparrowhawk and peregrine falcon populations."

LOL Not convinced peregrines are going to be too bothered by any laws to be honest.

 

[Alastair]

I could do with a couple of pairs of sparrowhawks and peregrines on the allotment to deal the the bloody pigeons flown from a nearby coop. Either that or I'm starting a campaign for the legal protection of brassicas.. ..

 

[Gary Coyle]

Weve got nesting sparrowhawks at my work, shes currently sat on 6 eggs, i witnessed a superb pigeon kill last week as the hawk swooped in and dropped it on top of an external staircase, it then released it, flew 6 ft up and dropped on it again, pigeon s*** is a carcinogen and caused the shutdown of out site a few years back while the guys in white suits cleaned up and killed over a hundred of them, bloody scum they are.

 

[fracster]

Peregrines are nesting in the quarry where I am currently working. Blasting has stopped in that area and the birds seem oblivious to the machinery driving about.

 

[TimmyG]

Surely the possibility of your pigeon being killed by a falcon just adds to the excitement of the hobby?

 

[Nod]

Racing pigeon is tough compared to wood (pigeon!)

 

[Cobra]

These expensive top of the range pigeons must be crap if they are getting caught by Peregrines ,
In America, (its illegal over here) they keep & breed pigeons to train Peregrines for falconry,
The crap ones get killed in a natural selection kinda way, the good ones go on to train
more peregrines, when they get too old for the chase,
they are either sacrificed and "thrown" to a good bird, to finish its training, or pass their genes along to the next generation of peregrine eyas's.

( eyas in falconry terms is a bird that hasn't moulted, / and or its training is in complete, and not a pre- fledgling)

 

[FlyTVR]

Sorry, but after a few glasses of wine, I didn't get passed the phrase pigeon fanciers!

 

[Phil-D]

Racing pigeon is tough compared to wood (pigeon!)

Funny you should say that...........it has been known for the odd one to drop into a pattern of decoys

I'm reformed btw, the only pigeon I shoot now is made of clay

 

[mindcrime]

Have a few Peregrine's nesting in and around my neighbourhood, it's great watching them flash by now and again, and that familiar hak hak call they have.

Well, there was a bit of a commotion around 5.30am this morning as a murder of magpies and crows had cornered a peregrine, and were just badgering and attacking for a full 40 minutes, until a passer by managed to scare the magpies away. It was an awful racket, but the peregrine managed to escape.

 

[BBR]

" Currently, birds owned by the 60,000 pigeon fanciers in the UK have no legal protection against increasing attacks from soaring sparrowhawk and peregrine falcon populations."

LOL Not convinced peregrines are going to be too bothered by any laws to be honest.

They will be, when/if the 'pigeon fanciers' get permission to shoot them.

 

[big soft moose]

surely a 'good' homing pigeon is one that can avoid natural hazards such as predation - if you remove all the hazards wheres the challene in the ... ahem.. sport