After a recent organised trip up to Scotland where my wife and I visited my daughter's in-laws in Dollar, a beautiful place with some wonderful scenery, and a visit to John Thomson's loft in Falkirk which is about 20 minutes from Dollar across the Kincardine Bridge over the River Forth, we arrived back home on Merseyside (Kirkby). We spoke about how much we had enjoyed our short three-day break and for me especially, being a West of England Tumbler fancier, it gave me the opportunity of seeing John Thomson's team of Wests. John is well known all over the UK on the show scene, and of the three days we were up in Scotland I spent a few hours each day at John's lofts where we were made very welcome by John and Margo.
John and I have, over the years, become good friends and we keep in touch all the year round - he is always ready to talk pigeons and give advice on the birds whenever he can. Anyway, back to my visit, anybody who has seen John's birds when he brings them out to show, knows how exceptionally well they are turned out, second to none, and it came as no surprise to me when I entered John's lofts that all his birds were in the same condition at home.
John's birds consist of mainly duns, blacks and a few bars in silver.
The first thing that struck me when I entered the loft with John was how content and well the birds looked, and the obvious relationship and rapport between John and his birds, the cocks would lift their wings and start blowing, this representing a challenge, also a sign of dominance, not one or two cocks but all of them. John went to each individual cock with his hand and they all stood their ground and had a go. Not one came off its perch. Into the hen loft, and a word from John and they all started spinning and nodding in an amorous fashion, once again each hen was approached and responded, not one leaving its perch. Another word from John and about six or more hens were trying to get to perch on John, clearly showing the relationship between John and his pigeons and that they were not bothered by a stranger amongst them.
As you can imagine, I was like a child in a sweet shop, all the birds complied with what John considers to be an ideal West. Each day I handled the birds time and again and was firing all sorts of questions at him, which he answered. We spent some time indoors and spoke about all aspects of keeping and showing Wests, John has been around the show pens for some time and is a very experienced pigeon fancier and is a mine of quality information based on commitment to his birds. He sets high standards and gives maximum effort which results in what you see when you enter the lofts of John Thomson.
Well, time had run out and we said farewell to our friends and left for home. As mentioned earlier I discussed our visit with my wife when we arrived home, I wondered if John would mind if I did an article for Feathered World covering my visit thinking it would be of interest to the other flying breed fanciers. I spoke to John and he said he didn't mind. Obviously I have already covered some aspects of our visit so I will continue with the rest.
