Before starting these notes I must apologise to my readers for the absence of notes in the last issue. This was due to a slight techy problem between my machine and that of our Editor, that glitch has now been sorted. I appreciated the comments of those fanciers who contacted me to enquire where my column notes were. It is nice to know that some fanciers out there do still read them.
On one of the exceedingly scarce rainless days of our somewhat damper than usual summer I had the pleasure of driving up to Bradfield to judge some of the birds entered in the Reading Club's Norman & Eileen Dance Memorial Show. Many of the older generation of showmen will remember Norman with fondness. He was a great pigeon fancier with a wicked sense of humour whose special talent was first and foremost always with the Archangel and later the Nuns as well, two breeds with which he did more than his fair share of winning. All the way along the various motorways that connect our village with that of Bradfield (the M2, M20, M26, M25 and finally the M4) it was very obvious that many folk had experienced the recent flooding to some degree. Not quite in the Yorkshire or Gloucester, Tewksbury and Cheltenham class, but still more than enough to make life very difficult and most uncomfortable.
The roads
leading to the show hall were in places just about negotiable if speed was
kept to an absolute minimum. Thankfully most of the exhibitors somehow managed
to get there and as is usual at this club, a friendly but very competitive
event was able to commence on time.
Amongst the many good quality, well presented birds in my section were a super
blue laced Polish Lynx from the Pratt family lofts and a white self African
Owl shown to perfection by Tony Glew. I narrowly made the Owl best in my section,
it then went on to take BIS and I believe also topped the 'Challenge' class.
Well done Tony.
It was great having the opportunity of again meeting up with friends old and new and particularly good to see Pat Pratt looking remarkably well and performing in his usual jovial and friendly manner.
Since that event, just a few weeks ago, the birds in my lofts have started to literally fall apart. The removal of the nest bowls seemed to trigger the daily shedding of mountains of feathers. I have just finished dosing them all with Ivermec based neck drops so now, with the help of the thrice weekly baths and a few handfuls of 'goodies' mixed with the corn I am hoping for a good, trouble free moult to take them into the rapidly approaching show season that is now looming, literally just a few weeks away. Schedules are starting to drop through the letterbox on an almost daily basis at the moment.
