Pigeon talk (13-12-25)
Pigeon talk
Until a few years ago, I had the habit of popping into B's every now and then. To talk about pigeons and about birds, which we both loved so much.
B is a pleasant person; not a top fancier, but someone who wanted to become one. That is still the case and will remain so.
Such an eternal talent to speak in football terms. Maybe I also liked him because he stroked my self-esteem. He attributed all kinds of gifts to me that I certainly didn't have. He had heard from fellow fanciers in my hometown that I was unique as a grader, that my pigeons were always in shape and that I otherwise knew how to get them in shape. None of this was/is true.
I sometimes managed to get the best out of a lot of pigeons, but oh so rarely. Who comes close to being named as an 'expert'? There are very few. But if I have to name names, veterinarian Marien would certainly be one of them. Ludo Claessens was also better than average and that certainly also applied to Jan Ouwerkerk. If you let those men pick out birds from your loft, you were guaranteed to have a problem.
WHY
Grading is especially hard because you have to deal with snapshots. In my house a lot of pigeons have been judged by sometimes very big names.
I rarely showed proven good ones. And if I showed them at all, it was out of pride and I didn't even listen to their judgment. I didn't show pigeons that had proven to be no good. So even a big name could not tempt me not to remove a condemned pigeon.
B estimated my pigeon knowledge absolutely too high, but fortunately I had an answer to some of his questions.
NOT STRANGE
He asked if I had an explanation for the following: When he gave a cure 'to clear the heads' (respiratory problems) the same thing always happened:
Such a cure was followed by a good result, the week after was also reasonably good, the weeks after that he was back to square one and was raced badly again.
For me this was not strange at all.
The fancier is put on the wrong track by the good result that follows the cure. He starts to think that antibiotics increase the form, while, certainly in the longer term, the opposite is true.
So why that (short-lived) better result after a cure? Because pigeons are freed from something.
The fact that in the weeks that follow much less is achieved is because pigeons can only be freed from something once. In addition, the AB are going to do their demolition work. This applies to the body of humans but also of animals. A person can start to feel much better for a while, but unfortunately that doesn't last.
NPO
What did I think of the NPO, interlocutor B asked?
Difficult question. I have been a member of the Departmental Board for years, but have rarely occupied myself with something that gave so little satisfaction. Whether you were dealing with individual fanciers, with a club, it was always self-interest above all. This board certainly did/is doing a lot of good and that also applies to the KBDB. But that does not alter the fact that the fanciers should keep their mouths shut. Take the man who does a kind of match report on behalf of the NPO in the weekly message to the reader.
The man is always talking about the winner of a competition. How fast it flew and against how many pigeons. However, it always applied to all competitions held in the country. From different release points and at different times. How stupid can you be.
ANOTHER THING
Inversion is another thing. Nowhere in the world do people believe in it as the cause of losses. Border residents in particular cannot give so much ignorance a place. The following happened repeatedly: Scorching hot weather, the Belgian KBDB advised the liberators to release earlier than planned because of rising heat. The races went smoothly.
While the Belgian pigeons were sometimes already at home, the Dutch were still in the baskets and it was getting hotter and hotter outside. To then be dropped in the heat of the day, resulting in many losses.
Those people will know quite a lot about the weather, but also about ‘pigeon weather?’ Inversion is of all times and is always there in warm windless weather. Also in earlier years when we released early under such conditions for smooth competitions. But the unions also do a lot of good and certainly the NPO cannot be blamed for not being active.
Sometimes it looks like football. It escapes the spectators when a referee whistles perfectly ten times, but woe that one bad match. It makes the media explode.
NATURE
Me and a good friend not only love pigeons.
B and I both love birds, as long as they are not too big.
Buzzards are an exception.
They were almost wiped out by insecticides. In 1932 there were five breeding pairs in the whole of the Netherlands, so I read. Now you sometimes find them in ONE forest. While every rural person knows better, there are still those green do-gooders who continue to insist that the number of birds of prey has not increased.
In some areas no singing birds are left. And no fancier is left.
Birds of prey, foxes, crows, martens, it seems as if the only animal species that thrives is the one that makes others disappear.
And I fear that there is nothing that can be done about it.
Wouldn't it be a task for the unions to try and find a solution for that?
In Germany, some solve it by first releasing some fancy pigeons so that birds of prey stomachs are filled when their racing pigeons are released.
It seems to me a reprehensible method.
Caught by a hawk