Welcome to the Shetland Racing Pigeon Club webpages.
The Shetland Islands … the extreme North of UK / Scotland...
There is an 'over water' section to our distance racing which measures about 100 miles, including a section of about 20 miles which is made up of the maze of small islands called Orkney. All in all it must be one of the most difficult routes to fly pigeons in the world. Sea water temperatures never get much more than 12c in summer which keeps the air temperature low - an average summer day in Shetland is 16c! Flying pigeons in such an environment is daunting. Our small club is a handful of members, the best we will muster for any race will be in the region of 5 or 6 members. Birdage numbers are consequently small. Most of our races are local sprints of 45 to 50 miles, with the occasional race from the UK mainland. The furthest distance successfully raced in the club's history - at present - is from Morpeth, England - about 350 miles - The sprint races of 50 miles have 25 miles over sea, this serves as a training regime for the birds. Our typical distance racing would involve 250 300+ miles overland and then the real difficult 100 miles at the end of the race when birds are perhaps beginning to tire, a maze of islands and a cold sea to negotiate and cross.
The type of pigeon which survives here is something different, it must have the mental strength to regularly fly over a cold north sea, in small numbers, and be able to negotiate a difficult route through Scotland itself. Strength of character, physical and homing ability are all big players in their makeup. The physical size and shape of birds varies from loft to loft, but the one thing which is obvious is first class feathering quality, with good keel coverage. Any bird that has done the trip four times in a lifetime equals the record for this tough journey.
We would like to dedicate these pages to the Ferrymen of the m.v.'Good Shepherd' of Fair Isle, and to Ossie Moar of Unst. These men transport our pigeons each week-end to the liberation sites of Fair Isle and Saxavord in Unst respectively. Without their help and care shown to our pigeons we would be sunk!
For more information on the club,
check out the club
history, our race
points, and find out where
we are. |
