The Floaters
(Internet Published) Sep 2001
The old English Macs were floaters. So were the Polish Orliks, Ukraine
Skycutters, Bok and several other breeds of European high flyers. High
flyers they certainly were when the atmosphere was conducive.
The pigeons that I now keep are certainly floaters and after 25 years of
selective breeding I would reckon that they are of my own strain. They are
Tumblers selectively bred for their ability to go into cascades of
simultaneous bouts of tumbling in rather a closely compact formation.
However, I do declare that they have very little resistance to strong
up-draughts and all floaters are the same. On rare days in England these
floaters become like kites and will rise to ridiculous altitudes - up to
1 mile high. The heartbreak is that they cannot cope with this altitude
sometimes; the upper air haze screens their view of the ground below. They
disappear from view and cannot be located even with binoculars.
This kind of excessive high flying is a weakness and certainly not a
strength.