Reading Moods
(Internet Published) Sept 2000
My kit of 55 dropped all together after quite a good fly. There they all
were on top of my loft waiting for me to open the door and let them in. I
could have had them all inside in just a couple of minutes, but I had the
loft to clean out, the water to change. Anyway, it would do no harm to let
them bounce about in the warm sunshine at 9:15 AM in August. A lot of them
were pecking about on the fore court of the loft; a concreted area. As I cam
out of the loft, brush and scraper in hand, a big yellow and white cat
launched itself at the pigeons on the ground. It had come through a small
fox hole in my hedge.
The entire kit exploded into flight, the cat leaped five feet into the air
to try and snatch one of the pigeons. The cat failed, I flung the brush and
scraper, plus an oath, at the cat and missed by a yard. So the cat bolted
through the fox hole. The cats are very rare, on my place but tend to appear
when I'd rather they didn't. The foxes are mainly nocturnal and no threat
unless I would be stupid enough to leave a pigeon out all night (Crime No
1).
From my observation and reading of my kit, I knew that I was in for a
"Fandango". The kit eventually dropped nervously but wouldn't enter the
loft. I could see them looking at the foxhole, looking for the cat. It took
me two hours to get them inside. Once inside, the pigeons completely lost
all nervousness. Therefollowed another 1/2 hours work plugging the fox hole
with wire mesh and not a few curses. Lord! How I do hate "Moggies" the
English word for cats. The stench of a male cat urine is the most disgusting
of all stinks.
Moods? Friends! I could write a book about the moods of Tipplers, Rollers,
and pigeons in general. Did you ever experience the "flying trance" that
often occurs with Tipplers? An experienced eye will recognise the signs. The
kit develops a mood. They fly as if linked by some invisible chains no more
than 2 feet long. This "Zombie" style can go on and on for hours. Very very
easy to supervise. It may win contests but many hours of this style must be
supported by social contact and conversation not to mention an awful lot of
tea cakes, sandwiches and biscuits to which I am addicted especially the 1/2
covered chocolate fig biscuits and fruit tarts.
The experienced pair of eyes will detect the mood of a kit and the
difference between quitting time and horsing around time. Low flying, for
example, does not always indicate quitting time. It drives me 1/2 crazy to
think of the days when put out my droppers to lure a kit of tipplers, that
were not ready to drop. The signs are there, if we can read them.
All too often the droppers only serve to excite, not to tranquilize a flying
kit. I advocate the use of flying droppers but even these will fail if
launched too early. The allowed 1 hour time to drop and loft a kit of
Tipplers is too short a time to be squandered. I never in my life knew when
one hour passed so quickly. I never knew the drag of time involved with
Tippler timing when and if they company, the conversation, the snacks and
tea were not forthcoming.
Well! you know it is? The Irish are great conversationalists. I could time
for Harry Shannon for a week, provided, of course, that I was kept
reasonably well nourished.