which ensures that the pigeons reach the race
point in great shape and ready to fly back over the
English Channel to their home loft in the heart of
England.
The plan for the coming racing season is to hold
five old bird races from Caretan, Vire and Fougeres
in Northern France, then one from Ancenis in the
Centre of France with the finale from the famous
wine producing area of Bordeaux which is down in
the South of the country.
As I write this short piece we have an entry of 8,890
birds for our first race of the year. We then hold two
shorter races for the 2015 bred birds from Portland
and Carentan on the Cherbourg Peninsula.
We consider that youth development is absolutely
vital to our sport of pigeon racing if it is going to
continue into the future because society today has
changed with youngsters spending more time
behind key boards rather than following outdoor
pursuits.
With this in mind, the Midlands National
Flying Club has with the financial aid of the
sport’s governing body the Royal Pigeon
Racing Association built a website called www.
flyingbacktonature.com which many schools are
using as a great teaching aid as pigeons can be
used in so many varied subjects and offer new and
exciting ways to educate while also making our
younger generation more aware of pigeons and all
that they have to offer.
One such school is Kingsmead Technical College
which actually has an active loft of racing birds which
the children love. We have also started a further
project on the internet called www.secretmessages.
org.uk and so far over 150 schools have contacted
the site and had visits from our ‘secret agents’ who
have given actual demonstrations of how the birds
carried messages back to their lofts. Nearly 250,000
school children have witnessed how their secret
message got delivered and emailed back with the
time of the bird’s arrival home recorded.
In addition, in September 2014 the Club presented
a Portland stone plaque to the Mayor of Carentan
to celebrate the contributions of racing pigeons
during the two World Wars. This plaque is now
on show outside the Town Hall in Carentan. The
mayor attached a good will message to one of
Queen Elizabeth’s birds and the message was
successfully carried back to the Royal Lofts in
Sandringham.
The Club’s biggest future challenge and ambition
is t