Declining sport again.

Posted this to a comment in the AC site.
David it is not all gloom and doom! Dave Ottaway moved to the East Coast, Nova Scotia and the club there is now thriving. Seems to be far as I can surmise. I guess it depends on location/area lots of times. Raptors are a problem in some areas. But think back or research. Many years ago they were in decline. So people interested in them helped the population grow. At the same time pigeon racing was thriving. New fliers all the time. So. Very many more pigeons around. Over bred. Fed the raptors to a great extent. All is in balance. The smart raptors survive by catching enough to thrive on. The smart pigeons thrive by not being caught by them. I have Coopers around here and the occasional Peregrine plus some Goshawks etc,. Young birds will be out soon as weather clears. For the first time. They have noticed the hawks and feral pigeons. They are either smart or unlucky. But, not usually a problem. Asian countries are thriving with pigeon racing. So many big money birds go there. So how come they cannot breed their own? All offspring go to big money races and are lost? There will always be a market for champion pigeons. Surprised Tmak has not tapped in to that yet. His will be equal to what they import anyway.

halcanada wrote:

Posted this to a comment in the AC site.
David it is not all gloom and doom! Dave Ottaway moved to the East Coast, Nova Scotia and the club there is now thriving. Seems to be far as I can surmise. I guess it depends on location/area lots of times. Raptors are a problem in some areas. But think back or research. Many years ago they were in decline. So people interested in them helped the population grow. At the same time pigeon racing was thriving. New fliers all the time. So. Very many more pigeons around. Over bred. Fed the raptors to a great extent. All is in balance. The smart raptors survive by catching enough to thrive on. The smart pigeons thrive by not being caught by them. I have Coopers around here and the occasional Peregrine plus some Goshawks etc,. Young birds will be out soon as weather clears. For the first time. They have noticed the hawks and feral pigeons. They are either smart or unlucky. But, not usually a problem. Asian countries are thriving with pigeon racing.  So many big money birds go there. So how come they cannot breed their own? All offspring go to big money races and are lost?  There will always be a market for champion pigeons. Surprised Tmak has not tapped in to that yet. His will be equal to what they import anyway.

Good read type story what Dave Ottaway appears to have achieved Hal . Always thou been fascinated by the poor uptake of pigeon flyers in America etc on average. Perhaps Dave could export his formula there & help them all to grow could just help with the trade balance thing .