Reading Moods

Jack Prescott
(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.