The following are conditions in which pigeons should not be released:
1. Visibility is less than 5 kilometers.
2. While it is raining.
3 Heavy overcast conditions with low cloud cover, fog or thunderstorm-activity.
4. Strong headwinds in excess of 36 km/h(23 mp/h).
5. Extremely high temperatures 35C+ for old birds and 30C+ for youngbirds.
6 Strong winds with heavy rain on the line of flight.
7. Extremely calm conditions indicating something is not right.
8. When the pigeons inside the transporter are very quiet and indicate something is very wrong.
9. When inversion is present.
10. When the earth's magnetic field is very disturbed and at the same time other negative effects are present.
11. When the pigeons did not have sufficient time to rest after arrival at the release site.
12. If the release time is too late in the afternoon.
13. If the birds do not have a reasonable chance of making it on the day except in the case of long distant races.
The most favourable racing conditions are:
1. Tailwind.
2. Temperatures between 10-25C.
3. Dry weather
4. Good visibility 20km+
5. High and moving clouds with big areas of blue.
Under normal circumstances all convoyers want to release their birds as soon as possible. Right across Europe all the different organisations have thousands of birds in their care on race day. Care should be taken to release the birds at the allocated time in order to avoid clashing. In Holland all race controllers phone to the central institution for pigeon releases of the Dutch Pigeon Association(N.P.O.). With the man in charge, who has all the knowledge of where a pigeon release is planned, the best time for the release is set. Also the internet sites of the belgian and dutch pigeon releases give a perfect idea of what is happening on the line of flight on race day. If racecontrollers from Denmark, Poland, Germany etc. for races to release in Holland, Belgium or France want to work closely with this institution they may contact the Dutch Pigeon Association(N.P.O.) for this service at:
Nederlandse Postduivenhouders Organisatie(N.P.O.)
Landjuweel 38
3905 PH Veenendaal
Holland
Fax: **31-318-523712
Phone: **31-318-525372
secretariaat@npo.nl
One thing is left over. In case of the most favourable weatherconditions it is not adviseable to release too early. The following scheme is a good help here:
1. In the months april and september: release 2 hours after sunrise.
2. In the months may and august: release 1,5 hour after sunrise.
3. In the months june and july: release 1 hour after sunrise.
Copyright 1998. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole, in part, in any form or medium, without the express written permission of Steven van Breemen and Hubert Land, is strictly forbidden.