Kitbox's blog

Mom was going through the closets this weekend and came across a box of items that was gifted me from the late Joe Kelley. A lot of Joe's items were more of a fetish on tipplers throughout Great Britain. He had a stack of maps that were survey maps of Macclesfield, Manchester, Sheffield, etc. He used to think that in studying the weather of these areas that he was going to learn something profound from the guys that flew in these areas. A lot of the papers were correspondence between him and librarians or others that had access to weather maps and terrain maps.

I found myself in Utrecht, Netherlands today and not much to do. Well, I know there's some flyers in the area, seen so many racing pigeons but just wasn't the day to get caught up with the tippler men. The day was heavy rain. Not much one can do. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed seeing the countless bicycles (some riding bikes with umbrellas!) and some interesting birds and fauna. I enjoyed seeing the long-tailed, blue & coal tits flying around as well as the magpies. Very nice looking birds. Will hope to meet up with the Dutch flyers perhaps in the future.

Another young bird fly is upon us, I see that it is this Sunday. Anyone putting birds up? If so, please do share your experience on fly day. We would love to hear about how your birds do.

Yesterday was the NTU young bird fly. Anyone out there put birds up or know of anyone? Who's flying young birds these days?

I see that three more results for the NTU competitions this year have been posted at their website. http://ntu.tipplers.org.uk Also that Brian Rose will no longer be Secretary of the NTU in September. It appears that Paul Unsworth will be the new Secretary.

Today is the NTU Old Cock fly. I with the best for all participating that they have a successful fly today. May you have a free day from the BOP http://ntu.tipplers.org.uk

Been out of the loop for a little while due to the fact that my brother was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died on March 22, 2016. The family emergency put me out of the loop for a few months and now I'm just getting back to my work and pigeon matters. I will be posting a few things for sale in the near future. At the moment I have a book entitled "Breeding Better Pigeons" by G. H. T. Stovin published in 1964 that is a must for any pigeon breeder. I have an extra copy in GREAT condition and will let it go postage paid throughout North America for $50. postage paid.

Last night I was reading Nino's nostalgic post that reminded me of a photo that I just came across yesterday. I've been sorting and organizing lately and stumbled across these three fellas. I was having a senior moment and the location escaped me for a time before I recalled the location that brought these three together. I think it was the Louisville Young Bird show around 20 years ago (Oct 1997).

The other day I posted some very interesting information about Wilf Lovatt who was the first man to reach 20 hours. However, David Fuller brought to my attention that there was certainly a lot more information regarding this man's birds and his wonderful times. According to the obituaries of Albert Hartshorne, Wilf had flown some birds that were bred by Albert. The obituary stated: "Albert supplied Wilf with a lot of pigeons that he flew big times with, including one in the 20 hour kit". This is not the first time this sort of arrangement has existed and this is obviously something that often works.

Who was the first man to fly 20 hours in competition? I believe it was Wilf Lovatt of Stoke-on-Trent