Put yourself in the birds position, up to a couple thousand feet above your loft, the view and distance you can see from that height is astronomical. Not at all human in comprehension at all, really. 50 mile tosses for them are childplay. Their training tosses, if released in a straight line will always pervert their flight path. Might be better to train in all round radius - if your UV light brainwave hypothesis is true. Personally I reckon their training, super vision and recognition of surroundings plays more of a role than anything else. Try a small aircraft ride above your loft on a clear day to get a better understanding of just what they see from that height. Factor in their supposedly exemplary vision as well and that more than anything else is the reason for their homing ability. At 2000ft how far can you see? 50 miles? 75 miles? Not sure? Bloody long way though. Regards from UK
Well done BlueBar. Your display software is by far the best I have seen after extracting the data from the Skyleader GPS ring. I would be interested in discussing your software in private if interested.
Another GPS ring manufacturer is interested in a partnership deal to enable a product to move Pigeon Racing forward from simply usinf a velocity based to something that's much more of a spectical for the viewing public. Watch this space.
The race birds don't carry transmitters as that would be prohibitively heavy and expensive so the race isn't viewed in real time or as it happened. We can't watch the race until the data is downloaded and captured. The software for this I've produced myself and we've been refining the racing over the past year and half. We have two Pigeon Racing Clubs here in New Zealand that use it - Manuwatu Racing Pigeon Club thanks to Lionel Ward and Western Union Racing Pigeon Club (Auckland) thanks to Don Cambell. The hardware for track capture is SkyLeader and the rendering for display is Google Earth.
Hi Roger, I'm not sure I understand your question. The race birds don't carry transmitters as that would be prohibitively heavy and expensive so the race isn't viewed in real time or as it happened. We can't watch the race until the data is downloaded and captured. The software for this I've produced myself and we've been refining the racing over the past year and half. We have two Pigeon Racing Clubs here in New Zealand that use it - Manuwatu Racing Pigeon Club thanks to Lionel Ward and Western Union Racing Pigeon Club (Auckland) thanks to Don Cambell. The hardware for track capture is SkyLeader and the rendering for display is Google Earth.
I always like seeing this type of racing. Very interesting how the pigeons stay together until reaching something they recognize and then change direction to their own loft.
Hi. I enjoy watching the races. I race with HPRC 2nd old bird season. i was wondering if you might tell us a little about your club and birds and how far south you guys would race from. We had our basketing tonight for the first South Island race on Saturday.The question i have is do you have any gps tracking that might explain where and how the birds cross the straight and if you know wether they cross at different locations depending on weather conditions?
Thank you. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I'm trying to figure out what has gone astray with the audio and will repost once I've got it sorted. I posted as is since you guys had waited so long already.
Great video .. I felt like I was watching live horse racing !! The commentary was terrific ... So convincing, I even tried to get a bet on ... Thanks. Dublin, Ireland
Are you able to view their progress in real time or is all the data downloaded upon retrieval of the band after the race? Very cool visualization with the paths tracked in Google Earth! Nice!!!
Im really pleased you've enjoyed the race. Im hoping to promote this type of racing as an option to run along side the classic velocity based racing. In answer to your question, the rings don't have a transmitter and so we use the data stream logged onto the rings as they fly and retrieve the logged data after they return to their home loft. We were hoping to have another race this week but the weather isn't going to be satisfactory so will be delaying the next race to September 13th.
Imagine if you had hundreds of tracking bands! I would love to see the race with more bands. How many separate bands could be run during a race? Is there a limit? I really enjoy your commentary and seeing how the orientation of the pigeons becomes a considerable factor in the race.
100+ would be magnificent. With the single ups there needs to be 10 - 15 minutes between releases to ensure they don't hang around waiting for their mate's to go and rely on another bird for navigation. This release rate of around 4/hour would be the limiting factor to what you have suggested - which is a shame as the software I've written for this presentation wouldn't have any problems with many more competing birds. Humans would have the ability to navigate as pigeons do but can only see the aurora effect they see at very high latitudes in the evening (auroras australis and borealis) but we sense longitudinal displacement whenever we are jet-lagged. Studies done by Cornell suggest the 'clock speed' of a pigeons brain is much faster than ours to the point that a 30 frames per second movie at the cinema would be like a slow slideshow. This suggest the degree of 'jet-lag' a bird feels is felt much more acutely by a bird. This then translate into the ability of the bird to orientate East - West. I'm glad you enjoyed the commentary. I'm sorry about the crackle I'll try and fix that before Mondays Race.
@@bluebar.2030 And, with the invention of the tracking bands on the pigeons, we can get an accurate representation of the fast orienting birds. So many pigeon fanciers have culled their flock by "the basket" method in order to pick their breeders. I think this would make an improvement in their selection process. Maybe a bird that wins the race is kept in a loft as a breeder because the other loft mates had some other problem that kept them from winning, even though they were better. Have you heard of a way to select breeders by their ability to navigate most accurately other than this? Probably not. This is a fantastic tool. Is this the same as the SkyLeader bands or some other company? Thanks. Dan from Norco, California, USA.
@@danielherman1966 I absolutely agree. This provides a new, effective tool to help selection but as with most things I don't think it should be the only metric used to measure a birds performance though. We need to remember our birds have an amazing capacity for remembering a previous route and that will always be their 'go to' choice for navigation. By way of example take a close look at Aerosmiths track and you can see she does a 360 every 20 minutes or so compared to Flap who'd clearly flown the route before and simply flew home via known ground features, Route training and conditioning to me are the key. The magic they are capable of in terms of navigation is brought to the fore with route training and happens naturally so long as the bird is healthy. If we keep our birds healthy and train them often they'll do great things. To your question I use SkyLeader rings. I've approached Skyleader about them using my software but they've not bothered to reply despite the commercial opportunities. Shame. It could have been quite lucrative for SkyLeader with many pigeon fliers buying their rings.
@@bluebar.2030 How are you extracting the data from the Skyleader ring before the default upload to Skyleader? Also is the ring data file in NMEA, if not what is it. The Skyleader customer care is appalling, as I have sent them 4 messages and never received a reply. I also have a friend in Taiwan who spoke with them on the phone and afterwards sent them a copy of my email and once again no reply back.
WTH kind of pigeon racing is this? Weirdest thing I've ever seen. Only about 15 birds total in the race? And why are you whispering so we can't hear you. This isn't a PGA golf tournament..
Hi Joseph. Sorry for the late reply. I've only just noticed your post. I've written the software for this myself to gather the GPS data and syncronise the time stream to a common latitude so each bird can be viewed as though they have flown as a flock and we can see an exact comparison of each birds homing ability. My software then generates a file that can be read by Google Earth. I hope this answers you question.
@@bluebar.2030 Thank you for your response..I thought its a commercially app. At any rate, enjoy your good hobby.. Hope similar software can be eventually introduced in the Philippines..Regards and more power to your channel.!!!
@@josephreyes3227 Thanks Joseph. I wish it was commercially available. I've approached the company that manufactures the rings - Skyleader about them using my software but no reply. So that's a shame. It looks like one of the other GPS ring manufacturers will be taking up the offer soon. Watch this space.
Great way to understand the race and the various routes the pigeons take. Is that from Sky Leader? or another GPS? Thanks, Dan from Norco, California, USA.
Congrats uno loft..very impressive ang performance ni inday ..di bumitaw sa bakbakan,congrats din kay bbm buti inabutan sya ni bear at di bumitaw...npakahusay ng breakaway training toss....!!!
