Pigeon race: Over 5000 birds vanish into thin air, breeders blame 'atmospheric conditions'

A mind-boggling five thousand pigeons have seemingly disappeared in what has been labelled “one of the very worst ever racing days”. While taking to Facebook, pigeon hobbyist Richard Sayers informed that around 9,000 birds had set off from Peterborough on their way to the North East on June 19. He added that while the round-trip flight should have only taken three hours, over half the avian competitors were still unaccounted for as of last night. 

It is still unclear what prompted the pigeons to seemingly vanish into thin air. But Sayers, whose local pigeons coop reportedly lost as many as 300 birds, said that most breeders are “blaming the atmospheric conditions” - possibly a solar storm above the clouds that created static in the atmosphere. It is worth noting that Homing pigeons use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate, but their sense of direction can be distorted by a geomagnetic storm. 

Met Office to find any unusual solar activity 

In a bid to help find the birds, Sayers has asked anyone who sees the pigeon's which have identification rings, to give them food, water and rest, before allowing it to continue on its way. He, however, also said that there is an 80 per cent chance that the birds will get on their way after a few days. “If your unsure what to do then message or call me and I’ll advise, if you can contain it I’ll gladly call round to try and get them back to the rightful owners,” Sayers added. 

Meanwhile, according to NY Post, to prevent such disasters in the future, Royal Pigeon Racing Association boss, Ian Evans, is holding talks with the UK’s national weather service to obtain reports on any unusual solar activity. Evans said that he has never heard of anything like this, and further added that even though the weather conditions were good, something happened that disrupted the pigeons’ navigational abilities. He also noted that there have been similar reports of heavy losses in Portugal and Belgium. 

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