‘Worst day ever’ in pigeon racing history as 5,000 birds vanish
Electroverse
Bird handlers are devastated after THOUSANDS of homing pigeons vanished into thin air during a race across the UK.
Some 9,000 set off from Peterborough, Cambs, on Saturday on a journey to the North East that should take no more than three hours — but over half were still missing as by the time night drew in.
“We’ve seen one of the very worst ever racing days in our history,” pigeon hobbyist Richard Sayers wrote in a Facebook post after approx. 5,000 of the Peterborough racing birds failed to make the 170-mile round-trip flight.
The avian competitors, part of 250,000 pigeons released in approximately 50 racing events across Britain last weekend, remain unaccounted for. In fact, of the 250,000 only 10% returned on time, and tens of thousands have been reported missing across the country.
The organizers suspected a sun storm, however there’s a problem with that theory.
While a solar storm would indeed be possible of creating electrical disturbances throughout the atmosphere, including to the geomagnetic field that these birds use to navigate, there haven’t been any storms of late.
In fact, the sun has been oddly quiet in recent weeks — solar wind fluctuations have been small, and any CME’s that have been fired-off have missed earth.
However, they are on the right track.
Earth’s magnetosphere is losing strength. This is due to 1) an ongoing magnetic excursion/reversal, and 2) the historically low solar activity we’re seeing — as a result of these two factors, our planet’s magnetic poles are wandering which, in turn, is throwing-off the onboard navigation systems of certain animals. More here.
And it’s not just birds.