The fear of many pigeon fanciers came true last weekend, when about 20,000 pigeons went missing during heavy weather in the south of France. Jan Gerrit Wiering from Veenhuizen also flew his pigeons from Bergerac last weekend, but saw all ten of them return happily. He is hopeful that many of the missing birds will now find their way back.
Wiering was twelve years old when he started as a pigeon fancier. The hobby grabbed him and – after a foray into motocross – he became a ‘re-enthusiast’ in 1996. Since then, he has mainly been involved in ‘marathon flights’. Flights throughout Europe, with distances between 800 and 1200 kilometers. His winged friends regularly record good results, including a twelfth place for a pigeon in the marathon flight from Barcelona. “Thousands of pigeons participate in this”, says de Veenhuizer proudly.
Last weekend ten pigeons from Wiering flew back home from Bergerac in France. A little further east, in Narbonne, 26,000 pigeons left the day before. Of those, only 20,000 returned. Caught by the storm, it turns out. The ten of Wiering didn’t notice much of that storm, because they ‘just’ came back.
“You don’t have the pigeons for that,” says Wiering, who sympathizes with his fellow fanciers. “The return of the pigeons, the care and the flying: that’s what you do it for. This is just sad.”
Nevertheless, Wiering advises his fellow milkers not to sit and gloat. “It often happens that pigeons come home later. I once had that a pigeon was only back in the loft two months later.”
The pigeons are also chipped and equipped with GPS rings. “Pigeons can come back from all over the world,” says Wiering. “Even when found at sea.”
Look here at the explanation of the Veenhuizer pigeon fancier Jan Gerrit Wiering: