By Thousands of pigeons in UK vanish mid-race in mysterious phenomenon
On Saturday 19 June, thousands of pigeons vanished into thin air as 50 races across the UK took place, with the day now being branded as the ‘worst’ in pigeon racing history.
In a ‘Bermuda Triangle style mystery’, only 10 percent of the 250,000 pigeons that were released came back within the expected time.
Thousands of the birds are still missing and some have been spotted as far away as Majorca and the Netherlands.
The strange disappearances first came to light when it was reported that more than 4,500 pigeons disappeared after taking part in a race from Peterborough to the North East.
Races in other parts of the UK also experienced the same thing.
Race controller Dene, 38, from Swansea, told The Metro: “We’d let ours go from Swindon at midday on the same Saturday – that’s a 92 mile journey with the wind behind them, so it shouldn’t have taken that long.
“But, of the 1,400 that went out, only about 200 to 300 made it home. And when we looked on social media later on we saw that lots of other federations around the UK had experienced something similar.”
Tasked with deciding when and where birds are released on each race day, liaising with other federations and checking the weather situation, Dene said there’d been no warning signs that something odd was about to happen.
He added: ‘The forecast had been overcast in the morning but with good visibility – by the afternoon there were clear blue skies back home in Swansea.
“Which is why I think something invisible to the naked eye occurred, something that messed with the birds’ internal Sat Nav and caused them to veer off course drastically.”
He said that the pigeons can navigate by using the Earth’s magnetic field as a guide – but freak occurrences like solar storms can end up distorting the birds’ sense of direction.
This could be an explanation behind the mysterious phenomenon, but the answer still isn’t clear.
Dene added: ‘There was definitely something strange going on that day because there were hardly any wild birds in the sky at all beforehand, it was just dead up there.
“Personally, I’ve not ruled out a series of mini tornadoes being to blame.”
