ONLY A DEAD TIPPLER DOES NOT FLY

The English flying Tippler is a pigeon from the Tumbler family and comes originally from Pakistan and India. The Tippler was cultivated on the green island to the performance pigeon it is today. England is also the motherland of the Tippler sport in Europe.

MANY FLYING PIGEON BREEDS

There are several flying pigeon breeds: Height flying pigeons, Rollers, Tumblers, Steep Flight pigeons, Diving pigeons, Fun Flying pigeons, Distance Flying pigeons (mail pigeons) and Marathon Flyers. Marathon flyers are the flying Tipplers that are called simply Tipplers by the pigeon breeders. The Tippler is the only Marathon Flying pigeon. The competitions with the Tipplers are listed in all of Europe (see the link “competition”]. At the competitions it is about which team flies the longest, nonstop naturally.

THE FIRST COMPETITION (1859)

How can it be different, it was held in England. In the English pigeon paper “pigeons” from Nov. 6th 1908 Joe Hand was introduced as one of the pioneers of the Tippler flying sport. The Hall Family came from Macclesfield, a town that is known as the birth place of the Flight Tippler. Hall´s father had already been a fascinated Tippler breeder and sportsman. For work reasons the family later moved to Stockport / Congleton, where the pigeon flying sport was also very popular. On June 9th 1859 the first competition started: Hall´s pigeons started against the pigeons of the local Mr. Stubbs. Hall´s pigeons stayed in the air for 8h20min. The pigeons of Mr. Stubbs landed already after 4h. On June 9th 1876 there was another competition. The pigeons of Joe Hall started again, but this time against pigeons of a breeder named Ball. Now it was about money, lots of money, namely about the, for that time, horrific amount of 10 pounds sterling. Unfortunately the weather did not play along that day. It rained all the time and Hall´s pigeons lost with 9,28 flying hours against the pigeons of Mr. Ball which flew 11,08 hours.

FOUNDING OF THE FIRST TIPPLERCLUB

On June 5th 1900 Hall´s pigeons flew 14,26h, those of his opponent 13,18h. Bet was at that time 20 pounds sterling. In the meantime a club was founded with the name “All England Tippler and Tumbler Society” (AETS). Now the competitions were more regular. On August 4th 1902 Hall´s pigeons flew 13,32h. On August 4th 1903 Hall was not lucky: the pigeons of a breeder from Sheffield flew 14,04h. On August 2nd 1904 Hall made a world record with his young Tipplers (6-8 months) of 14,04h. Hall was at that time the only one that did such a performance with young Tipplers. But also the performance of Hall´s older Tipplers could be seen. He was the first whose Tipplers flew over 17h: his team flew exactly 17,10h.

IN GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND IT WAS MORE RELAXED

In Germany 1959 young Tipplers flew 13,20h (Markus, Kassel), grown Tipplers 10,02h (Gruber, Braunschweig). From 1961-1964 there was a club in Switzerland named: “Schweizerische Flugtippler-Union” (SFU). The best flights were on July 1st 1961 with 10,15h (Nussbaumer), July 7th 1962 with 11,55h (Nussbaumer), June 22nd 1963 with 13,41h (Nussbaumer) and in July 1964 with 15,37h (Nussbaumer). In England Hall was the leader, in Switzerland it was Nussbaumer. These are enormous performances that the Tipplers do, despite the fact that they are smaller than street pigeons. The color is not important with the Tipplers (as with all performance pigeons). They exist in all known pigeon colors.

BACK TO THE PRESENT

In Switzerland the Tippler sport was not as known as the mail pigeon sport. In 2001 the first competition took place on the 21.4. starting time 6.00. I started with 5 females, they were one and two years old. For the competitions I usually need two referees. One from start to early afternoon, the other until the end. Before starting, the wrist band numbers were noted on the competition protocol. 6 o´clock sharp the pigeons were released. It was still a little dark but they rose swiftly to middle height. During the whole competition they flew in different heights and in various circles above the pigeonry. The five females were very fond of flying and had proven themselves in many competitions already.

THE RAPTOR

At 15.50 happened the worst that could happen to a pigeon sportsman. The referee called very excited: “the bird, the bird, come the bird is here!” swiftly I was outside and saw how the peregrine falcon attacked a pigeon. The feathers were just flying around, but he didn´t catch her. She fled between the houses. Now he attacked the second pigeon. She went left and right several times and was gone from view. I was very angry at the peregrine falcon. In the meantime the four other females reformed a team and flew their rounds. The referee and I searched the sky for the fifth pigeon. Unfortunately without luck. The pigeon never came back. She was one of my best Tipplers, after the competition I had wanted to use her for breeding. Now her worthy genes are lost forever. The other four flew until 21.22, that´s 15,22h. For me this would have been a good flight. But because I didn´t have all the pigeons with which I had started, I was disqualified. That´s the rules, but it hurt nonetheless. When the females returned to the pigeonry I saw that something hung down at one pigeon´s side. I took her into my hands and saw that she had a large wound (see the picture at the end of the story). This was the pigeon that the peregrine falcon had attacked first. It is remarkable that the pigeon flew with this wound another 5,32h. She could have landed anytime. BUT THE TIPPLER WANTS TO FLY AND ONLY DEATH CAN STOP IT. It was difficult to find a vet that evening that would examine the pigeon. The wound healed well, but I couldn´t use her for flying anymore. Over one third of my pigeons are destroyed like that (see the link “disadvantages” on my website).

Wale.