THOUSANDS of racing pigeons have mysteriously gone missing while flying to the North-East.

Some 9,000 set off from Peterborough last weekend on a journey to the North-East that should take no more than three hours — but over half are still missing.

Saturday saw up to 250,000 birds released in some 50 races across Britain — with just ten per cent returning in the expected time and tens of thousand remaining unaccounted for.

Richard Sayers, from Skinningrove near Saltburn, who races pigeons said it had been "one of the very worst ever racing days in our history".

Mr Sayers said: “At present people are very unsure what has happened – there are still lots and lots of pigeons still missing in action.

“A lot of people think this is due to something in the atmosphere – like a solar storm above the clouds.

“I just wanted to raise the awareness for anyone who comes across a racing pigeon to feed, water and let rest.

“There is an 80 per cent chance the birds will get on their way after this after a few days.

“Each pigeon has an identification ring on with a code and number.”

Mr Sayers urged anyone who has seen one of the birds land in their garden or their workplace to get in touch.

“If you do then please don’t ignore it, put down a bowl of water and some seed or rice to help it on its way – you’ll know it’s a race bird as it will have rings around its feet.

“We needed our little birds help in the major conflicts and they saved thousands of lives. Now we can do our little bit to help them.”

Kyle Douglass, 20, who runs Whitby Stray Centre, said: “This week we’ve had over 200 phone calls all around the UK asking for help with lost pigeons, just trying to get them back to the owners.

"I run a stray centre, basically we’ve got a network, we gather them all up and then they’ll get delivered to Whitby and then we’ll get them back to the owners.

“We don’t know what it was, and why they all went missing.

“We have had a lot of phone calls this week we have been really busy, rounding them up. Like I said this week we’ve had around 80 all together that’s a lot more than normal and any other week really.

“We do it all as voluntary really, just to get them back to their owners. We go by Whitby Stray Centre.”

Ian Evans, chief executive of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, said: “It wasn’t just pigeons coming from Peterborough to the North-East, it was pigeons racing from all different parts of the country.

“The normal explanation, which doesn’t happen in the modern day, because of our good weather predictions, would have been poor weather, but the weather conditions that we looked back on were more than suitable for pigeons to get home.”