Deja vu all over again

Weather was 30% chance of rain but it looked iffy AFTER I got up, fed and watered all three lofts (and chickens too) and had them boxed. It was trash day and I was actually ahead of schedule. I had plenty of time to settle the birds and watch them disappear over the horizon. The wind was calm to 2mph NW, still, they beat me home today. They will stay up all day and get boxed for a 2nd race from 165 miles. I hope I have them in better condition than last time. Three of them have never been on a race. I dropped a bird yesterday, a small red hen, and so I am down to 16 birds (and 3 of them are unbanded). All 13 will go on the A Race and the 3 unbanded will have to prove themselves out to 225 to stay in the loft unbanded (two are really pretty - that gets them a pass on 300 miles).

More Road Training

Nice morning. Again, they looked good. You can tell they like this drop and they know where there are (42 miles SSE-ish of home). I like this drop too. I can usually watch them for quite a while. AND, I remembered to get a picture - this time ALL 17 birds are in the pic! (Can you find them all?)

Still training the 5 reserve birds

They took off, zig-zagging in the right direction from the 24 mile training drop. It is supposed to rain Friday. I will drop them (along with the other 15 young birds) from here tomorrow. After that, we will start taking them on the regular road conditioning with the rest of the team. This will be the 42 mile drop at least twice a week and the breakpoint (this side of the river) at least once. I might try to get them to the 64 once before the 165. Never training a 2nd batch out again! (I've said that before, but I mean it!)

My Favorite Drop

I love this drop. My ancestors were from this area. Plus, there is this really nice Mennonite couple that I talk to that really enjoy watching my releases. And, if they make it back from 64 miles, I feel like they're pretty much trained! So, this is graduation! I may get an 85 mile training drop in if I can but if I can't, I'm not worried about them. They did wonderfully! They had a 6-7 mph head wind. I had cruise control set on 70mph on the way back. I had to stop and get gas and go a bit east of of my way to cross the bridge (whereas they could fly a bee-line straight home). Still, with a 6-7 mph head wind, they were probably only going to travel at half the speed as me. So, I wasn't surprised when I got home and they weren't there. I walked straight up to double check. Nope - not here yet. The breeding loft is raising an extra round for a friend of mine. It's a HUGE extra round because it has my old bird team too. Even though I gave them double before I left, they wanted more. Sheesh! So, as I tossed a scoop of feed down, the young bird team landed on the loft and started trapping in! They're good! No circling - just straight in - ALL 17! Contratualtions Young Bird Team 2009! You've made it!

Landmarks for homing?

I was on the 4th floor of the library at lunch and I could see the see the smoke stacks just up from the break point (3rd drop - pretty sure that's the break point anyway). What a great landmark for them - 6 miles SSE, or so. It is also the 2nd training drop and, I'm pretty sure by their flying, something they look for from the 3rd training drop. I think they use the parkway to navigate too. Some others believe so as well.

Last training day for a while

The weather is supposed to be lousy the rest of the week. Today, however, is beautiful! They did 18 miles in much less than 30 minutes. Of course, they had a 6mph tail wind today. I may trio toss them from here next Monday. After that, we'll jump up to 24 miles. Or, I may just jump up to 24 miles because we're going to lose a week and we box for the first race in 24 days! Yikes!

Moved it out another 3.6km

Yesterday was so easy - AND the spot was so awful (a private company and too many power lines) that I decided to go up the road to the grade school. It's a nice spot, a bit further out than I had remembered. Again, they did great! The came in before I expected AND I didn't even factor in the 7mph head wind. I'll try this one again tomorrow. Then it looks like 7 days of rain according to the forecast.

New spot - plus double training day!

Finally! We're across the river! It's probably only 15 miles. It completes the triangle I was talking about. A triangle with 3.5 mile sides at the break point. I feel like they're well trained and pretty good homing pigeons! The best group so far. Not sure how fast they are but they all come in together and on time.

Since they were doing so well I decided to give them a 2nd toss. I've never done 2 tosses in one day before. I took them up to the boy scout troop drop 6 miles NNE - a very unusual drop (we train S-SSE). I was in a hurry so I just put 17 birds in a 15 bird basket. When I got there, I noticed some were hot so I didn't settle them at all - just turned them out. They didn't beat me home - which made me nervous. I filled the bath pans for the old birds (they were very excited!) and when I looked up the young bird team was coming in from NNE. Pretty cool! They get their baths next! They'll be happy!

Too foggy? Hope not

It was horribly foggy in the valley before the bottom lands. I would've figured the river bottoms would've been foggy but they were really clear. It took me a while to get there so I was hoping the bright sunshine would've burned off the fog I passed through 15 minutes earlier. Anyway, it looked good and I was short on time so I let them go. They circled up an started NW. I thought "That's strange all my birds follow the river from here, but they're headed across land. That's good! They must see the power station smoke stacks." Then, I looked towards where the smoke stacks should be, 5 miles NNW and noticed: They're not there! That was where the wall of fog started. Not good. About then, the birds veered south toward the river and started following it like they always do.

Yesterday's hawk attack scared two of the reds real bad. They didn't trap in until dusk. They didn't even hang around. Not sure where they went. The reds are a skittish lineage anyway. I tend to think the less calm birds are less intelligent - but they keep coming home. Despite that - they were really easy to box this morning. They know the drill now. They are calm and are handled easily. They drop to the loft floor and wait to be picked up. I think they can start self loading now. Last year, I would just set the basket on the ground open and they would just walk in towards the end. You get the sense they now what's going on and they're excited about it. They are so amazingly intelligent! Like dogs - maybe even smarter in some ways.

The Janssen blue bar cock that was attacked through the wire mesh had a gouge in his crop, under his wing. He was on a bottom perch, squinting and obviously feeling bad. Wow! He's a big guy. After handling young birds so much lately, it was an amazing contrast. The wound had already closed and scabbed over by the time I got there or I probably would've stitched it up. I put some triple antibiotic on it and put him in his nest box with his mate. He cooed and strutted a bit which I took as a good sign. He seemed to be doing okay this morning too.

No training day

Crummy weather. Only took them 6 miles east yesterday (it was on my way). For an unusual direction, I was impressed how quickly they took off in the correct direction. I want to get them used to the east in case they follow Evansville birds home. I will take them 5 miles NE Monday evening to drop them at the Boy Scout meeting. Who knows, maybe someone will become interested. Friday was supposed to be clear - they've changed the forecast. The weekend is now clear so I should be able to get them across the river Sunday.

Back to the 3.3 mile E of Seminary drop

Again, they flew east and got home (in the NW) on time somehow. One more drop from Seminary road and then I go across the river - Friday? Tomorrow and Friday are the ONLY days they are not predicting thunderstorms in the next 10 days. I have 12 more drops MINIMUM that I would like to accomplish in 3o days (and sounds like I'll lose 10 of those). That would get me to Crofton once but I'd prefer to do Crofton 3x and Fort Campbell once.

Pretty Day for training

It is a beautiful Sunday morning. There are a lot of bike riders out on the river bottoms this morning.

Following the river

They are definitely following the river. That's okay from this point, but Friday's drop, 3 miles east, it would've been better to take the diagonal across land. They did very well. I had only one straggler. Surprisingly, an older bird, the mealy I didn't get banded right.

Working the breakpoint

Moved the drop 3 miles west and a bit south back to my usual drop point on Seminary Road. Across the river, at Alt 41 and the Henderson by-pass is a point that looks like it will make a near perfect isosceles triagle of 3-3.5 miles per side. I'm going to alternate back and forth and then do 2 tosses plus a trio toss from the other point at Alt 41. The break point is here somewhere. By the time they get to Henderson, they should know exactly how to get home.

No smash - just a bit late

Whew! Scary! I don't know where they went but they got lost a bit. They found their way back within the hour and trapped in pretty quickly. They had been doing a lot of goofing off and grazing. I think the cats might've helped with that situation! I'll bet that's where the two broken legs came from. I have the cats put up in the garage. I think I'll keep it that way for the rest of the season: put up cats when flying. What a pain!

Twelve miles - Smash?

Uh oh. 40 minutes later and they are not home from 12 miles! I had a clear view of the north and the west - they headed east and, as far as I can tell, never headed back again. I let them settle 10 minutes. They took off in the wrong direction without circling like they knew where they were going. Ug! I am really kicking myself for moving the 3rd drop 2 miles east (to get it more across from Henderson, which I think is their break point).

4th drop from 6 miles

I like this drop point down by the river. It's always so quiet - even when the barges go by. "Trio tossing" them this time. In a big hurry - morning thrown off by another bird with a broken leg. This is worrisome. Never had a YB get a broken leg before. Are the cats playing "catch & release" with them? Put a splint on it and then took the others to the drop. I was in a hurry so two of the tosses combined before starting home. (They tricked me and flew behind the trees and waited for the others). It is supposed to rain 7 of the next 10 days. Not sure when I'll get them out to the 12 mile drop.

Another 6 Mile Toss

Again, I did not basket them at night. I like to let them sleep in their comfort zone as much as possible. So, I awake to the dread of loading young birds in the daylight. HOWEVER, today, they were pretty much used to it. All were calmer and 3/4ths just held still and let me pick them up. I pet them and talk to each one when I pick it up and I don't basket them until they quit squirming. They are getting fairly tame. Tomorrow I have to decide if I want to trio toss from 6 miles or just jump up to 12 miles.

Jumped up to 6 miles

2.5 miles was really nothing for them. As it turns out, neither was 6. I took them to the edge of the river and turned them loose. They beat me home and all but two had already trapped when I pulled up. Of course, one of them was Dopey! Now I know - he wasn't being stubborn - he just didn't know how to trap. I have him a good 90 minutes. He crawled all over looking for a way in. Never occurred to him to follow the first 18 through the trap?

I also had been wondering why the pied blue check was laying down so much. She was laying down when I released her. I was worried she was sick, then I noticed her hobbling. I caught her - she is definitely NOT SICK. She put up a powerful struggle. She has a badly fractured leg. I ordered a cast, gave her some children's liquid Tylenol (for the swelling mainly) and put her in sickbay. She has been like this a while. She's worn off the feathers on her belly and has worn spots on her knees. If the cast comes (2nd day air) I might be able to train her out with the late hatches next month.

Rainy, foggy morning - no training

It was very overcast, a little misty and somewhat foggy so I held off. It was only their 2nd drop - no need to get in a rush. Turned out beautiful later and all day. Lots of loft flying - they loved the extra wind and played a lot. Just boxed them up for an early morning toss. (Well, I hope I get up early anyway).