Today we will release the birds at South Head Lighthouse for our Wednesday Sprint race. There were 36 birds paid for with 4 more hopefully collected this morning before our release.
All birds not paid for in the Rotary race have been removed from the loft.
Tomorrow the winds will reach 30 KM per hour and that is a head wind. We have decided to release the next race on Friday. Friday's wind will be in the low teens and from the side. They are going to Grand Falls, 266 Km. The birds are in excellent health and form seems to peak at the end of each week. I have no qualms sending them on this journey.
Rick
Today we will have our first race. It is from Woodstock, NB and is 166 KM to the loft. Today we have NNW winds pushing them south from 9-22 K/H. Release is at 11 AM. Good luck to all.
Fog is heavy this morning and I am not taking any chances. The birds are approaching super form and I want to keep it that way. Last evening we had a hawk, which we very seldom see, terrorize the birds and a little bit of calm time is called for. They will have a couple of short releases late today and tomorrow then on Monday they will go to Woodstock, NB for their first race. If all goes well, on Thursday they will go to Grand Falls for their second race. We are going to skip Edmonston and have the birds ready for Riviere Du loupe for the main race on September 14. I will be removing extra birds from the loft and devote my energy to the birds that are competing. Prize money of $ 2500, $ 1500, and $ 1000 will be paid out by Rotary.
All the birds arrived home and were inside by !!:10 AM Ninety KM in one hour. The clock has shut down again. Hopefully topigeon will be able to download the toss today.Rick
The birds health is great. The late arrivals have for the most part, regained their form and are able to continue along. Yesterday, the sky cleared late in the day and we took them for a twenty KM toss. All were in the loft and had eaten by the time we arrived home. Thursday we'll take them to Lawrence Station which is 90 KM from the loft by air. Release will be around 10:30 AM. They are calling for sunny skies and no humidity. They will have a brisk wind to deal with.
Our first race will be early next week with our second race at the end of the week. Our money race will take place September 14.
Our Wednesday sprint race was cancelled this morning due to rain. It will be flown next Wednesday.
Or Wednesday sprint race was cancelled this morning due to rain. It will be flown next Wednesday.
The birds will be released today from St. George. The didtance is 41 KM. They will be released in three groups. There are still some isues with bands but I believe I have replaced a fair number of those that were wonky. We'll see.
Today is a sunny day with a few clouds with the temperature around 18 C. We have WSW winds at 6-17 KMH with gusts up to 24 KMH. Great workout for them.
Again an issue with clocking. This time, my computor shut down. I didn't know it was set to go to sleep after 4 hours. It takes that long to go to the release site. Linda filmed a group returning on her phone and it is on her facebook site. The birds returned at 12:08 from St George and were released at 11:30 with the distance being 41 KM. I have an appointment this evening with Taiwan to review all Topigeon issues and solve them. There will be another Toss on Tuesday hopefully without any clocking problems. Not all birds returned at 12:08 but most were there. I cannot do an inventory today but will tomotrrow morning.
All the birds went to Black,s Harbour this morning and were released in cloudy skies with the wind on their right shoulder. The arrived in one group. They were released at 9:30 AM and were home at 9:55 AM. That's 35 KM witha good chunk over water. We sent 73 birds and 77 came home . They picked up 4 from last week. Again, Topigeon clock failed. It shut down after 43 birds. Hopefully Wincompanion can salvage what is on the topigeon site. Rick
The fog has been never ending. It rolls in and out so quickly we don't have time to even say let's go training. To the mainland is a 2 1/2 hour trip that needs 24 hours notice to book the ferry ride.
There have been moments of nice weather late in the afternoon and it sees birds coming back each day and the weathermen {that's every person on the Island] tell me that Friday will be perfect. We are planning to go back on Friday.
This afternoon it has cleared ebnough to allow a toss. Check wincompanion to see where your bird is at.
Yesterday we took the birds to the mainland for their first major water crossing of the year. It didn't go well.
Once again, I messed up the clock. I know you set it once and if you make a mistake, don't try to alter it but do I listen, obviously not. The Topigeon clocked the first 6 birds and then showed an error code that I tried to change and then managed to shut it down.
The birds were released at the ball diamond north of Blacks Harbour at 9:20 AM. There were 5 birds on the drop. 1st 23-23156 @ 9:51:16 2nd 23-23189 @ 9:51:16 3rd 23-23195 @ 9:51:18 4th 23-23168 @ 9:51:21 and 5th 23-23138 @ 9:51:30 Then we have at 6th 23-23153 @ 9:56:54 With that bird were others that brought the total in the first ten minutes to 22 birds. This was all observed by my wife.
The first hour of the release had blue skies with a bit of haze on the horizon, well east of us. By 10 AM, while waiting for the return ferry, I watched a dense fog fill the void between Grand Manan and the mainland fill right in. The weatherman had not called for that to happen. It stayed for the better part of the day. The returns were sporatic with most coming at the latter part of the day. We have 65 home and with a clear morning on hand, we hope for more.
I will not disturb them today and will post inventory tomorrow night.
