The day started wit 34 degrees, light SW cross winds - somewhere along the route - light hazy conditions with no clouds, zero wind and warming rapidly to 74 degrees. Congrats to the first bird ahead of the pack by 19 mins entered by Silvercreek Lofts Bill Weima (and bred by Andy Waclaw I believe) - my heart sunk thinking another smash Saturday, we seem to have hit every red light at every intersection in this journey... but we got to stay the course ~! We have been touting "no blow homes" to the point where the wind gods are not smiling on us - this 1800+ ypm course in November is VERY different in February. We get to calibrate our loft management system with our own birds in this weekend's first Federation race...
Once these birds learn to go down, it's hard to break that habit when they encounter a tough one. We should hopefully see a lot of them back tomorrow based on their conditioning. We will evaluate at end of day tomorrow whether we will train on Wednesday.
Working on finalizing the payout for 300, 350 and Average Speed now that basketing and 1st race is in the books - it's been a long night and day today ~!
Best regards
All entry fees have been accounted for (pending a few that need to clear) - we will post payout after basketing and official basketing list tomorrow.
Best of luck ~!
Clock was not reset from last toss - had to run birds out and let them trap again - some are still outaide goofing off...
Available for activation:
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Birds loft flew today for 45 minutes... there were a couple that wanted to come down early...
One day at a time - we will take them for a short toss on Thursday.
There may be one or two more birds available for activation - again these are on a first-come first-paid basis ...
These birds are Available to activate - they are no duds - any bird flying this series so far is worth it ~~!
.... check back
193 birds at the end of today - one bird has no electronic band and 5 birds in observation bay. These will be added back to the general population.
We will start a hand inventory to inspect each bird's condition and remove any hurt ones or those that may be unable to compete.
The forecasted rain is here and pouring at 6 pm (much later than predicted) but thankful that the great weather this morning allowed us to see some more birds home today. Tue and Wed 5-in-1 in water along with some carbo-loading to rebound the birds for a couple more tosses later this week. Tuesday is also rain forecast -
A rough Saturday - feeling very encouraged today after several birds made their way back in the steady breezy and variable headwinds today. Hopefully the smart ones sat down in the winds today and the incoming rain with favorable winds blow several more home tomorrow - the clock will stay on ~!
Vita King Return Combo and Carbo-loading supplements in the water for the tired returns - the majority of the birds don't look too beat up. We will start with 5-in-1 and continue with the Carbo supplements. Monday and Tue are forecasted clouds and rain. We will loft fly as the weather allows and back on the road with a couple tosses.
It has not been an easy 2 days after we felt the birds were conditioned well with the last few trainings.
Not sure why the birds struggled today - still processing and at a loss for words !!
We hope to get back more birds tomorrow as they have some good road miles on them - and then decide the next steps... Monday and Tuesday is calling for rain.. We will rest them up and back on the road 55-75 and then 1st race ~!
Starting out today was 10-15 mph variable winds and we had planned to go 55 miles today - got to 55 and decided to go further as there was another club releasing there and it was calm and clear. Another flyer was down 1/2 his birds also.
Looking back we had not medicated in a while except for respiratory, we saw wild temperature swings from 30 degrees and frozen pipes to 74 degrees this week, ... we don't know why !!!
Entries fees are not all in – I have noted all those that have indicated the funds have been sent and are in transit. A list of available bird will be published Friday if we have not heard from you. These will be available on a first-come first-served for whoever wishes to activate.Paypal: Friends and Family stephenfurlonge@yahoo.comCheck: Arizona Classic Derby 965 E Desert Lane Gilbert AZ 85234The pre-race warmup training is going well - 35-45-45-75 which will get us to 800 miles in training tosses. A few birds have been pulled into the observation bay. If they are not able to make the 1st race - they will be refunded. Between races we also train at least one toss 50-75 miles.The first two races are set: Race 150 - Tuesday Feb 11th Race 200 – Saturday Feb 15th
