Loft flying today - cloudy ~!
Sunday Mar 1 - ACD 250 - one forecast is calling for partly cloudy with < 10 mph winds - we will proceed based on this forecast (although some other forecasts were previously calling for > 20 mph winds...)
Birds are resting up today - bath - carboloading, return combo supplements, probiotics -
Friday - short toss;
Saturday - loft fly or possibly short toss;
Tentative: Sunday (ACD 250) - Deming - keeping a close eye on wind forecast to see if we can have the race on Sunday. It's calling for gusting winds but will monitor as we get closer to the weekend....
** Issue was incorrect race id when we setup the race last night... corrected and up and running again ~~!
Short toss today to keep them loose as they have been locked down over the weekend. This downtime was medication and rest - hopefully beneficial ~!
ACD200 Basketing list published later tonight - stay tuned ~
Same weather as last update with pouring rain overnight and early this morning -
Sunday - windy, dark clouds as the day is progressing.
Monday, Tuesday - headwinds - will toss short.
Wednesday ACD 200 - Lordsburg
Sunday ACD 250 - Deming
Weather update:
Saturday 2/22 - At the loft and on race course 100% chance of rain (all local races cancelled)
Sunday 2/23 - Lordsburg (200 mile) - chance of rain and Winds 20-30 mph ESE.
... will evaluate as weekend progresses....
PAYOUT
Birds loft flew today for about 50 mins. At this point we have to look internally and not blame weather/temp swings/clouds/no winds... so we have started with Ropa B yesterday, treatment for secondary bacterial infections(respiratory), etc... Droppings are rock solid for the majority (which is always a good indicator), feed looks clean and no feed on perches, ... what else can we look for?
Tomorrow we go to 60 miles...
Wincompanion looks like it froze - will restart once we get back to the lofts this evening ~~!
Schedule wise worst case - if possible, we will try to pull in each race 1-2 days pending weather/overall condition.
200 - 2/23 (2-21 is calling for wind/clouds/rain)
250 - 3/1
300 - 3/8
363 - 3/15
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
