Toss 2 - 8 miles went smoothly - sunny, dead calm and no wind, cold 37 degrees by Arizona standards - birds went up high with no circling headed towards home. Target is 25 miles by end of week - birds are going every day and locked out until Noon to get that wing time in - no sense to let them fly just the 10 minute toss.
Toss 1 is in the books - from 5 miles. We could not get to our usual clear spot at 2 miles with all the new construction - UNBELIEVABLE there is not a vacant lot within 10-15 miles probably . Worst case we find a church parking lot for the toss #2 tomorrow ~!!!! Light tailwinds and very cool - I let them up in 2 groups (247 birds - left 3 at home). First group circled for a few minutes and headed South; 2nd group went up real high and headed home East. Got to the loft and birds were trickling from the South East of the loft (obviously overflew) and still loft flying and routing. Expected from such a short toss.
We attempted to do a hand inventory as we basketed the birds - and the newly serviced clock is giving a battery message - while the Unikon module keeps updating/downloading to the clock ~! Frustration as Desiter had this recently battery change and power switch change. We do have a backup clock at the house - so we will have that one in operation tomorrow and scan birds as we hand basket.
Clocking tosses (single release) will be from 25 miles as these short ones are meaningless - and I will have the birds locked out after the short toss to continue to get their wing time.
Overcast and windy forecast from Thursday - Saturday; Our Federation is split 50:50 with shipping races/training this week due to 50% chance of rain and winds 10-20 winds along course - so OLR birds were only being loft flown/flagged at sunrise with the area winds /hawks helping. Then open loft until 12 Noon.
Birds have been tearing up the skies - they are READY for training; - the youngest birds are at 6 months so are mature enough. We did medicate for respiratory with all the winds/dust; Feed mix is Versele Laga Gerry Plus and Energy Plus ~! Plan for every single day next week training with following schedule for 15-18 tosses to 80 miles.
3/7- 3/13: 2, 5, 10, 15, 25 miles repeating as needed if they encounter difficulty.
3/14 - 3/20: 30 - 50 miles all week;
3/21 - 3.27: out to 80 miles;
Very Cloudy and overcast - no sun this morning but no rain forecasted - so we chose to loft fly/flag/and then open loft. Training is still on track for this week -
Some loft flying videos uploaded to the youtube channel "Arizona Classic Derby" -
The birds got Saturday and Sunday off due to us being at the Vegas Gala.
All birds are together again - including the injured ones and the ones that needed some rest.
Birds are up daily and flying - some days open loft, some days windy and our flying helper Mr Hawk has been helping along with running them up with the flag. Some challenges with weather in terms of wind and dust - but we are making the best of it. Today also very windy in the afternoon and dust with rain expected by Wednesday. Training to start next week - a couple of weeks behind but will see how the birds acclimate. We will basket train this week at the end of the property.
Best regards
Birds had a few days off as I had to be out of town. But it was windy and rains and temperature swings - so did not miss much.
This week we will start to flag birds in preparation for roadwork - I have not seen so many injuries ever, even in my personal OB team there are busted chests, birds limping, tail missing, etc. The weather patterns have definitely changed - we went from 80 to 44 just like that today !
I will start to tag the injured birds in the inventory -
Best regards.
Birds have been out every day that is not too windy - Unusual windy weather here in AZ with some days heavy gusts. Today it is currently 16 mph East winds with much higher gusts.
Unfortunately with the winds come injuries - chest, and leg injuries on at least 12 birds. Additionally, the birds have started to take off with the winds and we are seeing some return the next morning.
At this point we are one week behind on training - we would have liked to start training Feb 1st.
Our Old Bird training has begun along the same general direction. OBs run through April 9th which will be a good thing so that our OLR birds do not get tangled up with the Federation - the Federation birds will be out much further to 358-540 miles at that timeframe.
Very windy and cooler past few days with lots of birds taking to the skies - we had birds coming back the next morning after being out overnight. We will get in an inventory starting today....
Birds out every evening under supervision from the predators. We will start loft flying earlier so that they can get more time outside - they are still just mostly around the loft and making laps with a few taking off - no force flagging yet. We will do a hand inventory shortly on one of the upcoming off days.
Spoke too soon - high winds and wind gusts with rain out of nowhere unforecasted ~! So birds were locked in today Saturday !
Plan has not changed - will try again Sunday. Birds let out under supervision from the crazy hawks. We will use them to flag the birds once we start to get some wing time on the birds.
Regards
