first toss today

My second toss tomorrow. Last one was over a week ago from 10 miles. Tomorrow hot and humid but will take them 20 miles anyway. Rest of the week bad weather forecast. Next week all good days. try for a few 30 milers. But 1st race is on the 29th. 150 miles for me. Have to jump them. However, if I do not think they are ready will skip 1st race. 2nd race is same place anyway. Have about 40. Few bad tosses and lose a lot may just train and keep for next year. Have done that last year and previous years. Many came good. Since the 1st young was hawked many months ago never seen a raptor close around here. Hopefully with the climate change they have moved North? No matter. I am fortunate that out of the 40 30 could get lost and not affect me for next year. Usually get rid of 30 to 50 birds after the racing season. Young mostly. Only way to cut down is to send them. The best will survive (or the luckiest). Oh well.

halcanada wrote:

My second toss tomorrow. Last one was over a week ago from 10 miles. Tomorrow hot and humid but will take them 20 miles anyway. Rest of the week bad weather forecast. Next week all good days. try for a few 30 milers. But 1st race is on the 29th. 150 miles for me. Have to jump them. However, if I do not think they are ready will skip 1st race. 2nd race is same place anyway. Have about 40. Few bad tosses and lose a lot may just train and keep for next year. Have done that last year and previous years. Many came good. Since the 1st young was hawked many months ago never seen a raptor close around here. Hopefully with the climate change they have moved North? No matter. I am fortunate that out of the 40 30 could get lost and not affect me for next year. Usually get rid of 30 to 50 birds after the racing season. Young mostly. Only way to cut down is to send them. The best will survive (or the luckiest). Oh well.

Maybe not impress the purist types Hal some of the above etc . But I get the message as thick as I tend to be at times, unfortunately.

Booked the day off and took my young birds to Peterborough this morning 75 miles, as that's where they are racing from this weekend.
16mph East wind, and overcast.
They came home really slow, right out of the West they must have got blown right out, but they all made it home luckily.
They came in 3 batches of 3, the first ones only doing 29mph.

glad you got them all steve...we had ours at 22 miles today ,the last stage of training for us ...straight out across country not even half a turn heading for home ...all in the loft on arrival all 23 of them having eaten their awaiting breakfast another few tosses before next weekends race hopefully we can get them their without a strike ,we are racing sundays this year atb

Coming well Darren, good luck mate.

Same with us daz, first one Chepstow on Saturday then all the rest will be Sunday lib , don't know why because it was originally all Saturday liberations

Have they gone that to avoid clashing on Saturday with everyone else

My dad always told me not to train Sundays as there are lots of people shooting.

we go sundays so the skies are a bit clearer we have not had any back injured from shooting but take yer point steve they must shoot over the weekend sometimes weather does not permit then its a Saturday race anyway I do recall our birds getting whacked around Birmingham airport and plenty of birds perished thanks to a jumbo jet ...you just never know what can happen when their on the wing

Had to settle for 15 miles. Too hazy. All back far as I can tell. 18 mins. May try for 20 or more tomorrow am. If I can get them out before the t storms move in. Noticed a few lice. Borax in the bath soon.

Crap weather where you are Hal lately

good luck with the training hal

Hot hazy humid. Heavy air. Little wind. Took them 20 miles. They were back in 30 mins. 3 were 3 mins behind the bunch. T storms here now. Coming like this will race what is in good feather next week. 150 miles.

Let me clarify something here. They are coming from East to West. Lake Erie is a few miles to the South. Wind Turbines on the property and all around here. Visible from the height a pigeon flies. A few small towns to fly over or go around. Villages really. So that is the reason I like to double up the distances. Pigeon has to be stupid to get lost up to 40 miles. The first race is the real start of training. 150 takes an intelligent bird for the first time racing. Jumped from 40. I can lose 30 young birds and still be good for next year. I more fortunate than most though. No cities for them to avoid in early training. Actually would hate to go back to the UK and race. You folks have multitudes of obstacles to over come.

halcanada wrote:

Let me clarify something here. They are coming from East to West. Lake Erie is a few miles to the South. Wind Turbines on the property and all around here. Visible from the height a pigeon flies. A few small towns to fly over or go around. Villages really. So that is the reason I like to double up the distances. Pigeon has to be stupid to get lost up to 40 miles. The first race is the real start of training. 150 takes an intelligent bird for the first time racing. Jumped from 40. I can lose 30 young birds and still be good for next year. I more fortunate than most though. No cities for them to avoid in early training. Actually would hate to go back to the UK and race. You folks have multitudes of obstacles to over come.

Stupid pigeons/40miles How dare you Hal   insult the intelligence of some of my birds as such. Would the moderator's here, if possible do something about Hal, putting my pigeons down in such a harsh manner .  

sounds good hal ours will be on the road shortly

Ha ha, I'm with you there knackered.

gave ours another 20 mile toss today ...all home on arrival they were fighting the wind today to keep their line ...another couple of tosses next week mon and tues before their first race next sunday

All going lovely Darren.

Boosey wrote:

All going lovely Darren.

thanks steve it makes a change usually have a few bad tosses still time yet yer always on yer toes with youngsters atb

Another hot, humid one. Usual thunderstorms. May get a toss in tomorrow am. Supposed to be fog in the am to start then clearing. 35 mile station. Spot I let them go is ¼ mile from electric transmission lines. Cross country ones. Had the odd problem there before but all in all worth the exposure to the emissions. Toss after that (all going well) will be St. Thomas airport. Near the clubhouse. 40 plus miles. That will be the first city they will fly over. Was hoping for small group tosses later next week but does not look like the weather will cooperate. Oh well.
Tomorrow also stock birds, (few pairs anyway) will be transferred to the Duramax loft. After very much thought decided stock birds it is. Why rock the boat? Only a few pairs in the Stock loft, others in the flying loft. Ulterior motive. Young bird loft and stock loft have a door between them. 12 nest boxes in there. Will dump all young bird eggs and open the door. Should be a great incentive for them. Twice the room.
By the way. Writing this in Apache Office. Not online yet. Costs me for time on the internet ( pay by the megabyte and it gets expensive!) so write here copy and paste. Cheapo!

halcanada wrote:

Another hot, humid one. Usual thunderstorms. May get a toss in tomorrow am. Supposed to be fog in the am to start then clearing. 35 mile station. Spot I let them go is ¼ mile from electric transmission lines. Cross country ones. Had the odd problem there before but all in all worth the exposure to the emissions.  Toss after that (all going well) will be St. Thomas airport. Near the clubhouse. 40 plus miles. That will be the first city they will fly over. Was hoping for small group tosses later next week but does not look like the weather will cooperate. Oh well.
Tomorrow also stock birds, (few pairs anyway) will be transferred to the Duramax loft. After very much thought decided stock birds it is. Why rock the boat? Only a few pairs in the Stock loft, others in the flying loft. Ulterior motive. Young bird loft and stock loft have a door between them. 12 nest boxes in there. Will dump all young bird eggs and open the door. Should be a great incentive for them. Twice the room.
By the way. Writing this in Apache Office. Not online yet. Costs me for time on the internet ( pay by the megabyte and it gets expensive!) so write here copy and paste. Cheapo!

So not only do you get cheapo cigarettes from the Indians Hal etc your also bleeding them blind in the office there. I suspect if your smart, your next loft could be built by the local Apache mob, compliments of the tax payer .

Boosey wrote:

Ha ha, I'm with you there knackered.

Boosey     I get one report from my first toss etc here after a month, but the brick specialist mentioned a local who just recently had 20 reported on top of the 40 odd he lost from 7k's    . May just suggest to him to go bush next time like I did, instead of tossing local. Save on petrol, maybe .

35 miler ok. So many thunderstorms around computer is bogging down. Satellite signal here.

halcanada wrote:

Another hot, humid one. Usual thunderstorms. May get a toss in tomorrow am. Supposed to be fog in the am to start then clearing. 35 mile station. Spot I let them go is ¼ mile from electric transmission lines. Cross country ones. Had the odd problem there before but all in all worth the exposure to the emissions.  Toss after that (all going well) will be St. Thomas airport. Near the clubhouse. 40 plus miles. That will be the first city they will fly over. Was hoping for small group tosses later next week but does not look like the weather will cooperate. Oh well.
Tomorrow also stock birds, (few pairs anyway) will be transferred to the Duramax loft. After very much thought decided stock birds it is. Why rock the boat? Only a few pairs in the Stock loft, others in the flying loft. Ulterior motive. Young bird loft and stock loft have a door between them. 12 nest boxes in there. Will dump all young bird eggs and open the door. Should be a great incentive for them. Twice the room.
By the way. Writing this in Apache Office. Not online yet. Costs me for time on the internet ( pay by the megabyte and it gets expensive!) so write here copy and paste. Cheapo!

sounds a good idea hal atb with it