09/18/2005

I only shipped two birds to this weeks ‘B’ release. They were the only two non-Gold banded birds I had. Both came back from 300 miles in “middle of the pack” time.

The Gold Band race is next week. All birds have been road trained several times over the past several days. I will give several short motivational tosses this week. Of course, loft flying will be the order of the day, every day.

One of my birds, 0539, appears to be in contention for high-point bird for club. It was in first place after last week’s standings. The second place bird did not fly in the last club race. Only the third place bird or lower can bump my bird from getting the honors. I am not sure what bird had third place, but it was owned by the top flyer in the club this year, so I am not holding my breath.

I ran a two-phase 30-amp circuit out to the young bird loft this weekend. I will be using my young bird loft to breed in, and I wanted the extra amperage for a good heater. It is better insulated and has a double door setup so I do not lose any prisoners out the door (like I did for the second time tonight….). Prior to this, I only had a single-phase 15-amp circuit.

The Taliban sent in an experienced Mujahideen guerilla for an aerial attack on 0531 as he was released to loft fly. 0531 flew valiantly, but was no match for the air-to-air assault that he faced. He was brought down, and suffered some minor? but deep puncture wounds. I have added a tentative point to the enemies score, as 0531 may be able to recover enough to race in the Gold Band Race. If he does, the point will be deducted. As luck would have it, later in the day the attacker was detained before another attack could be planned. She was gently convinced to surrender all arms and never attack again. A point was added to both sides, the mythical score stands now at 18-4.

09/11/2005

Wow, a tough race yesterday. All birds are home, some a bit late. We had a 20 MPH wind from the south. All of the lofts from the North I believe scored well again. The birds look good, were fed a high-fat diet, and did as well as could be expected. The birds averaged over 7 hours on the wing for this 200-mile race.

I am still trying to get more birds on the drop, but I think being south of most lofts I have some birds following the larger flock, rather than breaking. I have done OK in the past races, but with this past race it was ones and twos all day.

The first bird in the ‘A’ release was 539 followed by 972 bred by Bob Boltz. In the ‘B’ release 556 was first in, bred by the Sandstrom Brothers of St. Paul. Congratulation both Bob and Chad!!

With daylight getting later and later, it is difficult to take a road trip for training before work. I did some wind sprints with the cocks birds on Tuesday. I took them out ~3miles and released them. The hen section was open. The cocks came home and milled around outside with only a few going directly in the loft. I got them all in the loft and basketed them again after only a couple of minutes. The next toss about half the birds were in. Same thing, get the birds in, wait 2 minutes, basket and out 3 miles. On the third try, all of the birds were in the loft, no stragglers. I don’t know of this helps for the races, but it makes me fell like they got some training.

The training trailer will run next week Wednesday and Thursday for the last time. I will be doing some motivational tricks with the birds to help bring on some additional speed.

The next race is a 300-mile race. Both of my non-gold banded birds will be competing in their final race of the season. If it looks like an easy race, I may put in some of my Gold banded birds that I nominated for the nomination Race. If it matters this early, they are calling for a rainy day next Saturday with winds from the SE at 7-10 MPH. With that kind of weather, only the two birds will go.

Hopefully the weather will turn and we will get a cold front with winds from the North on the Gold Band race.

Most of the birds have flown six races. The birds have plenty of basket experience for the final race. According to my records, everyone still has at least one bird in the loft. It should be an exciting race. Everyone is welcome to attend the race and stay at my place if you are from out-of-town. 27 birds will be entered.

Last year’s Gold Band Race had a SSW wind at 5 MPH tapering down to no wind at arrival time. The week prior, the Nomination Race, an ESE wind at 3 MPH increasing to a SE wind at 13 MPH. All races were from the North last year, originating at International Falls. The ESE wind would have favored my loft over the lofts that are winning this year.

I am hoping for a wind from the North. I don’t think it matters too much whether it’s from the NW or NE.

I started a small project examining the wind factor in the races. I really think that wind direction pays a very important role, at least in the amount of flying an individual pigeon does. It reminds me of some of the many calculus problems that I solved in my college years. In my initial estimates, with rough North/West distances from my loft to other lofts, I could be losing as much as 27 minutes due to the wind. It still doesn’t explain why other lofts get 10 birds on a drop and I don’t.

But in a quick synopsis, if my loft were equidistant to the release point as another loft, but 10 miles south and 5 miles west, my birds, flying at 45 MPH, would have to fly an additional 20+ miles due to the wind. My equation assumes a constant 45 MPH bird speed and constant 20 MPH wind directly from the South. It also assumes a straight-line flight home from the release point. I suspect that the longer distance a bird actually flies (the dog curve) would make the total distance flown quite a bit more. Even a bird that flew low enough to get out of the wind will actually fly quite a bit further as it adjusts for the terrain.

The mythical score is now 17-3

09/05/2005

The birds are definitely coming into form. We had the first 200-mile race. In last weeks ‘B’ race I took 7, 8, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25 and 26^th, all in the top 10% of the 265 birds entered. Myself and another flyer took 30 of the top 32 spots. The ‘A’ release was not as good, but I had an adequate showing. It was a fast race though (~1500 YPM), so maybe it was just luck. 540 is still MIA from last weeks race.

I continue my streak of wining money each week, this weeks pools brought in $6 from a total of $16 bet. It’s a good thing it’s all in fun. Hopefully this streak will continue into the Gold Band race, but with a better ROI.

The first birds in were 533 and 537, both of which I bred. The first out-of area birds were 972 and 963 bred by Bob Boltz and Red Rose Lofts. Congratulations Bob and Linda!!

One thing I attribute the better results was being able to come home at lunch after the training tosses and separate the birds. I fed my ‘secret’ blend of sunflower hearts as a pre-race meal. High in fat and energy, and I believe better than peanuts. I also have mixed in Heritage Turbo and some peanuts. I have written up a better schedule of what and when to give the birds each day. It helps to be able to look at the schedule and see what to do. As my schedule is extremely busy, I can just go by my to-do list and not miss anything.

I feel that as the races get longer, my birds are in better shape and more mature than some of the other birds. This helps them avoid mistakes and come home without delay. As the races stretch out further, the vector between the start and finish lines of the lofts becomes smaller. With the smaller vector, the winds do not favor specific lofts quite as much.

I will be pulling out more tricks as the races get longer. Feel free to send some of your favorite motivational techniques.

I believe I finally have all of the birds separated correctly. I found a cock bird that laid an egg this week, so it’s blue spiral band was promptly replaced with a pink spiral band. I also saw a cock in the hen section that was being quiet (and content…) until the past couple of days. I suspect that he knew he had a good thing going and didn’t want to let on.

The Taliban sent another scout in for a recon mission. He was promptly captured and re-located bringing the mythical score to 16-3.