High winds expected in our local mountains the next few days 15-25 mph. We will train accordingly starting Friday.
The birds are doing very well. At this point, a lot of birds fly for another 20-30 minutes when they get home after their toss. A lot of play. Also, Birds are being released 20-30 at a time to prevent any injuries.
Training days will be adjusted to 4-5 days a week as we start getting further in distance.
Please call with any questions or concerns.
Training is moving along nicely. We did experience a tough one earlier this week. On one of the short tosses, it was clear when we left and clear at the release point. We grouped tossed the birds. As I was driving back..nothing but fog on the other side of the hills. As I drove down the mountain and into my valley...nothing but heavy fog. Visibility was 1 blk. It was awfull. The fog kept rolling in. Zero Sun. It did not lift until 4:00 in the afternoon. There were 400 birds home in reasonable time. Another 150 within 45 min. of my arrival time. Needless to say. It was condidered a smash. About 500 came in 1-2 the whole day. By the end of the second day we were out 27. Two days later back on the road. For the new breeders, the first 50 miles is mountain terrain. Lots of valleys and passes. If they chooses the wrong pass they usually fly for hours in the wrong direction. When the weather comes into play on this course...good luck.
This week I will sort through the loft looking for unchipped birds. I plan on doing a hand inventory when there is some down time in between training.
I hope to start the live clocking the later part of this week.
It has been a very hot week. We were able to get 5 tosses in this week. The humidity and heat have been record breaking for us all in Southern California. We did not train today due to thunderstorms and high winds in our local mountain terrain. The overall group of birds are cleaning up with their moult. We will continue with our training regime tomorrow. Please call with any questions or concerns.
***Rooms are now available for accomadations at the Liberty Station Marriot, San Diego. Please see home page for reservations. Please mention San Diego races for room discounts. Please book your rooms ASAP as they fill up quickly,
Have a great and safe Labor Day weekend.
Training has been good. We were dealing with a lot of fog/overcast this past week causing us to have a lot of mid day tosses. Our tosses are still short. We have been working the birds through misc. valleys/canyons. This week we are expecting a heat wave so we will train a day break. Majority birds look great. There are still many dealing with their body moult.
Training has started (8/10). We are just a few miles out. For those new to this race, we do a lot of short tosses (6 days a week) . We train in small groups. We do a weekly clocking inventory until we have the birds trained out 20 miles.
Currently things are fair in the loft.
Everything is moving along nicely. The birds are still split in two groups. The younger group are now starting to fly better and better each day. We have had some hot days but fortunately there is a breeze that blows through the valley. The birds love it!!
Our maintence on equipment is also in check along with new tires for truck and trailer, oil change...all thats left is the crate cleaning this weekend.
Please call if you have any questions or concerns.
Training will start in a few weeks. The older group are doing outstanding. They are starting to clean up in the moult. When this flock goes out for exercise they tend to always break up in small groups and range throughout the valley.
The Second group is another story. They have their work cut out the next two weeks. There are still a lot heavy in the moult.
Apparently, the Hawks are also back in action. We have been pretty fortunate up until this past week with no attacks. That has all changed. The baby coopers are now starting to become a pain.
All birds are back out exercising. The older group (750) are flying stronger everyday. The younger group will slowly be eased into flying in the days to come. We will be doing a clocking inventory weekly.
The first group of 750 are out and exercising again. The other group of 550 still have another 10 days before the flights are fully grown in. So far, it's been a very healthy year. No eye colds, no PMV, No Adeno.....pretty amazing!!!
We hope to start training the second week of August.
All the birds are currently on lock down. We vaccinated and pulled flights on all the remaining birds this past week. We have had some hot days these past few weeks. All but 4-5 birds are doing excellent. The heat is helping with the moult. The flights on the older group are 1" already. We hope to have them out exercising in a few weeks. Training will be here before you know it.
