Breeders: Above is the inventory that I took on Monday 9/7. The birds were trained today on 9/11 on their 1st toss about 4-5 miles. It was weird, I wasn't nervous at all, I was very confident that the birds would do well. The birds were broken down into 5 groups, with the first group released at 7:23 and the first bird clocked at 7:36. That is with a lot of circling at the loft, since they were not tired. Each group after was released between 5-10 minutes apart and the last group arrived at 7:58. I will be training the birds in these smaller groups for the first couple of weeks, so the birds become a cohesive team and learn quickly to head home and to build confidence, because when they are all together even around the loft, there are always birds going in different directions and it takes awhile for them to get together and route and I don't want this to happen at the training release point. I expect a few early losses as there are a few problem children that just don't want to get with the program. It appears they are all here from the toss today, but the one negative is the clock quit clocking twice during the arrival of the birds and I have to get that wrinkle sorted out and I will try to post training results on the evening of each training toss. Thanks for your support. Mike
Updated : No Losses
Sat 9/12 The birds were trained to 10 miles. The first group arrived in order. The other groups were slower, but in between the groups a thunder shower came through and it may had caused some of the other groups to be slower. Most of the birds arrived in their groups, had a few stragglers. One of the groups encountered some other birds, because a RC with a red AU band and electrinic ring landed with a few late arrivals and after a few minutes headed west towards Livermore. I believe there may be a few missing. The clock did better today, clocked 170 of the birds, but it stopped twice during the arrival of the birds. It seems to stop when alot of birds start trapping in a few seconds. Any suggestions???? (Benzing M1) The birds will go to the same spot on Sunday and Monday they will off due to bad weather coming in. Thanks Mike 3 birds lost
After some sickness and a hawk attack the Junior Race has 45 birds ready to start training. We will post training results from time to time. Good Luck to all Dan.
Sun 9/13 The birds were repeated at the 10 mile release point, my trainer said they left good, but after 30 minutes 3 groups arrived together coming in from the south. The birds trapped very nicely and during the second wave of birds the 4th group the clock had stopped clocking. I think I have narrowed done the problem another try on Tuesday. The birds will go to the 10 mile point again, based on it taking 30 minutes on the previous toss and 10 late ones. Wednesday they will go about 15 miles. 6 birds lost
The Mid-Valley Combine would like to thank the Seed Factory for providing all the feed for both races.
Tues 9/15 The birds were trained from the 10 mile point again, but I was the dummy and didn't activate training on the clock, so nothing was clocked. Everything looks to be in order. After loading the birds Monday night I was 3 birds less than what I counted on Sunday night ( If I counted correctly). It appears I may have lost 6 birds on Sunday's toss. I loft flew the birds this evening and used the clock as they came in and it stoppped twice as they were trapping. I captured like 185 birds of the 217 I should have. I will do another hand inventory this weekend to update who I have and verify against the clock if I get it working 100%.. They are scheduled to go 15 miles Wednesday and Thursday.
9/16 Training was cancelled. Schedule conflict. The birds will be trained on Thursday with Friday off and Saturday is questionable based on South clubs releasing from Stockton and Chico club somewhere in the area.
9/23 The birds were not trained Friday-Sunday, my trainer took a mini vacation, and I was under the weather to take them. They have been trained Monday-Wednesday out to 35 miles. They are leaving the release point pretty well and when the trainer gets back, the birds are home. I do know who some off the losses are. I hope to post some partial arrival times, that the clock did capture posted this weekend for the earlier tosses and the band numbers of the birds that are missing. I still don't have the clock working correctly and I ordered a new cord. I apologize for failing to post the last few days as I run out of time by the end of the day.
9/26 The birds were trained 40 miles Thursday and Friday. It appears Friday I am out 3 birds. Fridays toss was from Elk Grove and the made excellent time 44 minutes. Will be going there again on Sunday. I have some earlier clocking reports to post, (see red text and click) remember this is only partial clockings, if your bird is not on the report does not mean it is missing. Also you will see a seperation in arrival times, the birds have not all been released together they are broken into 5 groups..
9/27 DISAPPOINTMENT DAY. The birds were released from the same point as they were on Friday. The first group took 18 minutes longer and birds were missing. At dark I am out 24 birds. The trainer noted this morning the birds did not leave like they had been all the other tosses. When he got back to my house he suspected things were not normal. I am in disbelief this being their 11th toss, I could be out so many birds. Only like six have come home since the last group. Each group arrived basically in tact, not scattered like something broke them up.
9/29 The birds have not been trained since Sunday, because a weather disturbance coming Monday night into Tuesday and Wednesday toss is cancelled due to high wind projections NW up to 25 mph. Next toss Thursday. It looks like I am out about 14 birds from Sunday. I received the new cord for the clock, I am going to loft fly them and test the cord and hopefully capture my current inventory, so I don't have to do it by hand. Thanks Mike
9-15T No Report
10/4 The birds were trained from Elk Grove 40M on Thursday and I they were trained from Peltier 25M point on Friday. There are 2 birds missing from Thursday toss and none from Friday. The birds are going 50M today. I have the clock working (mostly) It doesn't freeze any more. (The new M1 cord and I updated the clock software helped) I have a few birds that I have to replace their chip rings, the clock does not recognize them (I think they are non-benzing rings that were passed along from previous host conventions.) There are currently 183 birds training, I have a few injuries, letting those bird recoup alittle. I need to update the inventory list with the losses and injuries in the next few days. Thanks Mike
10/6 The birds were trained from West SAC on 10/4 and today 10/6 and they will going there again on Thursday. The majority of the birds are coming well. The 10/6 training report captured all the birds that are in training. There was 1 bird lost today and 1 on 10/4. I have a few birds left home recouping from injuries and have come home the last couple of days from the 9/27 toss. I need to make a report containing the information about the lost birds and injuries; a couple of birds may not be able to continue. Above this post is training report for 10/1 and 10/2 Junior birds (same location as the state birds). My plan is for Sunday the 11th the birds will go between 60-65M and be released in one group for the first time. Remember the reports below, there are gaps between the groups of birds because they are released in 3 seperate groups The group is usually around 60-64 birds. When you see a large group clocked close together that is the beginning of that group.
10/11 The birds were trained from West Sac on the 6th. The report below does not represent a true arrival order, becasue I forgot to open the traps before I went to work and when Mickey (the trainer) arrived back with the trailer the birds were locked out and he had to open the traps for the birds to enter. Also there are some birds whose arrival times are in the evening, they were home in the morning, but they entered the loft when Mickey let them in through the 4th trap, which does not have an antenae. So when I loft flew them I captured that they were home from the toss. I have also entered notes about some birds that have returned home in the last few days. Today the birds went 70 miles and released together for the first time. The toss was a little faster than I wanted high 1500's, but it was an excellant toss. I had 127 on the drop and they clocked QUICKLY the first 126 in 31 seconds. On the report I have made some notes. It is wierd the clocked showed 182 birds clocked, but the history file from the clock left 2 birds off, they were home early with the main bunch ( don't know exact time) but noted on the report. The weather is going to be iffy early in the week, so I am hoping the next toss to be Wednesday or Thursday. Mike More Junior reports tommorrow.
Entrants will have the right to “buy back” their bird for $125 during shipping night. $25 of this fee will be retained by the host organization to help defray convention expenses. $100 of this fee will cover the bird’s entry in the calcutta. All birds not bought back will be calcutta’d and the buyer will get the bird too. Calcutta bidding shall start at $125. Birds not bid in the calcutta become the property of the host organization and will not be included in the calcutta pool. They will be auctioned off to the highest bidder after the race. All revenues from this auction will be retained by the host organization to help defray convention expenses. (Note if mailing in Entry fee; this fee can be sent to Joyce also.)
10/15 The birds were trained from 30 miles today released in 3 seperate groups, report below to review. The Birds will go 55 on Friday and 80 on Saturday. Thanks Mike
10/18 The birds completed the Friday and Saturday tosses. The reports are below for review. The birds were released all together on both tosses. Saturday's release was delayed til 10:15 due to fog in the San Jouquin Valley. The next toss weather permitting will be Tuesday 55M and 100M planned for Thursday. Mike Sorry for the delay some of my earlier info didn't post.
10/22 The birds completed the 55M toss on Tuesday and the 100M toss today. Today's toss really shook them up. There was a 2 bird first drop 2 hrs and 20 minutes and then 20+ a few minutes later and several small groups the next hour then a 40 bird drop and so on. At dark there are 11 birds out. I think this will be the beginning of really sharpening them up. They have been coming so well for a few weeks with little difficulty. This evening they show little to no stress for the amount of wing time they encountered today. I will post the Tuesday toss and today's toss tomorrow. I want to capture the 2nd day arrivals from today's toss. Below is some more junior race birds tosses. The birds are planned to return to 100M on Sunday. Mike
10/25. Important- if you planning on being present on race day and want lunch; reservations need to be made. See CSRPO newsletter. Also pay attention to the requirements to pay your entry fees and bond monies to Joyce. Birds not paid for will go into a drawing, to be paid by another CSRPO member. See email Joyce sent out earlier this week. I have to give lunch count by mid-week. Please make your reservations. The birds had a wonderful toss from 125M even though it was a bit too fast. First birds almost 2100YPM. The birds came in several groups and 1 bird is missing. We are going to keep pressing on, the birds will go a least 150M or more on Wednesday or Thursday, weather permitting, on the weekend another long toss 80-100M and then 2-3 30M tosses heading into shipping night. I can see all the interest that the training reports generate. I see 150-200 hit per day. Note: the junior birds flew the 125M today release 10minutes later and 24 of 32 on the drop, best toss to date. Report will be posted tomorrow. Thanks Mike
10/28 The birds are going to Red Bluff on 10/29 this will be 166M to me. The report will be posted either that night or the next day, allowing clocking of all birds. Thanks Mike
10/29 The birds completed the toss from Red Bluff this morning 8:00am release. Have 163 of 167 that went. The first bird arrived just before 10:40 and 159th was 10:55. There were 9 birds spread out over the first few minutes and then 60 plus birds in a 18 second span at 10:45. The junior birds did excellant as well 1 missing. Note on all the tosses except for one of the earlier tosses, the junior birds are released 10 minutes after the state birds. Reports will posted tomorrow. I going to set the clock to capture the arrival times of the 4 missing birds. Birds missing are GSF285, GSF 1870, ARC 3483 and TULE 757. The birds will be prepared for another toss on Sunday. Thanks Mike
11/1 The birds had another very good toss from 80M today. There was an 83 bird drop clocking in 22 sec. then another 39 birds 30 sec later than 1 bird and then another 29 birds. All this in 2 min and 56 sec. The birds will be trained 55M on Tuesday then we are set for the race. See you Thursday night. Thanks Mike The junior birds had a very good toss also. I will not be able to post these last 2 tosses, I don't have a scanner at home to post the toss.
11/3 The birds came very well today from the 55 mile toss. Flight time was 57 minutes and about 160 on the drop. I didn't get to clock any of the birds, because of operater error with the Benzing M1 clock. I basketed all the birds in a race for this toss, when I was done I didn't print the entry sheet, because I don't have a printer out in the loft, so I bypassed the print function, I didn't realize that I had to print out the basketing list to activate the race in the clock, it assumed basketing was not finished, so nothing clocked when they arrived. (Sorry about this I am a TIPES user by trade). See everyone Thursday night at 7:00pm to basket the birds. REMEMBER entry fees and buy backs need to be paid by 6:30pm to Joyce. Thanks Mike
