Sept 3rd - The birds
were exercised the first day after the race and flew for 20 minutes.
On Thursday most of them flew for about 40 minutes and on Saturday almost
a full hour. I handled a few birds over the last couple of days and
I got the impression that they have recovered very well after their 8
1/2 hour flight.
Today, about a third of the birds landed after flying
for about an hour the balance began landing at the 75 minute mark.
Now that felt really good.
There are 60 ebanded birds in the loft which includes
my team. Two of my no name strain arrived yesterday. They were
quite emaciated. Both, I thought would be very promising youngsters
and their early performance indicated so. I guess I was wrong but
isn't that always the case.
The Cape Breton race from St Peter's (450 km) was
tentatively scheduled for Wednesday but the weather prediction is not
promising according to Environment Canada. However, for long range
the Weather Network's prediction looks quite promising for an end of the
week race.
http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/ns-12_metric_e.html
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/cities/can/Pages/CANS0141.htm
Sept 4th - The Le Tour
team was let out for their morning exercise at 7:57 in a light rain.
At the 15 minute mark of their exercise period it became a steady rain and
for a while I thought it would become a down pour. For 30 minutes it
rained this way and then returned to a light rain. About a third of
the birds landed at the 55 minute mark and the rest flew 10 minutes
longer.
Sept 5th - It was a
beautiful September day. The birds were let out at 8:00 am for their
morning exercise period in cloudless skies, dead calm and comfortably warm
conditions. At about 9:00, just as I was about to call them in
while they were circling above the loft, a goshawk appeared out of
nowhere. It selected its prey and chased it to the north east of the
barn. In a few seconds it reappeared and made a feeble attempt to
chase the rest of the birds but they quickly disappeared to the south.
The birds reappeared a good 30 minutes later, circled the loft for another
15 minutes and trapped without incident. I clocked the birds and no
one was missing and I didn't spot an injured bird in the loft.
The Le Tour Team will be basketed in the morning for
Stage 8, the race from St Peter's (450 km). The release is scheduled
for Thursday.
