All the pigeons have returned!

A few posts ago, I had mentioned that I was still missing one pigeon that was release on July 31st. This morning, after being out for 14 nights, it returned. How amazing. I have just started to train 10 other birds; so I will have 27 birds that can be released at once.

Up to 55 km!

45 km!

Today I took the remaining 16 birds to 45 km. They were home in 1 hour (this included 15 minutes of flying in circles around the place they were released.

Finished!

The play structure is finished; 'nuff said. Check it out!

Week 1, Run 2!

Although "the run" did not happen on Wednesday, I got it in this morning. It felt easier than the first time... you should try it! Really. The next run should be on Sunday.

Up to 16!

Correction... one more bird came back yesterday sometime... who knew?... that would be 4 nights out of the loft... these little creatures must love it here?!

c25k

Couch to 5 km!
The only way I thought I might start running was if there were three frothing German Shepherds on my heals. I finally started the "program". There is a podcast at c25k.com that has a 9 week program to help those who have not run in a while to run 5k. Tonight was the first night. Yes I am out of shape, but it felt good; it was good thinking time and it was great to take deep long breaths of fresh air. The first week consists of 3 runs (every-other-day) that include 8-60 second runs combined with 90 second recovery times. There is a 5 minute warm up and warm down that you do by brisk walking. I think I'll try it again on Wednesday! So should you.

Down to 15!

The play structure is finished. I'll post some pics as soon as I get them off of my camera.

The pigeons have been doing well. Until now, I haven't lost any. They were on hiatus for the last 2-1/2 weeks because we have been traveling and camping.
After returning from traveling and camping, I thought I would start them off from the same 25 km area that we had been to the last time. At 6:30pm last Thursday, the pigeons were released, my family and I went out for supper and got back around 8:30pm.... no pigeons had come back. I knew that it was a bit late in the day to release them. It takes them about an hour to get back, but they like to roost as it gets close to dark. Upon releasing them, I could see that two were having a hard time keeping up to the rest of the kit, but there is nothing you can do once they are gone from the release cage.
At dark, still no birds had returned... I thought I had lost all 17 birds I had been training all summer. The next morning there were two birds home. During the day a couple trickled in here and there until there were nine back. There were still eight that needed to return. The next morning there were 2 more ready to get in when I went outside... and then shortly after another 4 showed up. It is amazing that after two nights out, the pigeons would still come back. The two that could not keep up are probably the missing pigeons and they were likely not healthy enough to return.
I'm down to 15 pigeons that are being trained, but there are a lot more left in the pigeon coop to be trained. Lesson learned... it isn't a good idea to release the pigeons late in the afternoon (even though most of them came back!).

The Play Structure!!

On Monday I embarked on a task that has taken much longer than expected. It has been fun to build a play structure, and after many trips to the building store (6 to be exact... and maybe more before the end), the main structure is almost complete. The picture above was taken on Monday. Today, the monkey bars and swing part of the structure went up. Almost done.

25 km and counting

My interest in hobby farms and birds probably comes from my great-uncles on my father's side. They had the most interesting set-ups with lots of cages and fences... and somehow I always had an adventure being at their houses. My grandfather on my mother's side also had a dairy farm that gave me the some of the same kinds of adventures.
The rule at our house, now, is that if we have a pet, they have to reproduce; so we've had baby fish, baby canaries, baby finches, baby doves, baby homing pigeons and most recently baby mini rex rabbits. My kids love it and so do I.
A few years ago I was given some pigeons. You can read previous blogs to see what happened to them. More recently I have purchased some white homing pigeons. Last summer, I started training them to fly back home. They are like any athletes -- they need to train. Just like we can't run a 10 km race without running shorter intervals to train. So I start out about 1/2 a kilometer from my house and release them 3 consecutive days at that distance, give them a rest and then double the distance.
This year I am working with 17 birds. I started training them about a month ago and have quickly worked them up to 25 km today. Releasing them at that distance was difficult to do because I wasn't sure that they would come back. They beat me back to the house!! Over the next couple of days I will release them again from 25 km and then 50 km. My goal is to have them fly over 100 km by the end of the summer. I haven't lost a bird yet.
Flying pigeons is like flying a kite. The birds circle for about 5 minutes before they take off towards home and out of sight. It is thrilling to let something go that you have cared for and have it come back.

More Pigeon Release Pics

The Great Pigeon Release!

17 white pigeons, released at 12 km from home. They all returned.

The Owl Woods (Reminders of Winter... do we need them?)

In January, my father and I went to the Owl Woods on Amherst Island. We found one sawhet owl in a cedar tree. A great drive and worth finding this tiny owl. We also fed the chickadees. Notice the mouse tail on the second picture.

I'm Back! (I hope!)

The first blog entry since 2006... I don't even know what I was doing in 2006?
Since I have the summer to be free to do what I want, I thought I'd share some of what I'm up to. I've started out first with giving three new blogs I like to visit and one of my favourite websites. Check them out on the right side of the blog. Here's to a summer of blogging.