Thursday, August 14, 2008
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.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
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.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Friday, August 08, 2008
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.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
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?!
Monday, August 04, 2008
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 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!).
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