Time going on!

This last week or so has been really busy. I have spent a lot of time setting up the Facebook group - Save our Songbirds. To date it has 530 members and is aimed at raising awareness amongst the general public regarding the Bird of Prey population and the effect it is having on the songbirds in this country. Various letters, articles have been published and this is going to be an ongoing project in the hope something can be done to help the plight of the songbirds. I have set up an online petition as well and this currently stands at 545. A lot of my time has been taken up with this, but it will be worth it if members of the public can see the effect the increase in Predators is having.

In the loft it has been very busy also. The first race is less than 2 weeks away, so I have been spending time getting the 5 race birds in top shape. They have been given 2 training tosses this week, one from 25 miles and one from 50 miles. They are coming ok, but I am looking for a big improvement before the first race. I had a blow earlier, when checking the birds over. The only cock in the race team has broken his 2 primary flights in his right wing, so he will be out of racing for a good time until they grow back. So that now puts me down to 4 to start the season with. They are exercising well around the loft and with a few more training tosses this week, they should be spot on for the first race from Swindon (76 miles) on the 17th April.

The youngsters are doing ok. I have 25 weaned off and another 8 in the nestboxes. Hatch rate is still around 98% which I am very pleased with. All my pairs of stock birds either have youngsters or are on eggs. Should be having another 6-8 hatch in the next week or so.

I let the youngsters out for the first time yesterday evening and all 25 were on the grass, with 8-10 flying onto the house roof. 1 got spooked and flew straight into the neighbours window but pleased to report he is fine.

The Europa classic birds will be going down within the next week to ten days. I will be vaccinating them now in the next 2-3 days ready for their quest in scooping the big one!

Good luck to all that are racing this week. I will keep you all updated on the progress at Rasbull Lofts as we hope to target a very promising season.

Until next time....