Promising!

The birds were raced today from Newbury (97 miles). I ended up sending all 26 birds and I have had 21 so down 5 tonight. They arrived steadily. With the wind being NW (the worst possible for me) it was always going to be a hard task to gain any club honours. However, they put up a spirited performance. I ended up 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th section and 9th club out of the 210 birds that were sent. I was 9 minutes behind the winner and 5 minutes behind 2nd. For the 2nd week running I was 4th member of the 11 that sent. I have to be happy with that given the conditions and hopefully next week will be assisted by a more favourable wind direction. I hope the other 5 work back during tomorrow.

I plan to give the birds a rest day tomorrow and they will have a bath in the afternoon. They will then be back at work on Tuesday morning with a tough week planned ahead!

I have made some radical changes to the loft and sections this evening in an attempt to claw back the 5 minutes I am behind. I hope the changes have a positive impact and don't upset the birds too much. But they have a week now to get used to the new setup and how I want to progress for the rest of the season. Its a matter of them having to get used to it, because it will not be changed back. I will talk more about the changes in the week when I see how things are going!! ;-)

The Europa birds were trained today from 35 miles and were 65th, 96th, 182nd, 287th, 432nd and 501st out of the 948 that were timed in. All clocked within 1 minute of the winner.