The birds were liberated at 10.45 into a fresh SW wind. 6 members in the club sent 148 birds with over 1200 in the combine. I thought it was going to be a tough first test for them into a head wind with the drag going north into Bristol. I still thought I should have one in under the hour. I was out in the garden waiting when 2 came together from the NW, completely the opposite direction. After a few circles they landed in the tree dropped down onto the house onto the loft and one trapped quickly. The other one took a while as he was trying to go into the wrong section and when he eventually went in he didn’t register on the pad. So actually lost quite a bit of time. The first was out of a cock from Trev with the second from a different cock from Trev x a hen from Potter. I had to wait for 20 minutes before I got another one. While that was flying around I had another join it then 2 more and then had 7 flying around together. 5 of them were mine. 3 of these were from Buster. They kept coming during the afternoon. I ended up with 19/23 with the last of these at just after 3pm. I have 8 of your 9 back Buster.
I went down the club quite happy. Thinking I was probably a bit behind but happy with my returns. When I got to the club there were a lot of solemn faces. Returns generally were poor. 51/66, 12/20, 4/11, 5/18 and worse of all 1/10.
This is the final result:
As a matter of interest mine are the only ones in the club that haven’t been on the darkness. They are starting to fall apart with the one who ended up 5th club being very light in covert feathers over the wing. As long as they aren’t bald around the head I will keep them going.
cheers Buster.