My cell phone alarm awakes me at 4:00am on Saturday, July 31st. I pull myself out of bed to get a head start to the day. Once I get dressed and prep the birds’ feed and water I head up to the coops to crate up the young bird team. Today they are going for a training toss out in Binghamton, NY, which is 80.6 air miles from there to my loft.
After crating the birds up, I put feed in all the sections with fresh water with vitamins and electrolytes. Ok— the birds are ready to go, just gotta feed the dogs and we hit the road. I depart Olivebridge for Binghamton at 5:15am. We sail all the way to our destination with no traffic. I toss the birds on a hill top in a McDonald’s parking lot. I set up all the crates for release when I arrive. Then go in and use the bathroom, order an Egg McMuffin then return to my truck, where Proton, my 4.5 month old pup awaits riding shotgun on this journey. The birds are released at 7:30am and poof! They’re gone! I hop back into the truck and head home.
I arrived home at 9:30am sharp. I run up to the pigeon clock to read their time in and the birds beat me by 15 minutes. Which gives them a speed of 1351ypm (yards per mile), which equals 46mph on average. I top off their drinkers and head off to work for the day. They are now ready for the first race out of Cortland, NY on August 14th, from which I fly 113 miles.
This is the time of year when all of us featherheads get really excited about the season ahead and have high hopes of having a great year.
