Race # 2       Date:  October 6th, 2009       Location:  Valmy, NV (240.5 Miles)      

Release Time:  07:35 AM     Birds Entered:  83      80 Home (Missing Birds Listed at Bottom)

Weather:  Clear & Cold @ Release with light NE winds.  Moderate (10-15 MPH) NE winds for first 150 miles.  Pt. Cloudy in Sierra's with light NE winds.  Nice clear day at the loft.

Race #2 ended up being similar to last year's Race #2.  The actual direct airline distance between the stations we use for Race 1 and Race 2 is over 80 miles so that is a big jump.  It makes for a good challenge and shuffles some of  the birds from how they performed the week before.  There were some repeats at the top and there were also some that vastly improved or degraded their performance from the first race.

Jon took the birds this race and reported that at release they circled for 2 minutes trying to pick up a slower bird but once they did they left very quickly and were out of sight heading in the right direction.  The birds had tailwinds for a good portion of the course and the only hiccup in the way of weather were some thick patches of clouds on the east slope of the High Sierra's.  The first drop of 6 birds came online just a few minutes before we were expecting them and they were quickly followed by two drops of 2 birds each.  The first drop was at 1631 ypm. so it was a very fast race.

It wasn't until the 5th drop that a larger group (11 birds) arrived.  From then on they continued to come in steady throughout most of the afternoon in small drops of 2 to 6.  It seems from watching a couple of other recent races that tailwinds actually break the birds up into smaller groups more than a calm day.  I think some birds are definitely more comfortable flying in a tailwind than others.  One thing of note is that the first drop actually looked the most tired of any group of birds that arrived.  This is something I have noticed a lot over the years and to me it's a good sign that the first birds are actually 'racing' and really pushing it to get home as quick as they can.

Congratulations to Duane Gragg, Martin Valentine, Mike Kurtzner, Paul Watson, and Jensen/Wells who all had birds on the first drop.  Missing birds are posted on the bottom of the page.

Day 3

Day 5

N/A