Smash 300 OB race

[Kal-El]

Our federation shipped our old birds on thursday and liberated them on friday. 300 miles and it was a smash race. I got my first bird around 8 pm yesterday and got three more this morning. I got only 4 out of 10 birds back.

[Airbaby]

Our club experienced the same thing last week. Our race was from 330 miles, our club had only 18 day birds. We sent 9 and got 4 back on the day with our first one in at 1823 hrs and the last one limping in at 2102 hrs. My Dad told me our last one to come home was so tired that he stuck his head through the bars on the trap and just sat down for a few minutes before coming in.

We got 4 more back the next morning with one not returning. We thought we did horrible until we found out some lofts had no days birds, we ended up finishing 3rd, 5th, 12th and 15th. Anyway hope you get all your birds back, i feel we were really fortnate to have gotten 8 of 9 back.

[RodSD]

Sorry to hear the news. We really need to figure out the cause(s) of this smash race thing. There are explanations, but I can't find scientific articles on them.

[learning]

It seems like everyone is fighting the weather this season. Compound that with some questionable release decisions and you get a bunch of lost birds.

Sorry to hear about your losses. Hopefully they will turn up in time.

Dan

[whitesnmore]

I checked the "K" factor for your race on Friday and it was only at a 1 so that was not part of the problem. We had a lot of blue skies throughout our area which I assume you did to. The blue sky days can make for a smash alot of the time. Sorry for your loss and I hope all the birds come home from this race.
Ken

[parrisc]

Hi Kal-EL

I fly in the same federation that you do. Two other flyers from my club GRR, had birds back on the day at 3:30 or so. I like you didnt get any birds until Saturday morning. If you checked the weather on Friday there was a small front that moved through northern Iowa around 3pm or so. I was flaying all yearing hens so I can expected them to be late. I shipped 8 hens and have all of them back except 1 as of last evening.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by RodSD

Sorry to hear the news. We really need to figure out the cause(s) of this smash race thing. There are explanations, but I can't find scientific articles on them.

You know.......sometimes these things just happen with no REAL explanation. If birds were held every time there's a little wind, or high K factor or a little rain or very little sun........well, we wouldn't get very many pigeon races in. Very seldom is there PERFECT weather and even if it IS perfect, as far as we can tell, that doesn't mean that there won't be a bad race.
Once the birds hit the open sky, you just have to hope for the best. There's a big difference in putting birds up in somewhat iffy weather and putting them up when you KNOW the forecast is BAD BAD BAD........

[george simon]

Originally Posted by RodSD

Sorry to hear the news. We really need to figure out the cause(s) of this smash race thing. There are explanations, but I can't find scientific articles on them.

Hi ROD, I was told many years ago by a old racing pigeon flyer "DON'T GET TO SCIENTIFIC stick with the basic's". In most cases these smach races are weather related Wind or Rain or both along the race course. Many times when a person has a bad race to him/her its a smash,this may not always be true for the rest of the people flying that race.If I shiped 10 birds and got 9 back and they were late this to me is not a smach but insted it was most likely a tuff race.At what percentage of loss does a race become a smash ??? 25%,50%,75% Think about it. .........GEORGE

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by parrisc

Hi Kal-EL

I fly in the same federation that you do. Two other flyers from my club GRR, had birds back on the day at 3:30 or so. I like you didnt get any birds until Saturday morning. If you checked the weather on Friday there was a small front that moved through northern Iowa around 3pm or so. I was flaying all yearing hens so I can expected them to be late. I shipped 8 hens and have all of them back except 1 as of last evening.

Thanks. You fly in the Heartland Federation too? Cool! We will have to meet one day soon. Anyhow, yes, you are right. There was a small front near Mason City, IA.

And an update, I got two more birds back. One was a late hatch Delbar from 2008. I have two sprint birds that probably won't be back.

[Bezz]

Originally Posted by whitesnmore

I checked the "K" factor for your race on Friday and it was only at a 1 so that was not part of the problem. We had a lot of blue skies throughout our area which I assume you did to. The blue sky days can make for a smash alot of the time. Sorry for your loss and I hope all the birds come home from this race.
Ken

Hi all

Sorry about the losses!

I heard that there can sometimes even be an inversion in the sky which even put the birds off track until it cleared up.
This phenomina usually occurs on bright sunny days if im not mistaken.

Bezz

[RodSD]

Renee, George,

Thanks! I actually started thinking more. What is our definition of smash? In the same token I am actually trying to figure out whether there is scientific record of migratory birds that actually got smashed! There was that tv show where they showed the Monarch butterfly failed to return after bad icy weather. Most got killed when they froze to death.

I am actually fascinated with this phenomena. It is like people are asking why the whales got stranded on the beach and off course.