David Swain

Sunshine, very little cloud and now starting to get quite warm here in Dorset (15 miles north of Portland !). Visibility good and not a breath of wind as yet.

If you do send, best be prepared for another difficult YB race. The French Wind Map site is predicting a North or North East wind over the Channel, although it is supposed to be fine and sunny.

We had no rain to speak of in Dorset on Sunday and there wasn't any over the Channel where visibilty was good, so that certainly wasn't the reason for such poor returns. I still maintain it was all down to wind direction and strength.

Don't think it would have made any difference if they had gone to Guernsey and liberated on Sunday. Given the wind, those that did leave the island would just have headed for the French coast and ended up well to the east.

Don't think it was only the longest fliers who had a bad one. We fly only 148 miles from St Malo and had just four out of 12 YBs on the day, one next morning and none since. Several birds we are missing had already been over the Channel and all were previously raced, extensively trained and flying around home for a couple of hours at a time. We expected it to be a hard race because, from many years experience of flying YBs across the water, if there is any hint of North in the wind or a strong side wind as was the case on Sunday, the birds get taken well off course and struggle to fly the straight line we need to have any chance. Our first YB took six hours and was followed four minutes later by our first old hen which has probably flown the Channel about a dozen times in three years. Our other old hen entry, again a bird with plenty of Channel experience, didn't make it until 8am next morning and handled as though she had flown 500miles so it's no wonder so many YBs didn't make it. My guess is that if they came across the water at all they found themselves 200 miles off track to the east of us and too knackered to attempt the rest of the journey back into the wind. Looking at the result I guess the only people who were really happy with the liberation were to the East of the country. When you send to the National you have to accept that your chances are governed by the wind particularly if you are among the shorter fliers - but with a much better forecast for Monday why couldn't they have waited another day and given everyone a chance of getting more birds home.

Cloudy and cold here in Dorchester (Dorset) but good visibility and no rain at present. But the fresh NW wind over the Channel will make for a tough race if the National birds go up at St Malo (currently waiting for a decision by 9.30). Conditions tomorrow look a much better bet.

Changed once again here in Dorset. Rain returned with a vengeance at around 3 and it's still pouring down more than an hour later with no sign of any breaks in the cloud.

You should have a good race from Devon into Kent today. It has been sunny here in Dorset since mid-morning with broken cloud, no rain and a blustery wind which has turned more westerly as the morning progressed. Shame from our point of view that the National birds were held at St Malo though I suppose they would have struggled going further up country with all the rain they still seem to be having. Hopefully tomorrow will be better over the whole country, although it looks as though ours will be flying a dog leg back along the coast from the Isle of Wight if the wind remains as strong as it is now.

Weather was hot and sunny here in Dorchester yesterday Mick and visibilty was good, but the wind was very strong from the east which would have made it a testing fly for YBs heading back to Portsmouth. It's been a strange couple of weeks though with our YBs regularly taking two hours and more to return in ones and twos from their first few training tosses of 5-15 miles and many having a night out. Thankfully we haven't lost too many as yet ! Old birds have also been struggling from across the Channel and locally the BBC race from Bordeaux last Saturday was nothing short of a disaster with no real explanantion for what went wrong. Only 90- odd birds were verified in two days and around this part of Dorset, where we only fly just over 400 miles, top fliers are still missing a lot of experienced birds. After a very testing Palamos with only a comparatively small number of birds verified in race time, it hasn't been a good season so far for the BBC, let's hope the young bird channel race is better.

Only 32 birds timed out of over 1,200 today in the British Barcelona Club race from Bordeaux which is around 400 miles to the South Coast - so what went wrong ?

Definitely no external injury of any kind and 100per cent certain he hasn't been shot as we live in the countryside and the birds never went out of sight or sound. It's a couple of weeks since the accident and he has shown no sign of being able to fly up off the floor. But he is successfully helping to rear one healthy youngster and as long as we pick him up and put him in his box each day he seems perfectly happy. He manages to get down to the floor when his hen takes over the nest. The plan is still to move him out of the widowhood section and into a bottom box in the stock loft in the next week or so.

Anyone had anything like this happen ? We had eight yearling cocks out for a fly today and after exercising for about 15 minutes I was watching them getting ready to land on the loft again. They were on their second short circuit when one bird suddenly dropped like the stone with one wing flapping. It crashed into some old pea stickers in the veg patch and couldn't move so I was able to pick it up quite easily. To my surprise it had broken it's wing at the shoulder. The only thing it could have struck in flight was another bird in the group. As always seems to be the case, it was one of our best prospects and had taken a top nestbox. Now it can't get off the floor of the loft so we are having to keep lifting it on and off the nest in the hope that it might regain some small power of flight. But from past experience with similar injuries that's unlikely so floating it's eggs and moving it to a floor level nextbox in the stock loft is it's best hope. I wonder if this kind of collision happens very often during liberations when there are thousands of birds flying in close proximity. Perhaps someone with convoying experience could answer that one.

Cloud has disappeared again in South Dorset and it's warm and sunny again. Still think it's going to be a tough one for the YBs from Lamballe with BBC. Very similar to weather and wind in 1967 when we were 2nd open NFC YB National Avranches doing just under 1000 and the winner was in Weston-super-Mare, wouldn't be surpised if the winning velocity is about the same today.

Cloud has moved into South Dorset too now, temperature has dropped quite a bit and light breeze is picking up. Still some blue sky though and visibility not too bad although a little hazy.

Dorchester, Dorset is cloudless blue skies, warm sun and hardly any wind, what little we have is NNE

I think the main difference is the wide front the birds are spread over in the NFC - getting on for over 400 miles from Penzance to Dover. With the Solent Fed they were all heading for one relatively small area which makes it much easier for inexperienced YBs. Similarly with the Central Southern Classic FC from Guernsey the week previously, when much the same weather conditions prevailed in the Channel, much better returns were experienced in this area probably because they were not dragged so far afield.

NFC Guernsey was a very difficult race for some of the shortest flyers here in South Dorset. Considering it's only about 80-90 miles some might say it was a disaster with several lofts failing to clock and others reporting only about 25 per cent returns. We had four out of 12 yesterday (the first in 2hrs 45mins to be 8th section) and none at all today, although one fancied entry has been reported by a non-fancier in Brighton who says it looks as though it is going to die ! From the provisional result it would appear the majority of the birds crossed the coast well to the east of us, although there were a few notable exceptions, could these have been helped by the presence of some old hens who knew the ropes and took a straighter line into a head wind across the water ? From past experience over 45 years racing any YB channel race with north in the wind is going to be tricky no matter what the weather or K index so congratulations are definitely due to those birds who battled through to the longer distances! If it's from the same direction next week for MNFC Cherbourg and BBC Lamballe you can expect more of the same ! As for the NFC birdage, there quite a few fanciers in this area who won't send to Guernsey because it is too close and believe their only real chance in the open is in a north east wind.

Birds very split from Sennen Cove with Dorset Fed and Guernsey with CSCFC. Had to wait nearly half an hour for the second after first from Sennen Cove and still only 2 from 10 after six hours. First from Guernsey took two hours and only another five from 29 in the next hour so despite the fine weather it didn't suit the birds much - or maybe there has been a lot of clashing.

Hard to believe "no wind" at Hamworthy this morning. I am 20 miles due west of there and it's strong NNW. Our birds from Exeter did just over 50 miles in a little under the hour so would expect the Kent ones to do something similar.

Seems the weather is still very poor in Cornwall - despite BBC assertion that it is improving down there in the West - so Dorset Fed are on their way back from Truro to Exeter which should be ok as it's only about 50 miles from here and the weather here is still dry with broken cloud, occasional sun and a gusty NNW wind which seems to be increasing..

Dorchester, Dorset 8.30. No rain at present, cloud has broken and sun is coming through with fair amount of blue sky. Blustery NNW wind. Still no news of Dorset Fed liberation at Truro which was supposed to be "as early as possible" so presumably weather is still not so good down in Cornwall and they are waiting for it to warm up a bit.

Thanks for that Ian. We'll give this one plenty of time to recover and try him again when we think he's ready because he's a well bred bird. Certainly nothing we have encountered before and perhaps we'll never know what it was all about.

Lost a young bird on a training toss recently and it was reported by another member of our club who lives about ten miles away. When we got it back it looked in perfect health until you handled it. Its body was about twice the size it was when it was basketed with what appeared to be an accumulation of fluid under the skin. There was no sign of it having taken a knock so it definitely wasn't bruising and the extra mass appeared to be uniformily spread down each side of its keel. It is now flying again but still handles a bit like an over-fed show racer. In nearly 50 years of racing birds we have never encountered anything like it before. Any ideas anyone ? :-/

Dorset Fed YB trainer at Exeter liberated 11am, about 35 miles, sent 40, got one at 12.25, another half hour later and none since, welcome to the young bird season !!!!! ??)

Cloudy and cool in South Dorset but the sun is beginning to break through and there's some small patches of blue sky starting to show. Hardly any wind, what there is coming from NE.