North American Young Bird Record

By: Kemo Basic
Date: 1998
Category: Flying, Records

On the morning of the Summer series 1, after checking the bands with my
timer David Dean, I took the birds out in the backyard and waited until 4:37
A.M. to release them. The sky was cloudy and we could see the birds flying
as a kit and going to North.

At 5:50 A.M. the birds showed up and from then on they passed by every 15-20
min. making it an easy kit to time. It was an unusually cold day (40
degrees) for the Summer Series I, but the birds loved it.

At 11 A.M. Walter Wiechec came by, he stayed for a few minutes and noted
that it was "a nice kit of young birds".

By noon it was not as cold (50 degrees) when Harry Smith came. The birds
were high and Harry remarked that " the kit is flying in a beautiful style".
Harry was impressed with the height they flew at this point.

By 3 o'clock in the afternoon the temperature was around 60 degrees, still
cloudy with occasional showers or sprinkles with a light wind from the North
at up to 10 mph. The kit was in a flying mode and did not even once "look or
break".

At 13.5 hours on the wings, Walter came back with Bobby Dunseith. Bobby's
one of the top Irish Tippler men visiting relatives in Toronto area. Bobby
taped the kit for a few minutes and observed that "it is a strong kit of
youngsters".

At 15 hrs on the wings, raking was shorter (5-10 min.) but they still were
not "looking".

Irish birds are rather difficult to drop. They were not trained to the dark.

I had to release the droppers as soon as possible in order to get them
before the dark. At 8:41 PM it was "time" to release the droppers but I had
to wait until 8:43 PM for the birds to show up.

The first bird (the Silver cock) came down after 7 minutes, the second bird
(the Dun hen) came down after 12 min. and the third bird (the Blue Barred
cock) came down after a very long 14 min. The bands were checked and I
thanked David Dean for his kindness. My son videotaped the last hour of the
fly; a wonderful event. It is very interesting to watch the birds come to
the coop one by one. At 73 days old, after flying 16 hours and 6 minutes, a
new North American Young Bird Record, the physical and mental condition of
these birds was amazing.

These birds were bred through Harry Shannon's strain. They are mostly Blue
Barred, Duns, Silver Grizzles, Blue checks, Dun Checks and Bronze Grizzles.

In August of 1996, I got 4 pairs from Tom Rankin. They were bred directly
from the imports. " Young Tippler Training and Feeding" by Harry Shannon was
published in the CNTU, FTA, FTS and DTU. This is the program that I used. I
would like to thank Walter Wiechec, Harry Smith, Bobby Dunseith, Harry
Shannon, Oskar Zovic, Luka Kapac, Nino Bugeja, Tom Rankin, David Dean.....
for their support.
//