Bob Adams’ 2003 Young Bird Record Breaking Fly

16 Hours 35 Minutes

To all Tippler flyers and fanciers:

On June 29, 2003 in a pre-arranged fly with the Flying Tippler Association of America (FTA) and the American Tippler Union (ATU) I flew a kit of three young birds for a new North American Young Bird Record with a time of 16 hours and 35 minutes.

The Record was set the week (6/21/03) before by Nino Bugeja of Canada with a time of 16 hours and 33 minutes. This young bird Record has been going back and forth between Nino and myself since 1999. We have been pushing each other to do the best we can, and Nino is a true competitor and will be back. I expect nothing less than perfection from him and his birds. Nino is a FLYER that’s for sure!

The weather was finally nice in New York after weeks of rain. My timer Andy Dolan arrived at my home at 4:10am and we noted that there were many white clouds in the sky and that it was very easy to see, so an hour before sunrise release was definitely a go and also a must to even come close to Nino’s time. The bands were checked by Andy and were recorded as 03 FTA #1 Black, 03 ATU #2 Black, and 03 ATU #3 Black (bronze but will turn black). I believe they are all brothers from three different clutches. Yes for sure pumpers were involved in this. The parents to these three were part of the team that held the North American Young Bird Record in 2001 with a time of 16 hours 30 minutes. That goes to prove that best to best in this case proved to be fantastic.

We released the birds at 4:24 am and they went right up and stayed together as a kit and were seen at least once every half hour for the entire fly never splitting ‘once. Nick Romano arrived at 1:24 pm to relieve Andy. The band numbers were given and noted once again. Ed Buraczewski arrived at 8:00 pm as a witness and as an additional timer until the end. At 8:59 pm the lights were turned on and the droppers tossed. All three birds hit at 9:00 pm with the last bird trapped at 9:03 pm. Time recorded as 16 hours and 35 minutes. The bands were checked by Nick and noted that they were the same. It was a partly cloudy day with hardly any wind until the end of the fly. The kit worked very hard for their feed. Very disciplined kit of birds.

Well on June 22nd these birds flew in competition but were DQ’d, as one bird didn’t respond to the droppers. They flew through the pouring rain and really wore themselves out. I don’t like to fly on back-to-back weekends, but if I wanted the record back it was now or I would have to wait until next year to give it a try. I flew them Tuesday and Wednesday for 5 hours and Wednesday I started their feed-up.

I gave them equal parts hemp, rape and millet for the four days (one ounce) at night in the dark with the droppers. Wednesday each bird got a cod liver oil capsule. Thursday and Friday the kit gets Red Cell in their water, Saturday morning tea, and Friday night plain water. Usually I give them Epsom salts on Tuesday but not on back-to-back weekends, they were drained enough already. I want to thank Andy, Nick and Eddie for giving up part of their day to time the fly. They are GREAT guys and we couldn’t have done it without them.

Bob in the SPORT