MCCORMICKLOFTS
92 posts
Jul 09, 2004
3:22 PM
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Well for starters, I wouldn't expect much in the first month or so of flying. Usually really young birds that have just learned to start kitting will act kind of weird for a while, often acting like one or many of them are spooked by something, or as you are experiencing, get turn locked. It's not all that uncommon really, but we all hope they straighten out in the months that follow. There are many variables such as the family characteristics (ie. low flying, high flying, slow flying, high strung..etc.) that contribute to young bird behavior. In addition if you get a young team on the wing and you have predators around, the will get into a pattern of flying around kind of scared. Usually I attribute the constant circling to no bird taking the lead or the others not paying attention to the possible leader teammates. My youngest teams will come out and fly radically in circles for a few minutes, usually it's an excitement thing I think as well as they haven't learned how to fill their sacs quickly. Sometimes if the team gets locked into circling for more than a few minutes and are low I will flag them and shake their attention, which usually seems to get them to at least fly straight for a moment, then they tend to course more around. It seems that with most of the young bird teams I can remember that flew tight circles, that after about 10-15 minutes of flying they start coursing around and lifting up high then coming back down low. One thing that can help is if you have an established older team that flys nice, put them up and let them fly for a while, then put out the young circling team. I will usually do this as my old bird or older young team is coming down. The two groups will merge and the older birds take control, almost guiding the young ones if you will. I read once that Monty Nieble was a strong advocate of putting squeakers on the roof when releasing and flying the older teams to help teach them what they are suppose to be doing. The last two years I have done this, making sure the not-yet released babies are in the fly pen when the older group is up and if you watch them, they are watching the team. Bottom line is if they have only been flying for one month, don't fret just yet, give them a little more time to figure it out. You can also watch the group and see if there is a bird(s) that are cutting the kit or always in the lead making the others follow in a circle. If you think you have discovered one, take it or them out and then fly the youngsters and see how they react. Good luck, hope you figure it out.
Brian.
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