I have always been interested in all areas of nature, and having been brought up in the Wirral countryside (that little stretch of land situated between the Rivers Mersey and Dee) spent much of my youth surrounded by wild birds and animals.

I remember with affection the many long summer days spent with my grandfather whilst still at school.  Like most children living in the country, I knew the locations of many birds’ nests, the best fishing streams and all of the rabbit warrens. I also remember collecting wasp grubs for bait, and the associated problems when the adult wasps objected. An experience I found helpful when I was breeding foreign and native soft-bills. 

I started breeding Cage & Aviary birds when I was still in my teens, and had a natural interest in native birds, both hardbills and softbills and some of the cheaper and easily available foreign birds, and later, some of the not so cheap soft-bills. I have kept and bred many different species of the smaller seedeaters such as Orange Cheeked Waxbills, Java Sparrows in White, Fawn & Pied and Green Singing Finches.  I had a number of Lovebirds at one time, including Lutino Peach-faced Lovebirds in the early 1970’s when they were still quite rare and expensive, changing hands for £100 per pair in those days, which was then, more than two weeks wages. I remember the problems of maintaining sufficient live-food when a pair of Mynah birds hatched out a clutch of eggs. Thankfully I no longer have these problems, my rearing food and daily diet now comes in handy buckets, boxes, and sacks.

I have bred canaries to compliment my native hardbills that were used for breeding mules, and I had some wonderful Lutino Greenfinches for breeding light Mules.

When I was employed as a shift engineer for British Steel I found the birds suffered terribly during the breeding season as I was unable to provide proper and suitable care and maintenance on a regular time-scale.  Canaries in particular do not breed well if left for long periods of the day without fresh rearing food.  I therefore looked at a more hardy species that would still breed if left for periods whilst I was working 12 hours shifts.  I had a number of Parakeets at this time, but I would go a whole week every month without seeing the birds between October and March, as it was dark when I went off to work and it was dark when I returned home in the evening.

My introduction to exhibition Budgerigars took place in the late half of 1974 and early 1975 when I obtained a few birds from local fancier Terry Pitt who at that time was Secretary of Chester Cage Bird Society.  I also obtained a few birds from Len Hodgkinson who was a successful Novice and held the office of Treasurer at Chester CBS.  with the odd bird obtained from other Chester club members.

My early years were reasonably successful and I picked up Beginner and Novice Any Age and Breeder (Young Bird) specials, rosettes and banners at Championship, Areas Society, and World Show level. My first major show success was during the 1978 show season when I obtained my very first Lancashire, Cheshire & N Wales Budgerigar Society Banner for Best Beginner Any Age at the Budgerigar Society Club Show held at the Granby Halls, Leicester with a 1977 home bred Greygreen Hen. My first major young bird win was obtained the following year when I benched the Best Novice Breeder at the LC&NWBS Area Championship Show. This was followed in 1980 with my very first LC&NWBS Black Banner for BEST IN SHOW.  The bird in question was a good-sized baby Yellow-face Cinnamon Grey hen.  I had bred her out of a Greygreen Cock obtained from Len Hodgkinson paired to a grey hen that I had bred the previous year and went back through two generations to a grey cock that I had obtained from the late Tom Rothery, the former Budgerigar Society Chairman.

The cock was evidently a Yellowface, and on checking Len’s breeding records it was traced back through five generations of Greygreens to a Cinnamon Yellowface Grey Hen that he had paired to a Light Green Cock.

The 1980-show season had been a successful one for my birds as I had also picked up my first Novice Certificate of Merit at Preston Championship Show with a 1977 home bred Light Green Cock. 

My first Budgerigar Society Certificate

The following show was the LC&NWBS Areas Society Show held in August where I took the Novice Certificate of Merit with a 1979 home bred Cinnamon Light Green Cock.

A week later - my first Area Society success

Whilst stewarding at the LC&NWBS in August 1979 I saw some very attractive Recessive Pied Cocks offered for sale in the selling class, and priced at £5 each.  They were birds from the stud of Mike Ingham, a Novice exhibitor, but one of the countries leading Recessive Pied breeders who had benched both the Any Age and Breeder Challenge Certificate winners at the show.  I decided that these attractive birds interested me so I purchased them.  I telephoned Mike to let him know of his success and to enquire if he had two suitable hens to make up pairs with the cocks.  Mike agreed to supply two split Recessive hens and would fetch them to the show on the second day.  This was my introduction into the Recessive pied variety. In 1980, from one of these two pairs costing the princely sum of £10 per pair, I bred my first Champion Budgerigar, but that is another story and a separate article explains how I have managed this variety over the last 20+ years.