FEATURE
of 20 parrotlike breeders in Australia, where he filmed all of the Australian Cockatoos, plus Orange Bellied and Rock Grass Parakeets, Naraethae Bluebonnets, Golden Shouldered, Blue Cheeked Rosellas and the different subspecies of Brown’s and Eastern Rosellas, even the elusive Ground Parrot. The footage he brought back seemed to indicate that the Australian Parakeets in the UK, were every bit as robust, large and well coloured as the birds kept in Australian aviculture and presumably the wild population. At 17 I left home in Yorkshire and moved to the south coast to work, having sold up all my birds and flights. Two years later I joined the British Army, and any plans to keep birds again were on long term hold, or so I thought. About 12 months into my first posting to Northern Ireland, a mate of mine found an escaped Zebra Finch. The fawn cockbird soon took up residence in a home made cage, next to my bedspace in an eight man portacabin. I bought a pied hen to join him and they were soon on eggs. During my second posting, in Wiltshire, I married my wife Jill and moved into a married quarter. This provided the opportunity to construct a couple of small flights, one housing a mixed group of Gloster Canaries and one a stunning pair on Splendids. All bred well, and when we were posted up to Lancashire, a third flight followed. This contained a mix of Masked Grassfinches, Black Rumped Bichenos, Bandtailed Seedeaters, Lavender Finches and Angolan Bluebreasted Waxbills, nest baskets overflowed with eggs but no chicks were reared. Eventually the
seedeaters were replaced with a pair of Stanley Rosellas, but disaster soon struck. I had just entered the Stanley’s flight to check on the six newly hatched chicks, when my young daughter opened the door behind me. The cockbird saw his chance and was away. The hen did her best to feed the chicks, but they eventually died one by one.
An operational tour to Bosnia in 1995, meant I had to sell the birds, with the exception of the hen Stanley, which my wife took care of particularly well. On my return a posting to Kent soon followed, the post was as an instructor, providing some stability, so the hen Stanley was paired up and then joined by pairs of Manycoloured and Elegants. The next posting came round all too soon, and a move to Bedfordshire and deployment to Kosovo meant disposing of my parakeets. Our next post in Dorset, was to a particularly hectic unit, deployments to East Timor, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan meant I saw plenty of exotic birdlife but keeping birds was simply out of the question. Throughout this time I had maintained the dream that I would one day settle down and be
I joined the British Army, and any plans to keep birds again were on long term hold, or so I thought. About 12 months into my first posting to Northern Ireland, a mate of mine found an escaped Zebra Finch. The fawn cockbird soon took up residence in a home made cage, next to my bedspace in an eight man portacabin.
BIRD SCENE 35
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