Everything But The Budgie

To complement our newfound enthusiasm for making friends and doing business online, there’s nothing like a bird sale for getting fanciers together. FRED WRIGHT reviews the sales scene, and concludes it’s so much better than it was – unless you are after quality show budgerigars!

BUDGERIGARS

THESE days exhibitions are no longer as popular as they used to be. Decades ago, there were more clubs and each one held a couple of shows; some even put on an open show. Today, some clubs struggle to recruit new members. Clubs hold shows, of course, but they are small and lesser affairs than we read about decades ago. It’s great that many of the national and regional shows still flourish.

If you talk to fanciers now, they look forward to going to a large sale like the Stafford Spring Bird Show and the Parrot Society sales. These are big, in a great location, with something for everyone and they have become events in their own right. It never fails to amaze me how the smaller sales have become popular, too. In many cases, they have replaced clubs and society meetings with monthly sales. Fanciers don’t seem to want jobs in clubs and are reluctant exhibitors. On the other hand they enjoy their birds at home and, without any regular commitments, can go to local sales when they have the inclination and time. They don’t have to say who they are – and we all fully understand why, for security reasons, fanciers prefer to operate under the radar.