Drill Hall echoes with chirps, twitters

Alistair Robb, of Oamaru, shows off his champion Yorkshire canary yesterday. Photo by Hamish...
Alistair Robb, of Oamaru, shows off his champion Yorkshire canary yesterday. Photo by Hamish MacLean.

The twittering of 300 birds transformed the Drill Hall in Itchen St, Oamaru, into a rolling, chirping harmony at the weekend.

First to arrive on Sunday morning, the North Otago Bird Fanciers Club 2016 show secretary Diane Tonkin, of Oamaru, revelled in the jungle-like sounds.

"It was so surreal,'' she said.

"It was just me and I sat there thinking, ‘This is so cool'.

"It was so relaxing, I didn't want anyone else in here.''

But bird fanciers and inquisitive Oamaruvians did walk through the Drill Hall doors.

Up to 70 attended this year's show, taking in the colours and bird calls of a variety of canaries, budgies, finches, hook beaks, lovebirds and cockatiels.

The North Otago Bird Fanciers Club's 53rd annual show's manager Errol Hay, of Oamaru, said numbers were "way down'' on last year when roughly 600 birds were on display, perhaps because the weather had not co-operated at either end of the first round of breeding for aviculturists.

In August and September, temperatures had been too low for breeding numbers and then a lack of recent cold weather made for a "terrible'' moulting season for many breeders when birds should "firm up''.

As the first show in the South Island on the New Zealand Federation of Bird Clubs calendar, numbers at the North Otago Bird Fanciers Club's annual show had taken a hit this year, but, Mr Hay said, the number of entries at later shows should improve.

Birds from Invercargill, Timaru, Ashburton and Christchurch bolstered the North Otago bird fanciers' entries at the weekend's two-day show.

Nine judges spent three hours on Saturday morning determining the best in 16 sections at the show.

And with 100 or so birds in his aviary, Mr Hay's birds were doing all right this year with the second round of breeding.

"You always look forward to next season,'' he said.

"And I am pleased with what I bred; although I was down on numbers, the quality is up.''

With a penchant for the red factor canary, he has 60 of the variety, his red, bronze or apricot canaries were standouts in the popular colour fed section.

One of his entries took the Best Champion colour fed in this year's show.

While breeding birds can take up a fair amount of time, Mr Hay said since retiring to Oamaru from Christchurch five years ago he had plenty of time for his birds.

Results: Best champion Yorkshire, A. Robb; best champion Norwich, V. Tieu; best champion border, B. Ackroyd; best champion colour fed, E. Hay; best champion non colour fed, G. and A. Evans; best champion gloster, V. Tieu; best champion roller, N. and K. Brown; best lizard, M. and C. Wright; best champion budgerigar, J. and M. Shaw; best British hardbill, E. and S. Fletcher/Spruce; best softbill, M. and A. Jordan; best mule or hybrid, M. and A. Jordan; best zebra finch, S. Wright; best Bengalese, D. Richmond; best hook beak, M. and C. Wright; best lovebird, M. Ackroyd.hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

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