Cage & Aviary Birds Magazine No.5770 Adventures with Yorkies Back Issue

Returnees to Birdkeeping have featured several times in our pages lately. By and large, these are people who have fallen in love with the fancy in their youth, given it up when the pressures of adult life started to impinge, and then come back when, years or decades later, they felt the need for a proper, fulfilling hobby in their maturity. I always find these stories interesting, because in our lives we never simply wind back the clock and pick up where we left off. Second-time fanciers describe two sorts of excitement: reviving long-rusted skills, and discovering new insights and pleasures thanks to their mature outlook. Dr J.M. Gaugas’s story on page 17 is a perfect example. As a young man, he made a serious start with Yorkshire fancy canaries. But when, 50 years later, he again looked at Yorkies, he found that the modern bird wasn’t to his taste. Did he give up his return to
birdkeeping? Not at all: he found a different variety – the Norwich – that did inspire him, and knuckled down to work. His new journey with Norwich has brought plenty of setbacks, but with his
patient and mature approach he has converted those into lessons learned, and he delightedly reports on some early rewards on the show bench. Dr Gaugas’s initiative and determination do him great credit. Well done indeed to reader Peter Young and his fellow fanciers for their splendid support of their local hospice (see Letter of the Week). If you or your club are involved in a similar good cause, don’t keep it to yourself – let us know. Ed’s Quote of the Week: The [penguin] chicks have been hand-reared on a menu of fish milkshakes, vitamins and minerals and, more recently, solid fish.” (See News, page 3.) Fish milkshakes... I don’t know what a Blackpool zookeeper earns, but the brave souls who administered those shakes deserve a serious bonus.