What's in the issue

Perhaps nothing in birdkeeping matches the pleasure of a varied collection of different species. At breeding time, if one species isn’t firing then another one probably will be… you just don’t know what to expect. This week our Man of Kent David Urmston shares the surprises, nice and not so, from his collection so far. His motto: look for the silver lining. For instance, he’s been sold two male canaries as a pair, but now realises he doesn’t mind because what he really wanted was more song! Up in the North-East we’re updated on Austin Middlemiss’s pursuit of black gold… that’s black racing pigeons. In the budgie world we meet Aidan Yule, young, enterprising and highly talented. We learn the positive side of maintaining a birdroom on a budget, and there are regular focuses on canaries and finches both foreign and native.