In June
1984 I spent a couple of weeks in
We based
in
It was
the visit with Terry & Claire Pilkington that I was most
impressed. They had won the Club Show in 1982 and had been in
the news for selling a bird for 3000GBP which was a record price
in those days. They had super birds and I was really impressed
with a number of grey greens that had just left the nestbox.
They looked super, and out of habit I made a mental note of the
ring numbers and wrote them down in a notebook later that day.
After the
trip Terry and I would write frequently and he would keep me
updated on the
Clare & Terry Pilkington were on top of the Budgie World.
By 1987 I
decided it was time to try importing a few birds to upgrade what
I had, and contacted Terry. My budget was limited but Terry
agreed to help with a few pairs. Everything he would send was
out of “my greygreen family”… Eric Peake helped get the birds
together for shipment, and got me really excited. “The birds are
good, but I cannot believe that he included a young greygreen
normal” said Eric. “It is a stormer”. True to form that
youngster died in quarantine along with a hen, so I ended up
with two pair.
Both pair
did well in the breeding cage, especially a greygreen cock and
cinnamon greygreen hen. The hen was nothing to get really
excited about, and the cocks was a wide headed bird, not much
blow, but had a huge body.. massive and heavy when held in the
hand. They pumped out chicks, from memory well over 20 in that
first season.
For the
first two seasons the Pilkington birds were kept “pure” when
pairing up but by 1989 I tried crossing them into my Langell
line.. and whammo… One great nest after another.. Both families
went back to Ormerod blood and clicked immediately.
In 1990 I
won a couple of shows with youngsters from these birds.. but
nothing huge. But I had a gut feeling something good was
happening. We moved to
Everything went well until a couple of weeks before that show
when the weather changed and the birds went into an awful moult.
By the time I boarded the plane I had a bird to enter for my son
Josh, and a young greygreen that I thought was too young to
seriously compete.
The
youngster ended up placing second Best In Show from 1,056
entries much to my amazement (and many of the other exhibitors)
and birds from the family won over 30 shows in the next 5-6
years, until unfortunately I had to part with them because of
business commitments.
The
Pilkington outcrosses worked wonders for me when crossed with my
Langell bloodlines. The big greygreen cock behind it all and the
other Pilky birds were in the shipment for 75GBP a piece.. a
long way from that records 3000GBP bird he sold in the early
80s.
Now you know why I am a firm believer in working with quality stock from good family backgrounds… even if the ones you can afford are not the best visually.
