I started with the Fife canary in 1978 with birds from Scottish fancier Andrew Herd. The young stock that I bred from these initial birds were admired by a lot of fanciers in my area ( Durham ) as they were a new breed, only being able to be shown in the (Any Other Variety) classes. I kept this breed right through to the year 2000 when reluctantly I had to leave the fancy for personal reasons. In 2004 I received a phone call from David Lumsden inviting me to judge at the East of Scotland FFCC which I was reluctant to take because of being out of the fancy for a few years.This phone call brought me back into the fancy.

A few weeks after judging this show I made the journey back to Scotland to purchase my initial restarting stock from the partnership of ( Green & Stillie ) who had the kindness to give me first choice of their surplus stock. I had admired their birds in previous years and decided that this was a good bloodline to make a base for a new strain of my own.

I have been unable to travel to shows over the past few years due to work commitments and have not benched a bird since 2008 at any level, but have kept on working with them to keep the bloodline that I am  developing improving.

I was invited onto the Judges panel in 1996 and have enjoyed many shows.

Birds have been in my life since boyhood and I am still as dedicated to them now as I was back then. I kept Tumblers, Finches, Hens, anything with feathers I was dedicated to them. When I left school in 1967 and started earning I joined my stepfather and his partner in the pigeon racing game and raced these birds until 1976, then due to work and family commitments I could not give the birds the attention required and so converted over to the world of canaries where I have remained to this day.

My main interest in the fancy is to create my own family of birds. If they do well on the show bench it is an added bonus. It is nothing more than a hobby to me from which I get a lot of enjoyment.

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