Looking Through a Looking Glass

Have you ever looked in a mirror and considered what you actually saw? Was it the image of a fine looking male, or in the case of the ladies, a fine looking lady. Now take another long hard look through the mirror and what do you really see?

You go to your local Show, exhibiting your best bird, it comes say, second in the class, what do you say? The judge was blind, crooked, not fit to judge or what?

Now stop, and think carefully. Look closely again at the bird that has beaten you. Possibly you may have been unlucky, luck does play an important part of breeding and exhibiting budgerigars, but please analyse why you were beaten. Possibly the other bird has a lightly wider cap, a little better deportment, or even it was better prepared for the show, and better presented. The show cage was properly cleaned, the labels from last months' show had been removed, so look again, was the responsibility of getting beaten, your fault? Had you done enough to ensure you won the class, or had complacency crept in.

Now comes the breeding season, your friend in the next village has all his birds paired up and even has full eggs, you are only thinking about pairing up. Why? Is it possible that when he was getting his birds ready on that cold winter morning, you decided to stay indoors in the warm. But you forgot that, instead you feel that luck has deserted you. What about the time when you lost a nest of chicks? They were all dead when you went into your aviary. Was it not early afternoon before you went in? You had too much to drink the night before, so you lay in bed until lunch. What about the night "Ajax" was on television, you watched the whole match, instead of feeding and watering your birds. Wasn't that the night that you lost a nest of chicks? They had no water, so they did not feed the babies. Yet your friend in the next village, he also saw the football on television, however he only saw the second half. He fed his birds first.

What about the Champion exhibitor in your Club, that's right, the one that is very successful. He or she appears to win a lot of trophies, breeds many chicks and seems to sell a lot of birds at good money. Stop and think why? I will tell you, it is dedication. Hours are spent in the birdroom, checking that everything is okay, nothing is left to chance. In actual fact, with all this dedication it is much easier to spot something that is likely to go wrong before it actually does. In a way, you tend to make your own luck.

Next time you look into the mirror, not just a superficial look, but a deep look, what do you really see, a dedicated fancier, or what?

Original text Copyright 1997, Jim Hutton

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