Well I’m back in the Philippines after 5 weeks in Australia but I’m off to Laos for two weeks before I stay put. While I was a away my “spare” male Glouldian died making a replacement mate less of a problem, however I think I have to treat that aviary for worms or something soon as there have been far too many mysterious deaths in it. No breeding went on while I was away other than the zebra finches but they were busy – seven fledgling are fluttering about now. The stars and cut-throats that were sitting when I left didn’t manage to hatch anything. My austerity feeding and maintenace diet must depress male fertility and these birds deserve a rest. One pair of cut throats was sitting on 20 eggs when I got back so I really have to separate sexes to give them both a chance to rebuild and replenish their condition.

I went to Cartimar yesterday and couldn’t resist a pair of Diamond Fire-tails. I paid P6500 which is about P1500 more than they usually go for but they come up so rarely that I couldn’t let them go. Although I didn’t find Dwight at Goldwing, it seems that he didn’t get birds in from Australia and I’m yet to find out what happened.

In Australia there have been complaints in the press about exporters depleting stocks of foreign birds and forcing up prices but I think such criticism is unfair as often the same people are advocating importing but want a ban on exporting. Hopefully there will be some sanity put into the debate. Interestingly the avicultural magazines also carried stories about keeping two rare native finches – the beautiful and red-eared fire-tail finches. These birds have traditionally been very scarce and difficult to keep but it seems that this is changing as knowledge improves and the birds become more domesticated but at AUD$2000+ a pair they are out of reach of most aviculturists. Domestication is something I wish someone would write about as I’ve had munias here for 2 years and they show no interest in breeding.

While I was in Sydney as well as buying and reading the avicultural magazines I visited one of Australia’s best Border Canary breeders, went to a show and did the rounds of bird-shops. I took a few photos and they will make their way into my talk next month.