SPANGLED BUDGERIGAR BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION NEWS
May 2006

The Spangled BBA held their Spangle Day at a new venue in Markfield, hosted by the North West Leicestershire B.S. The chairman Stuart Forbes was pleased to see so many members attending and thanked them for bringing birds to the show and special reference was made to Bob Quigley who made the trip from Edinburgh to attend the show.

Jeff Attwood made a welcome return and, with the aid of slides, he reported further on the development he has made with the Melanistic Spangle since he last spoke at the Spangle Day in 2000. Initially he gave some background of the Spangle variety, its origin and how he brought his stock in the early 1980s from Germany. He referred to some different spangle marked birds that Garry Heuval of Brisbane, Australia bred in the early 1990s but did not pursue them at the time and eventually got rid of that strain. Jeff informed the meeting of his best pairing to produce well-marked spangles and that is from pairing two single factor spangles together. Another good pairing is also the double factor spangle to normal. The birds that Garry Heuval produced were of near black wing marking with solid black spots but having the clear tail.

Jeff informed the meeting that during the 1998 breeding season he paired a spangle cinnamon grey green cock to a dark green hen and they produced 15 youngsters over three rounds. One of the young cocks from the third round appeared as a normal grey green but with a clear defined spangle tail. This bird did not change in his marking when reaching adult plumage. This bird was paired to a dark green hen during the 1990 breeding season and produced some visual normals (greys and grey greens) with the spangle tail as well as conventional normals. This gave him the basis to reproduce more of this variety, to which he gave the name “melanistic” spangle. He informed the meeting that he gave the “melanistic” name from the Pheasant game breeding, where some have dark wing markings and they are referred to as melanistic.

When he had increased the melanistic spangles in his stock, he started pairing them together to get the double factor form. He further experimented with pairing the melanistic to the conventional spangle and obtained a second variation of the spangle and for his records he gave them the name Type I. While on a judging engagement in Denmark, Jeff met with Borge Stenstrup who has developed a similar mutation at about the same period of time and gave it the name of Danish Dominant. Ghalib Al-Nasser also informed the meeting that the same mutation was developed in Israel by Meir Krut in about 1996 and the name given to it is Cleartail which he himself obtained from his friend in Israel and has been breeding with them successfully over the past few years. This demonstrated that a mutation could occur in different parts of the World at about the same time as the opaline variety did.

Jeff gave also a short talk on the Texas clearbody that he imported from USA in 1989 and also the new variety Frosted Pied that he brought from the USA recently.

While Jeff was busy presenting his slide show and answering questions Alan Moore, the outgoing president, judged the Members’ Show, which had an increase in entry from last year to 67 birds benched from 11 exhibitors. He awarded the best spangle in show, best spangle single factor and best champion to Jerry Donovan (a powerful opaline light green cock). Best spangle double factor went to Cy Thorne (yellow cock) and best spangle blue to Cliff & Darren Jones who also benched the best opposite sex single factor (grey hen) and double factor (white hen). Best intermediate was A. Stevens (cinnamon grey green) and best beginner went to Neil Wash (grey green cock).

The Alf Ormerod Memorial Trophy for the 2005 Most Spangle Young Bird wins went to Jerry Donovan.

 
Jerry Donovan with his Best Spangle in Show

At the AGM, Les Martin was inaugurated as the new President and John Cosby was elected to the post of President Elect. All other officers remained the same and were announced as: G. Al-Nasser, Life Vice President; S. Amos, J. Attwood, F. Canham, B. & C. Heale, R. Molkentin, F. Silva, R. Stringer & R. Thumwood, Vice Presidents; Stuart Forbes, Chairman & Treasurer; Clifton Wixon (88 Highworth Crescent, Yate, Bristol BS37 4HL. Tel: 01454 881334 e-mail marionwixon@blueyonder.co.uk), Secretary; Marion Wixon, Vice Chairman & Editor; John Cosby, Membership Secretary; Rod Clarke, patronage secretary; Janice Al-Nasser, Publicity Officer; Sue Clarke, Trophy Steward; Bob Allen, Cy Thorne and Ian Brickwood, committee members. The society has its own website (www.spanglebudgerigars.co.uk) to view.

Alan Moore, the outgoing President, with Les Martin, incoming President, at the AGM.

It was decided by the committee that the next Spangle Day will be held on 29^th April 2007 (week 17) and South Cheshire BS will host the event with the guest speaker being Eric Peake.

The new president Les Martin, in closing the meeting, gave a special THANK YOU to the host society and especially the ladies who provided the refreshment throughout the day.