The Wright Partnership

By Monty Wright (Passed away late 2024) Colleen still well

Well, it is a long story as I have been involved with birds since I was thirteen years old. I am now 68 and enjoying it.

I have been interested in all types of birds since I was a child. My birthday and Christmas presents often were bird books. But on my thirteenth birthday I was allowed to obtain my first pair of budgies. My first pair of bantams quickly followed — Pekins, which the man down the road gave me.

Well, things snowballed from then on; I joined two cage bird clubs and the local poultry club in Dunedin. It was the year of the 1953 Dunedin Federation National, and I was heavily involved painting cages and show drinkers as we did in those days.

Soon I was keeping Yorkshires, Norwich, Borders, and British. My father and I had built an aviary with three flights and a bird room with twelve breeding cages. The three big flights soon became split up to make six smaller flights. I was showing at all the shows at this point from Christchurch south.

Suddenly I found the other type of birds that don't have feathers but still continued with the feather variety.

Well in the mid sixties it happened and Colleen came along and we formed the partnership M F M & C M Wright. All initials were used because in the North Island there was a partnership called M & C Wright.

By this stage we had moved into Zebras and Bengalese finch and some Bourkes and Elegant parakeets. The first child had also arrived - a son named Shane.

We then moved to our first house in Green Island where an old poultry shed was converted into an aviary and some pens built for the bantams. Next came the large poultry, Sussex, Rhode Island Reds, and Brown Leghorns and we also ventured into small foreign finches.

While visiting a canary breeder I noticed some unusual coloured canaries. These were bred from a Norwich cock and some mongrel hens. I asked him if he would sell them and he said yes. This was my first venture into New Coloured canaries. The three hens that I got were Agates, and I mated them back to the Norwich cock the next season. There was nothing for them on the show bench so they stayed at home for a long time till the first of the Non Colour feds were imported from Australia. We still have this line.

The next addition to the family was our daughter Shelley. There were no more types of children so stopped that breeding line there, and continued with the birds, adding reds and Rollers to the list.

One of the Dunedin breeders, Mr Bob Fraser, came back from a North Island National with some Glosters and Lizards and after the first breeding season passed some on to us. This pretty well completed the birds that we kept while in Green Island.

By this stage we both had moved on to judging quite a few of the species that we kept. We were showing at most shows in the South Island and really enjoying the hobby. I had been Show manager, then President of the Dunedin club. Colleen had been looking after the catering for the shows and also ended up on the committee.

The Green Island house had become too small as the children got older and we shifted to our "Burnhill" property in Highcliff Road where we still live today. At this point the Rollers went, as did the Yorkshires. They had been in and out a couple of times. Colleen became President of the Dunedin cage bird club and I became a life member, which was also bestowed on Colleen at a later date.

We have a very large breeding room with sixty breeding cages. Off this are five small flights. Further down the section are a further eleven flights which were temporary 23 years ago. We were only going to stay for five years, but are coming up for 26 years at present. You just can't rush these things.

At present I am back as President and Colleen is also on the Dunedin committee. We have been running the Gloster Fancy Club of New Zealand along with some other Dunedin Club members for just on fifteen years. So you could say we are very much involved with the hobby that we have found so rewarding over a number of years. In saying this it is possibly time to rethink what we are going to do in the future. You never know what is around the corner. We think we will be changing our direction over the numbers of species that we keep and possibly our commitment and involvement over the next year.

Webmaster's note: Monty is currently the patron of the Dunedin Bird Club.

Ray Briggs (Passed Away in 2022)

By Ray Briggs

I first became interested in cage birds when a workmate asked me to look after his 3 pairs of Zebra Finches over the holiday period. This was about the end of the 1960s. It wasn't long before we had Budgerigars because they seemed more interesting, more colours and not so flighty.

Our first breeding season started with 4 pet bird cages sitting on a shelf in the dining room with the nest boxes hanging on the front. This proved to be most likely the best breeding season I ever had, no egg binding, no french moult etc. with all pairs producing at least 4 chicks in both rounds, but what a mess in the dining room so the aviaries and breeding room had to be built outside. I still think this success was due to my ignorance and that the birds liked the noise (radios & kids), somehow it all blended in.

I had joined the Dunedin Cage Bird Specialist Club by then and it was not long before I was helping with the paperwork for the shows. Stewarding and judging didn't seem to be my thing so I kept my interest in the office side of things. I seemed to get a lot of satisfaction in doing the paperwork as I met up with more exhibitors right over all the show and not just in the section I was showing in.

I took over as the Club Secretary in the mid 1970s and produced my first show schedule using a "Banda" printer which used mentholated spirits and this was a hit and miss system to get good copies printed. Over the next few years we progressed with electric typewriters and Gestner printers.

In the mid 1980s things changed with the advent of the computer so my interest in the secretary work took a much-needed boost. The first computer was a 246 system which was only a better version of the typewriter but it did have a memory but didn't have a very big capacity. Over the next few years the computer programs improved and so did our system for running the shows.

Now we could save/merge files which negated the necessity of the repeated typing i.e. one special had to be typed 5 times before the end of the show prior to this. Thank goodness for better computers and photocopiers.

My birds during all this time kept increasing and I was having some success on the show bench reaching Champion status in the budgies. The canaries I had been doing good enough to keep me interested especially the Roller canaries. At the peak of my showing I had 56 Birds on the show bench which included Budgies, Foreign, and Rollers. This was proving too much as it was taking 3 trips to and from the show to get all the birds and office equipment there apart from all the preparation to the birds beforehand.

It was in 1988 that fate took a hand while I was overseas my birds just didn't get feed and I lost over 70 budgies and a few months later I lost all my canaries due to another reason. That was my lot with cage birds as I thought but I still had to get the info out for our A.G.M. for the club so I just kept going in the meantime.

It was after the AGM's the North Otago Club asked me to be their show secretary and this made up my mind to keep doing the show secretary work which I haven't regretted at all. Now I had the excuse to be at another show in an official capacity which made it all worth while. It wasn't long before I was assisting at other shows.

Over the years since I lost my birds I kept wondering what kept me interested and I put it down to all the members/exhibitors who have become my many personal friends something I think I can't do without.

Once I was told by a prominent breeder that to get to the top in the bird world was to breed a CYCR bird that became a National winner to get complete satisfaction in our hobby, as I don't have any birds, my satisfaction comes from running a successful National show so I think I have had a few national winners by either being show secretary or assistant secretary at Nelson, Christchurch (3), Timaru (2), Dunedin (3), Invercargill (2), and North Otago.

It is only with the help of the very good teams I have had in the office with me has this become possible. The next thing I am looking forward to is the hope that we can get the new show program up and running, as we want it, which is going to benefit all clubs with their secretary work. We have to move forward.

In 2022 we have been using the "new" show program for 12-13 years and that has made a great difference to the workload of the show secretary and this program is now being used by all South Island clubs as well as a bigger number of clubs in the North Island. The next stage we are moving into is the use of electronic entry forms which was available for the 2022 show season at the Annual Dunedin Show.

Mike Hannan

Normal Cinnamon Grey Male Budgie, CYCR winner for Budgie National 2010.

Mike first got into birds as a young lad. He was wanting Racing Pigeons, but given the perceived social image that was attached with them at the time his parents gave him the option of either chooks or budgies. With budgies he went, and with his fathers help by the time he left home about 6 years he had amassed a sizeable collection of 30-40 birds. As is usually the case, these he left with his parents.

It wasn't until he turned 25 that Mike got back into budgies, and Racing pigeons 3 years after that, both co-existing quite well until an accident 6 months into having both meant that he lost most of his budgies. This left him to focus on his racing pigeons, which he had for 10 years, and he really enjoyed keeping them. [Racing pigeons are raced instead of being showed - essentially it's the bird that gets home quickest (and travels the fastest / most intelligently) that wins].

Mike & Lindsay, with the trophies for winning Best Bird & Best CYCR at the Budgie National 2010, Oamaru.

A while after shifting back down to Dunedin and deciding it was time for a change, his involvement with Racing pigeons ended, but it did not take long for him to get involved with birds again. All it took was a visit to the Dunedin Bird Show, and once again he was keeping budgies. He joined the bird club and has been a member since, has been on the committee for around 8 years, and is now the president for the second time. Mike is currently in a partnership (Hellyer-Hannan) with two others, his wife Annette, and Lindsay Hellyer.

Mike currently keeps budgies (for which he has won numerous awards), has an assortment of british birds (green finches, redpoles, and gold finches) and a few others.

Mike & Lindsay's two winning birds (and associated trohpies) from the budgie nationals 2010. On the left is the Best Bird, on the right is Best CYCR.