After a two year hiatus due to COVID, the Baw Baw Budgerigar Society held its third annual Diploma Show on Sunday, November 20 at the Yarragon Public Hall.
Twenty-seven exhibitors, some from as far away as Melton, benched 260 birds across 29 varieties from adults, young birds and UBCs for the judges to assess. Exhibitors are ranked from champion, open, intermediate and beginner classes with awards being made for each variety in each class.
The overall champion bird on the day can come from any variety, of any age and of any section.
P. and D. Smith from the Clyde Club in open class took out this year's grand champion bird with a normal grey. The opposite sex to grand champion went to T. and S. Appleton from the Eastern Club in champion class, also with a normal grey.
P. and D. Smith's normal grey took out the champion young bird. Martin Paoli from the Dandenong Club took out the champion adult bird with his greywing light green and
L. Richardson from the Eastern Club took out the champion UBC with his cinnamon yellow face.
Baw Baw club members in the intermediate class to receive awards were Maxine Clarke with her spangle being the opposite sex to best young budgerigar and Dreamtime Budgies with the best adult and opposite sex with their grey and dominant pied respectively.
In the beginner class J. and J. Mastwyk had the best adult with their lacewing and followed up in the same class with their UBC's taking out best and reserve birds.
Overall the day was a great success with some members achieving great results, with some members entering birds for the very first time. There was a prize available to a member of the public for selecting their favourite bird on the day, which was won by Abbie Huggins.
Locally sourced prizes were made available for our fundraising raffle for which we thank those who contributed.
The club encourages anyone who would like to participate or learn about caring for, breeding or showing these beautiful Australian parrakeets can contact the club via our webpage https://bawbawbudgerigarsociety.weebly.com or find us via our Facebook page.
Meetings are held on the first Monday of every month at 7pm and last about two hours. The next meeting will be the final for this year on Monday, December 5.