AWBBudgies Travels : Alan Adams

It was a beautiful if not slightly cool morning the day we drove over to Alan Adams Aviary. The countryside is very lush. We drove down a narrow road with neatly trimmed hedges along both sides of the road. It is unusual for me to be in a car that has a steering wheel on the right hand side and for us to drive on the right side of the road takes getting used to. Here in America we drive on the left side of the road. I couldn't help but be impressed with how much history this country has. There are many old buildings with very old churches and businesses.

When we arrived at Alan Adams home we pulled into a neat stone driveway and parked in front of his home. Very old brick aligned the home and you could see that Alan a construction worker had recently done work on his building. When we asked how old the home was I was very surprised to hear it was 325 years in the original section of the home. That really struck me considering the country I reside in is only just 235 years old. Alan is a hunter and a true animal lover. His home is filled with quaint antiques and pictures of his hunting experiences. We walked through toward the back yard which adorned a circle stone patio.

The aviary is fantastic approximately 100 feet long. Breeding cages to one side are the box type and cover almost the entire length of the building which steps down toward the end. Several very long flights follow the opposite side of the building which are aligned with windows directly to the one side. It was very bright in the aviary and had plenty of ventilation.

I started to peer into the flights but as I looked into the breeding boxes I noticed a Crested Budgerigar. I have seen many pictures of these birds but this was the 1st experience for me to see one in person. I have friends here in New Jersey, USA who have bred these birds and I wanted to get a good quality picture of one. I didn't know it but as I walked down the aviary looking through the birds I noticed that the whole rear flight was filled with more Crests.







 Alan brought out tea and some cookies and we began to stand around and share the experiences from our trip and the aviaries we had visited. When I think about what we had seen to this point it was so overwhelming. Someone said that we may have see 95% of the top birds in the world.  It was clear Alan has a competitive spirit as the comparison to his birds came up. He began to explain why his birds could stand up to the likes of the Huxley and Marchant birds.

 I mentioned that I had never seen a crested budgie before and Alan showed me a bird which he claimed was the best crested in England last year. I was very impressed needless to say.











Again we began to see some super birds as Alan brought them to show cages that he hung along the wire of the flights for us to view at eye level. I was very impressed with the thickness of the birds along with the very good width in the heads. Alan was very keen on his birds however I didn't sense any secrets that he was willing to keep. He was very open and honest about his birds especially when it came to buying.

You could buy a variety of what you could fit into your program which would dictate the price.
When we walked out side you could see that Alan kept other birds in separate buildings opposite to the budgie aviary. Although we did not walk in that direction I noticed some other bright colored parrots some of which I had never seen before. We all lined up outside for another group shot and we were off.