Florida State Fair (2/17/2001) - FL
Judge: Cliff Witt
Exhibitors: 8
Entries: 57

Judge's Comments:

The Florida State Fair Exotic Bird Show in Februaray afforded me another First in my judging career. It was the 1st time I ever judged a 2 day show in one day! and I was assigned to the morning slot. At first I wasn't sure if this was such a good idea and felt that maybe there wouldn't be enough time to do a thorough and proper job. Somehow breezing through the same number of birds that normally took all day was a daunting proposition. We had 57 birds from 8 exhibitors. After it was over, I began to see some positives I hadn't thought of. The gallery was a group of very intrested people who, in one day, was able to watch 2 different judges talking about the same birds in different ways, but often coming to the same conclusion. This had to be quite the educational and valuable experience. I found it fascinating watching Phil Ryand judge in the afternoon, saying many of the same things I had said in the morning, but from a different angle, a different tke on the same bird. In the end, most of the same birds wound up on the top bench albeit in different positions.

Five of the eight exhibitors shared the top bench, which demonstrates there was no one dominant exhibitor. And that's good. The big winner was Deb Sandridge from Tarpon Springs with the top 2 winners. Rainforest Aviaries of Brookville had 3 of the top birds while Best Novice, Erik Engel placed 2 in addition to Best Novice. Holly Perez's Champion Seagreen Pied placed 3rd in show while her Medium Blue Placed 10th. Congratulations to all and many thanks to the team that made for a remarkable smooth running 2 day show in 1 day!

Florida State Fair (2/18/2001) - FL
Judge: Phil Ryan
Exhibitors: 8
Entries: 57

A beautiful day for a show in the middle of February - temperature in the 70s, sunshine, and the turnout was great. We had 8 exhibitors and a total of 57 Love Birds. The show was held in conjunction with the entire Florida State Fair and the fair grounds were packed on this last day of the fair. The public turnout inside the show hll was remarkable in light of the beautiful weather. The place was packed. During judging we had anywhere from 5 to as many as 20 people attending the Love Bird judging alone.

The birds were in good condition with very few pin feathers observed. This was the 2nd show in a row for these birds on the same day. The State Fair officials had decided to put a 2 day show on in 1 day. The first show as held from 9AM to 1PM and this show was held from 2PM to 6PM. These birds had a lot of jostling in one day and all held up remarkably well.

There were 2 rares, 2 Fischer's, and 9 Masked. The largest section was Blue Peachfaced with 11. Green Peachfaced came in 2nd with 10 entries. The smallest sections in Peachfaced were Green Pied with 3 and Blue Pied with 2. There were 2 Champion birds entered as well. Five of the eight exhibitors placed in the top 10 which indicates to me that the competition was very good.

It turned out to be the day of the pied. As mentioned above, there were only a total of 5 pied entries, but 3 of them placed in the top 10. The first place bird, a green pied had very good proportions and show cage presence. The competition was tight at the top. Second place went to a Black-cheeked in excellent condition and with very nice color markings. The Champions fared quite well. Even at the end of the day, a Seagreen Pied Champion was placed as number one on the top bench. The other Champion was placed 8th.

I want to thank the show organizers and the show committee for a well planned and executed event. Also I want to thank the Division Secretary, Deborah Sandidge, for keeping all the placements straight and for having all the paper work done. The show stewards - Norm Garbutt, Kathie Hull, and Holly Perez - kept the show moving so that we made our tight schedule.