Oakland International Roller Canary Club

From the Desk of the President

This is my chance to introduce myself here. I would, therefore, like to give you some background information. Those of you who know me; bear with me here. My father was Dan Agrella who has raised and exhibited German Roller Canaries for over thirty years. And some of you have even had him judge a team of birds in a show. I have been around the hobby all of my life. When my father took ill, my interest fostered and here I am now.
For the rest of this letter I would like to relate a story that might make a few of you with children and birds smile with empathy. When I was six years old my father's birds made me rather curious. I always wondered what exactly he would do for hours on end out there in that building at the far end of the yard. At six years old I was not given free access, which was prudent as you will see. One day my curiosity got the best of me and I ventured out to see what I could learn. It was a hot summer day and the door to the breeding room was open. I entered to find rows of cages attended by breeding hens in various stages of raising young. It was cage number nine that attracted me to it. There a young hen had gotten off the nest to feed her solitary young one. This required a further look. I managed to remove the nest liner to look at the baby but getting it back right was another story. The nest liner ended up on top of the bird instead of under it! Quickly I bolted out of the breeding room; figuring I could get away with it if no one saw me. I was wrong.
My father had seen me run out from the kitchen window and went to investigate. He found what I had done, corrected the situation and replaced the baby in the nest. Fortunately the bird survived to maturity. I was, subsequently, banned from unsupervised visits to "see the birds". The twist to this story was that one bird went on to win numerous best of the show awards and many tour specials. I guess you could say I was pretty good at picking a gold band bird even then!

Justin Agrella
President
Oakland International Roller Canary Club