Peter
Mostert is a third generation aviculturist from Holland. His father, both
grandfathers and at least six uncles all kept birds. He has been keeping
and breeding birds for 54 years, when at the age of 10 he was given his
own pair of canaries. On birthdays when the family was together, the men
spent hours talking about birds…which Peter always found fascinating (the
children weren’t allowed to talk). When they went on vacation, they would
spend one day at the beach and one day at the zoo. The zoo was the
highlight for Peter, who could stand for hours in front of those large
display cages dreaming, not realizing that one day he would be looking
after birds like that.
Keeping parrots
was much by accident. It could have been raptors (he likes owls) or
pheasants, or actually anything with feathers, no matter how ugly. He
would have kept vultures if that had been the route his life had taken,
believing that some, like the King vultures are actually very beautiful.
Luckily for parrot lovers, his interest developed in parrots.
Margaret Mostert
has had an admiration and affection for all creatures for as long as she
can remember. In 1966, she married Peter, who already had a number of
birds, and shortly afterwards she took over the nurturing task of hand
feeding chicks when the parents stopped feeding them. In fact, she was
feeding three baby Cedar Waxwings while on their honeymoon in Muskoka, and
that was the last time that they were away together for more than two
days. It was the beginning of a lifetime commitment. Margaret also does
gardening, which she calls her ‘escape from the world’, and she enjoys
feeding and watching wild birds in her backyard.
Peter had shown
birds in the late sixties, and early seventies with reasonably good
success. He still has the front page of the Bradford Witness newspaper
with Peter as a proud new father, showing his birds and the trophies he
had won at the Royal Winter Fair in November of 1968.
About ten years
ago Peter was asked to judge Hookbills by the Hamilton club.
Unfortunately, there were a few disgruntled birdkeepers who felt that he
had not learned enough to judge. Later, one judge suggested that he
should begin exhibiting again to silence the complainers. His first show
was the last Canadian National Bird Show that was organized by the Durham
Avicultural Society. He entered only three birds, but he won the Best
Medium Parrot, Best Large Parrot, and also the Best Hookbill in Show… and
there were no more complaints. Peter became and accredited AACC Show
Judge, and judged about a dozen shows. He withdrew as a judge from the
AACC last year when he started to receive calls from out of province,
which he turned down. It didn’t seem fair to have Margaret look after the
birds when he was gone for a few days at a time since the preparation and
feeding takes aobut four hours. However, he enjoyed judging, and would be
willing to so again locally.
Peter has been
involved in City Hall battles against by-laws that would be harmful to
aviculturists, first in Toronto and later in Kitchener, where he gave
presentations.
He has been asked
by Chris Holoboff (barrister and solicitor, Toronto) to represent
aviculturists and give them his perspective.
Peter believes
that he would not have been able to accomplish his breeding programme
without the help of Margaret. He thinks knows that he is fortunate to
have a wife who enjoys the hobby as much as he does. She looks after the
babies from the time they hatch in the incubator or are pulled form the
nest. This means that at certain times of the year, she is stuck from
early morning until late at night, and in addition, she is his back up.
They have bred
eight different species of Cockatoos, including the Moluccan, Citron and
Palm… all of which are on CITES Appendix 1. Margaret has raised
twenty-nine different species of parrots, including the Hawkheaded Parrot,
and the Palm Cockatoo.
Peter has always
dreamed of breeding something that was a challenge. They had Palm
Cockatoos for thirteen years before they finally raised the first chick.
The Victoria Crown Pigeons took ten years. The problem in both cases was
that mates were virtually impossible to find, and two birds of the same
sex don’t do well. He also suggests that patience helps.
Most people end
up with smaller birds because of space limitations, but Peter wanted to be
different, and that comes with a price. It was very challenging to build
the proper accommodation, and he wanted to be proud of what they were
doing. So he built outside flights… and more outside flights. He needed
a solarium that was good enough to persuade the Crown Pigeons to produce,
and for the many birds with were stuck indoors every winter. They built a
one-hundred-foot long flight, which they called “Summer Camp”, and they
have had as many as seventy birds in there at the same time, with the
criteria being, of course, that they are compatible. Rosemary Lowe has
said that every birdkeeper should have a flight like this.
Margaret and
Peter have sent parent-raised Hawkheads to other breeders all across the
country, and the same with Moluccan and Citron Crested Cockatoos. They
have even sent young Sulphur Crested Cockatoos to Europe, and of course,
all of the cockatoos were hand-reared, but raised in and environment with
other cockatoos. Peter is concerned that the breeding of cockatoos may
come to an end within the next twenty years because most cockatoo breeders
are gone, or have given up. Peter and Margaret still have ten pairs set
up. They kept one Hyacinth Macaw for eleven years, but it went to another
zoo because they have an experience hen, which they did not want to part
with. Peter believes that it’s better to try breeding them there than to
have two single birds miles apart.
The Mosterts have
had a working relationship with the Toronto Zoo (then known as Riverdale
Zoo) since 1965. He was later able to convince the Toronto Zoo to
partnership with some other species. Presently, they have Hyacinth
Macaws, Galahs and Crown Pigeons set up in breeding situations. At the
moment The Toronto Zoo is undergoing major renovations, and spaces for
large birds are limited. Even for zoos it has become more difficult to
obtain new birds or fresh bloodlines, so this arrangement benefits both of
them. They share in the youngsters, which now stay in the country. A young
Redtail Black Cockatoo, born at the zoo, which Peter and Margaret received
in February, 2008 has now fully recovered and hopefully in due time they
will be able find a mate for it.
In 1967, Peter
and Margaret joined the Budgerigar and Foreign Bird Society. Peter’s
first show trophy is dated 1968. They joined the Golden Triangle Parrot
Club in the late 1970's, shortly after it was started. For many years
they held positions including president, vice president, secretary,
treasurer, bulletin editor, and archivist. Later they joined the other
major clubs, all of which they still belong to. Over the years they have
made numerous presentations to all those clubs- sometimes several times,
but Peter enjoyed the presentations at the Parrot Symposiums the most… it
was such a classy event!!
Margaret and
Peter used to visit schools – they would take birds, eggs, feathers,
nestboxes and so on. As the word spread among school principals, they
eventually had to back off a bit because they would get calls weekly from
as far as Toronto. Although Peter’s employer approved of these outings,
eventually all good things come to an end. Peter stills speak one day each
year at the Vet College in Guelph as part of the 3third year curriculum
for veterinary students. During the breeding season, those students who
are interested are invited to Peter and Margaret’s place to see the
"operation" first hand. One year they had 72 students! They would arrive
and leave every hour in groups of ten.
Margaret and
Peter were presented with the Aviculture Service Award last year at the
Canadian Parrot Conference.
To sum it up,
Peter feels that there is never a dull moment and he always has more
dreams. Birds have been their life, with their interest moving toward the
unusual and hard to breed species. Ownership has not been important.
Instead, it's been the challenge of being able to breed them so that all
of our grandchildren can some day enjoy them.
Margaret and Peter are
definitely a team, and as such we would like to nominate them to share the
prestige of a place in the Avicultural Council of Canada’s Hall of Fame.
There are very few who have done more for Canadian aviculture than this
couple.
For all of these reasons, we
would respectfully request that you consider entering Margaret and Peter
Mostert in your Avicultural Hall of Fame. They are definitely very
deserving of this honour.
Back to the Hall of Fame Page
