I don't think there'd be any straightforward, reliable or very useful answers to your questions, Bob, though I can tell you that from past observation birds may get here within about ten days or so of being trapped in say Northern China. They don't of course come from 'overseas' for the main part, in the strict sense of the expression.
Can't see why we should be talking about quarantine periods for the bird trade - just shut it down once and for all.
As others have said it's completely ridiculous that our government continues to permit import into the heart of one of the most densely populated areas in the world - Mongkok - of consignments of precisely the type of bird imports from precisely the source - viz China - that caused the EU to ban all bird imports completely.
They are a complete joke from the man in the bow-tie down.
This is one job I hope we'll get done, but I'm not overly optimistic.
Mike Turnbull
