A PENSIONER has been left devastated after heartless thieves stole dozens of his award-winning canaries.

Bill Drayton, 77, went to check on his beloved birds yesterday morning only to find the majority had been stolen from the shed in the garden of his New Forest home.

The retired builder, who has had canaries since he was a young child, said: “I had roughly 100 and there was only a handful left.

“They have taken all of the nice ones.

“When I went down the garden I saw the shed doors had been smashed open.

“I’m still in shock. It’s very upsetting.”

Mr Drayton said birds are his passion and he regularly shows them at local competitions.

“I’ve had them all my life,” he said.

“I go to local shows but I never bring anyone back to the house to see them because I’ve heard of this sort of thing happening before.

“I haven’t had a very good breeding season for the last couple of years but I bought some new birds and I had fresh hopes for this year.

“Now they have all gone.”

Mr Drayton, who lives with his wife Evelyn in Christchurch Road, Ringwood, said this is the third time the couple has been targeted by burglars in the past two years.

He said: “The first time they broke into the house.

“They took all our jewellery, money and a shotgun that was mounted on the wall.

“It was about £20,000 worth of items and we weren’t insured.”

On the second occasion, he interrupted a group of thieves as they were ransacking his garage in the middle of the night.

Collectively the stolen birds, which included one he bought on Sunday, are worth thousands of pounds.

Mr Drayton said: “They vary in price – some of them are worth £100, some are worth £50.”