Birds of Hermanus: In her interesting book Wanderings of a Bird lover in South Africa, Madeline Alston has devoted a chapter to the birds of Hermanus. In a limited stay she made observations of our local bird-life which possibly few residents have made in many years. Alston was a great lover of birds, as was Lord Hyde to whom she dedicated her book, and his father, the Earl of Clarendon, who wrote the foreword. Of his son, the Earl of Clarendon writes: “Always his righteous wrath was aroused by those from whom culpable ignorance or cupidity, robbed nests and slaughtered for gain during the seasons. It is so to be hoped that the public conscience will be roused to action on this count, for many of the rarer species are in danger of extinction through the depredation of the professional as well as the amateur robber of nests. There are many lovers of birds, but there could be many more.
Hermanus fortunately is a bird sanctuary, but even here there have been reports of late of bird-killing. A greater knowledge of our birds would doubtless do much to prevent this destruction.
Here then are some of the birds noticed by Alston with their descriptions in her own enthusiastic language.
“Of the sea-birds the trek duikers and black-backed gulls were the most common. Besides the trek duikers there were the less common white-breasted duikers, and the rocks below our cottage on the cliffs were favourite resting places for them to stand with outstretched wing… And besides the Southern black-backed gull there was the less common Hartlaub’s gull. It is much smaller than the black-backed gull (length about 15 inches), grey and white with some black on the wings, and it has a red bill and feet and seriously red eye-lids. This bird is common in Table Bay and Stark and Sclater say ‘it has not been noticed by any observer elsewhere along the south coast of the Colony’. And yet in Hermanus I saw it daily…” She goes on to speak of terns and of “what charmed me more than words can express” – the roseate terns, of penguins, gannets and other sea-birds.
