Latest News
De Hoop Penguin colony is growing
May 2025
On Sunday, 25 May, 28 young African Penguins took their first swim in the ocean at what will hopefully become their future home—the newly established colony at De Hoop Nature Reserve.
Working in collaboration with SANCCOB and CapeNature, BirdLife South Africa’s Christina Hagen and Philip Faure released the hand-reared birds at the site. To help them acclimatise and imprint on the area, the penguins were kept overnight in a beach pen before being released the following day. It is hoped that this early exposure will encourage them to return to breed in four to six years.
For the next few years, the penguins will live almost entirely at sea, coming ashore only to moult. Each bird has been fitted with a small RFID microchip beneath the skin on its leg, allowing us to track their movements and monitor survival if they pass over scanners at De Hoop or other breeding colonies.
We’re grateful for your support as we work to secure a future for South Africa’s penguins.
Shireen Gould, Membership Manager & Tarryn McKechnie, Philanthropy Officer – BirdLife South Africa
Photo credits: Christina Hagen
New cameras installed at De Hoop Penguin Colony
March 2025
As reported below, the club made a donation to the De Hoop Penguin Colony in 2024. Christina Hagen has let us know that some of the donation was used to install new cameras last December. She passes on her thanks again for the generous donation.
Black Harrier Update from Overberg Renosterveld Trust
January 2025
The Club made a donation to the conservation efforts of Black Harriers by the Overberg Renosterveld Organisation about two years ago. We received an update from them in December 2024.
In this detailed newsletter you can learn more about how the Harriers are tagged and what has been learnt about the individual birds.
Muraviovka Park Update
January 2025
The Club received a Newsletter update from Sergei and Elena Smirenski at Muraviovka Park, Russia, who have kept in touch with us following their visit and talk a few years ago. The Park is an important place for conservation of, and education about Cranes.
As it’s a lengthy update, we have attached it below.
SWBC Donation to De Hoop Penguin Colony
October 2024
We are very pleased to announce that Somerset West Bird Club has made a donation of R5,000 to The De Hoop Penguin Colony. Christina Hagen, who is the Pamela Isdell Fellow of Penguin Conservation at BirdLife South Africa, accepted the cheque from our Chair Willene. Christina spoke to the Club in August this year about the challenges the colony is facing.
The donation will be used to purchase an NVR (Network Video Recorder) to record footage from CCTV cameras in the reserve. Christina is busy buying more cameras to allow more monitoring, and the NVR is a vital piece of equipment to store and process the video footage.
Christina passes on her thanks to the club and the committee for the donation.
