Shelley rolls with the birds

WE’VE heard of birds that imitate humans, but on Durban’s north coast, in Blythedale Beach to be exact, lives a human who mimics bird sounds. Her name is Shelley Hedges. The North Coast resident was recently a guest of the Umhlanga Seniors Friendship Club.

Hedges entertained the club members with her bird imitations and said she first cottoned on to the idea over almost 20 years ago. In some circles she is known as a bird whisperer.

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“I decided to start imitating birds when I was with my sister and her children in the Kruger National Park when we heard a Pearl spotted owlet calling out. It was out of breeding season so my nephew tried to imitate it and all of the sudden this little owlet just shot out from the bush. We were all intrigued and I thought to myself that I want to try and do that.”

The 62-year-old does not only mimic nearly 30 different birds, she is also an avid and well-known birder, who is able to identify birds in their natural habitats. She said she came from a family of naturalists so her propensity for all things about birds is not surprising.

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“Holidays were mostly spent in the bush. In our days we used to play cassettes off a cassette player to call birds up. One has to be careful when doing this to not disturb the birds during their breeding season,” she said.

There are roughly 900 bird species found in South Africa and more than 600 are found in the KwaZulu-Natal region including the Mangrove kingfisher, Palm-nut vulture and Purple-crested turaco. Hedges does a superb imitation of a Crowned eagle and Cuckoo birds.

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