Aden: 9-16 Mar 1946

Life list now 188 species


>>Aden district
10-16 Mar 1946

The section of Aden near the harbour was known as Steamer Point. After disembarkation, we were taken to a billet on Chapel Hill. This was to be my home for many months. I shared the long dormitory, ablutions and mess hall with 20 other airmen. The location was picturesque, on a barren rocky spur with a view over the Arabian Sea in front and over a wide valley to Barrack Hill at the back. There was very little vegetation in sight.

The weather was always hot (around 30°C with high humidity) but there was no air conditioning in the offices or living quarters, just ceiling fans. The buildings had been sited on high ground so as to take advantage of breezes and trade winds. A tangible effect of the Aden climate is visible today in my yellowing 64-year old notebooks. The paper at the bottom of each page became soaked with sweat from my hand and wrist as I was writing, causing the ink from my fountain-pen to run as can be seen in this description of a sunbird of 15 April 1946.

This hot humid climate and lack of air conditioning resulted in a circumstance very favourable to my bird-watching hobby: year-round there was no work in the afternoons! This gave me the opportunity to make a lot more observations than would otherwise have been possible. Of course, it also gave rise to another confirmation of the adage: only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon-day sun!!

Barrack Hill was where I worked, in Headquarters British Forces, Aden Command (H.Q.B.F.). Despite this grand-sounding title, my part was small, as a Clerk in the Mail Room! However, this job had advantages because we had to deliver mail by gharry (truck) to other military units, which gave me a chance to see parts of the Colony. The reason that Indian words like gharry and tiffin were in common use was that Aden had been administered from India for about a century prior to 1937, after which it became a Crown Colony. >>>

"I did no organized birdwatching but noted several fresh species. The House Sparrow (subsp?) is very common in any area of human habitation. Where there is any cover [vegetation] at all, Yellow-vented Bulbuls* (Pycnonotus xanthopygos) may be seen. Another frequent species is the Black-tailed Rock Chat [Blackstart]* (Cercomela melanura).

Near Sheikh ‘Othman I saw two Crested Larks (subsp?) and a raven not much larger than a crow (probably Corvus [corax] rufficolis). In Steamer Point vicinity I have identified one Common Sandpiper (on the rocks at Tarshyne) and a Red-Sea [Western] Reef Heron* (dark blue phase) in Telegraph Bay."

>>Aden harbour
9 Mar 1946.

Nowadays, Aden is a port in Yemen. It is the site of the al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. destroyer USS Cole on 12 October 2000. In 1946 it was a British colony. As in Egypt, I was not conscious of guilt at being there. It seemed perfectly normal that the British should rule this part of the world, if only to maintain a fueling station for ships plying between England and India. My notes do not contain any material except about birds, but my memory is of an untroubled feeling of entitlement to the life I was living then. "We arrived and disembarked during the morning." This is a view of the "barren rocks of Aden" from the harbour.

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In the harbour were many Sooty Gulls in various stages of plumage, the hood differing most. One or two birds, having the same bill, seemed semi-albino for most of the plumage was white, only the mantle, upper wings and head having black streaks or spots, with possibly a few elsewhere. There were also plenty of Yellow-legged Herring Gulls, some British (?), Scandinavian (?) or Siberian (?) Lesser Black-backed Gulls and at least one Black-headed Gull. I noticed the abundance of Arabian Black Kites (Milvis migrans arabicus) and of Egyptian Vultures* (Neophron p. percnopterus)."

1940s map of Steamer Point
Altitudes in metres
Grid square 1 km each side