The Cahows are back for the start of the 2025 Nesting Season!

On the evening of October 23rd 2024, one of Cahows returned followed by its mate a few hours later, officially starting the 2025 CahowCam Nesting Season LIVEstream!

In the interim, as captured by the CahowCam, there was an altercation with another prospecting Cahow that entered the nest but was ejected after a short fight… (please check back for video replay) otherwise watch the LIVEstream here now.

Historically the Cahows did not return for the month-long courtship, mating and nest-building period until November, however, with global warming, they are returning earlier and earlier with record numbers already back at the colony thus far. Stay tuned for another record-breaking season.

This season’s internet access is being provided by Digicel, who we thank for their support!

Hurricane Ernesto - Live Video and Updates from Nonsuch Island Bermuda

POST HURRICANE UPDATE: Despite direct passage of the eye, fortunately Ernesto decreased to Cat1 just before passage and Nonsuch had relatively little damage. Our SurfaceCam which has endured multiple stronger hurricanes over the years did not survive and is in the process of being upgraded and replaced.

UPDATE Aug 18th 2024 J-P Rouja: The LiveStream stayed live until 7:30 am on the 17th with an archived loop seen below. The Hurricane has now passed and the team is waiting on getting our vessels back in the water so that we can go and do a damage assessment, however we are not anticipating good news due to the almost 24hr onslaught of storm and hurricane force ocean swells on the coastline… Please stay tuned for more info.

The southern, ocean-facing side of Nonsuch, which is located on the South East corner of Bermuda, is bearing the full brunt of this Hurricane with 120+ mph winds and 30ft waves expected by Saturday morning, which when combined with storm surge and high tide at 7am is going to be disastrous to Nonsuch, but especially the surrounding nesting islands…

In past Hurricanes Nonsuch’s completely off-grid solar power coupled with the Nonsuch Expedtion’s remote cameras and wireless internet have remained live throughout the storms broadcasting a LiveStream from the SurfaceCam in Cahow Translocation Colony A. Please find the current LiveStream embeded below along with updates that our team will post as long as conditions allow throughout the Hurricane. Big thanks to Digicel for the internet access once our signal reaches them on the Bermuda mainland.

Replay of Live view from Nonsuch Translocation Colony A (scroll back in timeline to review)

6am Update from J-P Rouja: We are now passing through the eye of Ernesto and with sunrise approaching we should finally see the waves that have been pounding Nonsuch and the outer nesting islands throughout the night. Whilst the closest approach of the Hurricane has passed, we will still be dealing with storm-surge on top of the high tide at 7am. Stay tuned for more updates…

10pm Update from J-P Rouja: Though I had lost my power by 4pm, our Nonsuch LiveStream is still going and throughout the day was picked up internationally by CNN, Weather Channel, Reuters and countless others… As of right now we are only seeing the what the infrared lights can reach, which does not include the water, however if we are still live at sunrise we will witness the full force of Hurricane waves on top of storm-surge, and a high tide at 7am, which will undoubtedly look impressive but is going to be disastrous to Nonsuch and the surrounding nesting islands…

Friday Update from: Jeremy Madeiros: My assistant Peter Drew and the Conservation Crew spent Tuesday clearing 2 boatloads of plastic flotsam from Nonsuch that we had been collecting for over a year for local schools to analyze, and took it ashore to store so that it would not be spread all over the Castle Harbour Islands.

I joined Peter on Nonsuch on Wednesday so we could secure all doors and windows on the buildings there, and took some equipment ashore, dodging thunderstorms and showers. I also surveyed a couple of the islands for low-lying Tropicbird (Longtail) nests to see if any chicks were left, luckily all chicks at risk have already fledged from Southampton Island (not the Parish), but I did have to move a nearly fully-fledged chick from Nonsuch Island and take it ashore in a box, as its nest is probably underwater by now.

It is now one of 6 Tropicbird chicks that are being cared for by Wildlife rehabilitator Lynn Thorne, she has a generator to keep the Anchovies and squid needed to feed them frozen, while my forest-surrounded house will certainly loose power (we have already had gusts to 55 knots/63 mph, and my lights are already flickering). I anticipate the smaller nesting islands will take a battering as hurricane Ernesto is slowing down as it approaches, with hurricane-force winds commencing in the late evening and possibly lasting until midday tomorrow.

Good luck everyone!

Record Breaking 2024 Nesting Season for Bermuda Petrel on Nonsuch Island

In collaboration with Nonsuch Expeditions, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is delighted to announce the successful conclusion of the 2024 nesting season for the Bermuda Petrel, also known as the Cahow.

 “Although we fell just short of the 2021 record of 78 fledged chicks, with 76 this year throughout the entire colony, we have set a new record on Nonsuch Island," said Jeremy Madeiros, DENR terrestrial conservation officer. "The translocation colonies have shown over a 25% increase, with 25 fledged chicks compared to last year's 19, making Nonsuch Island the most productive sub-colony for the species."

This success is particularly notable given that the first chick for the new Nonsuch Island population was produced in 2009, thanks to the Translocation Project. Previously, no Cahows had nested on Nonsuch Island or any of the other larger Bermuda islands since the 1620s due to the introduction of mammal predators such as rats, cats, dogs, and pigs and overhunting by early settlers.

This remarkable achievement highlights the dedicated conservation work over the past decades and fully confirms the success of the Translocation Project work that was carried out between 2004 and 2017 by Jeremy Madeiros. The original Cahow Recovery Project, one of the longest-running recovery programs for a critically endangered species, was initiated by Dr. David Wingate from 1962 to 2000 and is currently led by Mr. Madeiros from 2000 to 2024. It is also a signature part, and a keystone species in the overarching rewilding of Nonsuch Island during the same period.

At a recent talk at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI), Mr. Madeiros and Nonsuch Expeditions Founder J-P Rouja presented the latest statistics on the Cahow Recovery work. They also shared findings from collaborations with researchers from Canada, the U.S., and Italy. While most threats to the Cahow at its breeding grounds in Castle Harbour have been controlled, issues such as erosion, flooding from sea-level rise, and stronger hurricanes pose new challenges. However, Nonsuch Island remains less affected due to its larger size and higher elevation.

Persistent Organic Pesticides (POPs) detected in adult Cahows continue to be a concern, as they negatively affect breeding success. These compounds, including DDT, DDE, and Hexachlorobenzene, remain in the marine food web despite being banned over 20 years ago.

GPS tracking tags have also provided valuable data on the Cahow's range and feeding areas, revealing that they travel over 3,000 miles from Bermuda to waters near Ireland, northwest Spain, and as far north as Newfoundland and Iceland.

Deputy Premier and Minister The Hon. Walter Roban said: "The record-breaking numbers this year are incredibly encouraging. It's clear that our ongoing collaborations with Nonsuch Expeditions and local and international partners are making a real difference in the recovery of this iconic species."

Jean-Pierre Rouja, founder of Nonsuch Expeditions and CahowCam developer, added: "Our CahowCams and LiveStreams, launched over 13 years ago, continue to aid in the protection, recovery, and management of the species. With technical assistance from the Nature Conservancy, we've also installed a solar-powered, wirelessly meshed network of camera traps, with a custom AI trained to detect early signs of rodents and other threats."

Nonsuch Expeditions' ongoing work with the DENR has been recognized as one of the top conservation efforts globally with a special Chairman's award from the Mohamed bin Zayed Conservation Fund (MBZCF).

"The MBZCF award is a game-changer for our projects," said Rouja. "It brings international recognition and much-needed support, helping to enhance our monitoring and predator control capabilities and build new concrete burrows for the Bermuda Petrel."

In partnership with local NGO BioQuest, and following the completion of the Bermuda Petrel reference genome last year, to further aid recovery management of the species, the MBZCF grant will also support the first phase of a genomic population study.

Nonsuch Expeditions and DENR look forward to progressing the conservation of Bermuda's national bird and thank all partners, sponsors, and volunteers, especially those from Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the crowdsourced volunteers monitoring the CahowCam live streams, for their support.

Nonsuch Expeditions Wins Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund “Chairman’s Award”

At the wrap up of another record-breaking nesting season for the critically endangered, Bermuda Petrel, the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZF) has awarded a special “Chairman’s Award” in support of the Nonsuch Expeditions ongoing conservation efforts with the Bermuda Governments Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), on Nonsuch Island, Bermuda.

The Fund supports boots-on-the-ground, get-your-hands-dirty conservation of threatened species worldwide, with particular focus on lesser-known species that may not receive widespread conservation attention. It provides hundreds of smaller grants per year directly to those doing important fieldwork, of which a handful are selected each year for the prestigious “Chairman’s Award” as being representative of significant conservation efforts worldwide.

 “This particular project, supported by Dolphin Energy, was selected for the Chairman’s Award by the members of MBZ Fund Advisory Board on the basis of its ambitiously realistic conservation objectives applied to a critically threatened species, the Bermuda Petrel, and its associated nesting habitat.” Nicolas Heard, Acting Director General, Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

 For the past 17 years the Nonsuch Expeditions have supported, participated in, and showcased the DENR’s conservation efforts on and around Nonsuch Island including work with the critically endangered, endemic Bermuda Petrel. Also known as the Cahow it was thought to be extinct for over 330 years until 17 pairs were discovered nesting on remote rocks in Castle Harbour in the 1950s. Thanks to a pioneering recovery program initiated by Dr. David Wingate, followed by a groundbreaking translocation project launched by his successor Jeremy Madeiros, they are as of this year back up to 165 pairs.

 JP Rouja, founder, and Cahow champion for the Nonsuch Expeditions, directly assists the Warden Jeremy Madeiros, and provides conservation technology and media support for the programs. Additionally, the team looks for conservation challenges that the island and its various species and programs are facing that can be solved by technology, collaborates with global partners to source and deploy solutions, and develops novel custom technologies when necessary.

“We are thankful for the International recognition this very special MBZF "Chairman's Award" brings to us for 17+ years supporting, participating in, and showcasing Jeremy Madeiros and the DENR's tremendous work, whilst building on David Wingate's ground breaking legacey” Jean-Pierre Rouja, Nonsuch Expeditions Founder.

 One of the signature projects is the decade+ long CahowCam project, which enables anyone from around the world to tune in to watch the nesting activities of Cahows unfold via the custom built ‘CahowCam’ – livestreaming video cameras set up in the underground burrows. Not only do the CahowCams open the world of the Cahow to Bermudians, children, and civil society – it also allows for increased scientific understanding of the birds from 24/7 observations of their nesting habits, and the crowd sourcing of observation and data collection.

 The MBZF Fund Chairman’s Award is accompanied by a $25,000 grant, supported by Dolphin Energy, which will assist the signature CahowCam project, and will be divvied up to boost the Nonsuch Expeditions other ongoing projects, but most importantly, it is hoped that the international recognition will attract further international support, as these efforts are currently underfunded. (Contributions can be made here).

Some of this ongoing work includes:

• ·Following on from producing the reference genome of the Cahow with local partner BioQuest (a Bermuda based NGO partner, leveraging genomics for conservation) in 2023, the grant will allow the team to initiate the first phase of a follow-on genomic population study of the Cahow, which will greatly enhance the management of the species.

• The ongoing maintenance, and expansion to other nesting islands of an AI powered, rodent detecting camera trap platform on Nonsuch Island that was installed in 2023 with technical support from the Nature Conservancy. The custom AI is being trained to identifying rodents which are a massive threat to nesting Cahows and Nonsuch biodiversity overall. These traps capture thousands of images on the island which are uploaded to the cloud where a custom AI will determine if rats have been detected, allowing for quick response to protect the nesting sites of the vulnerable birds.

• The funding will also support the installation of a new batch of artificial Cahow burrows. These are each made up of 600-800 lbs of concrete, which is traditionally mixed by hand then carried in buckets to the remote islands, which the grant will help accelerate through the use of a barge to produce a first batch.

• It will also help support the ongoing production of short-form videos shot weekly throughout the nesting season that are used for education and global public outreach.

*This grant is follow on to a similar grant made to our overseas collaborators in 2019 at the start of the ongoing Bermuda Petrel Biomonitoring Project, and in this instance is being made directly to the local Nonsuch Expeditions Team.

To watch the LiveStreams visit this link.

https://www.instagram.com/nonsuchexpeditions/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-nonsuch-expeditions/

CahowCam 1 chick fledging highlights

“The CahowCam 1 chick fledged on the night of the 28th of May at 1.45 am in the morning which was beautifully caught on the infrared Surface Cam that is set up here in Translocation Nesting Colony “A” on Nonsuch Island, in Bermuda.

When it first came out it still had a lot of the natal down that they're born with, and they really can't fly if their upper surfaces are still covered with it.

This chick had been exercising for about five nights but still had down on its head, on its upper surfaces, even a bit on its wings, and we just thought there's no way this chick is ready to fledge tonight.

Well, what happened was that, although it's been a dry period, we had a very hard rain shower that lasted a good hour and the chick basically sat out in the rain ... And the rain just beads and runs right off of the adult feathers but the down gets all matted.

And so it got all matted and waterlogged looking and then it went wandering off into the vegetation here at the colony site on Nonsuch and basically, the down getting wet helped it to come off easily, and the bird was obviously rubbing it off against the vegetation and probably preening it.

And when it appeared again on the camera about an hour or two later, it looked like a different bird.

It looked like a different chick.

All of the down had come off the head, the back, the upper surface of the wings, so all the flight surfaces were down-free.

It just had a lot of down still on its underside and that's fine.

They can fledge with it because as soon as they land on the water, it just will slough off anyway.

They can easily pull it off then.

So to our surprise, it did depart that same night at 1.4 in the morning, something that we captured clearly on the surface cam here on Nonsuch Island.”

As narrated by Jeremy Madeiros, Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer, Nonsuch Island, Bermuda

“Vega” The 2024 CahowCam1 chick has Fledged!

May 28th 2024 @1:45 AM: the Cahow chick that the DENR & Nonsuch Expeditions Teams, scientists, students and followers from around the World, and the diligent volunteers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have been watching grow via the CahowCam1 LiveStream over the past few months has fledged!

When she was last checked by Jeremy Madeiros on May 26th (as seen in the video below) and subsequently named “Vega” by his daughter Lizzy, her weight and wing chord measurements were well within the range when she would normally be expected to fledge, however she still had an excessive amount of down that needed to slough off prior to finally fledging.

She had already started her nightly explorations around the colony, flexing and exercising her wings, whilst imprinting on her surroundings so that she could find her back 4 to 6 years from now should she survive these next few years at sea…

She is one of a record 25 chicks to hatch on Nonsuch this year, from a record 39 breeding pairs split between Nonsuch Translocation Colonies A & B, out of this year’s 75 egg pairs (that were proven to lay their single egg wether or not it hatched) found throughout the Colonies including Nonsuch and the nearby Islets.

Nonsuch Expedtions founder and CahowCam creator J-P Rouja was tracking her throughout the night with the remote controlled infrared surface Camera as she made her way around the Colony ant finally captured her launching into her first flight.

Stay tuned for a video highlight reel of those activities….

CahowCam 1 chick gets banded as we prepare to witness her fledge!

Happy Bermuda Day (and Memorial Day to our American Friends) from the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources and Nonsuch Expeditions Teams on Nonsuch Island!

There is great Conservation News once again from Nonsuch Island where one of our most culturally significant species, the Critically Endangered Bermuda Petrel or Cahow, is in the middle of a record-breaking nesting season on Nonsuch Island to which it was successfully translocated starting less than 20 years ago. This year we have a record 25 chicks from 39 eggs (1 per pair) that were laid from the confirmed 41 Nonsuch Translocation Colony pairs. The Nonsuch-born chicks are now returning, having chicks of their own and recruiting mates from the outer Islands, the final stage in determining Translocation success!

Watch the video below as our star CahowCam1 chick gets banded during her May 10th health check. Keep watching the CahowCams after dark as she (Jeremy has predicted her sex based on her bill size) explores the colony at night exercising and imprinting on her surroundings so that she can make her way back after her initial few years at sea.

Amazing Cahow Facts - The Endemic Bermuda Petrel

FAQ: The Nonsuch Cahow Translocation Colonies are breaking records this year - This is what makes this so significant:

• The Bermuda petrel (Pterodroma cahow) is a gadfly petrel. Commonly known in Bermuda as the Cahow

• The Cahow is the 3rd rarest seabird on the planet;

• The total number of Cahows now existing in the world is approx 450 (including immature birds too young to breed);

• Bermuda, specifically Nonsuch Island and the surrounding rocks, is the only location on the planet where the Cahows come to breed;

• They were thought to be extinct for 330 years (1620 – 1951) making them a "Lazarus species";

• There were only 17 – 18 breeding pairs in 1960 when the Cahow Recovery Program was started by David Wingate;

• There were 55 breeding pairs in 2001 when David's successor Jeremey Madeiros took over the Program and started the translocation process to establish new breeding colonies on Nonsuch Island;

• Under Jeremy's stewardship the breeding population is now up to a record number of 185+ breeding pairs (that are confirmed pairing up in a burrow, but not all produce an egg);

• Each breeding pair, when successful, produces only 1 egg each year, of which 40% to 50% fail to hatch;

• In 2024, 164 pairs were confirmed to have produced their single, from which in the Nonsuch colonies a record 25 chicks hatched ;

• In the 2023 season, 156 eggs were laid from which 76 chicks successfully fledged from all nesting islands, including 19 from Nonsuch;

• Eggs take 53 to 55 days to hatch, and are incubated by both adults;

• Chicks take from 88 to 105 days from the time they hatch until they mature and fledge out to sea;

• Adult Cahows abandon chicks up to 1 week before they fledge to sea, with the chicks flying to sea and learning to survive on their own;

• Cahow chicks spend 3 to 6 years alone at sea before they mature and return to the breeding islands in Castle Harbour, Bermuda, to find a mate and nest burrow;

• Banding studies have shown that only 28% to 38% of naturally fledging chicks survive their first years at sea and return to nest;

• 49 of the 102 cahow chicks translocated to Nonsuch Island between 2004 and 2008 by Jeremy Madeiros returned to Nonsuch or the other nesting rocks – this 48% return rate exceeds that of chicks raised solely by the adult birds.

• Throughout the nesting season Jeremey conducts conservatively 2,000+ health checks, on average checking every chick in the colony every 2 days, often under very challenging weather conditions.

 

More amazing Cahow facts: 

Jeremey conducts health assessment.

• All male Cahows return to the breeding islands first at 3 to 4 years of age, and look for a empty nest burrow close to the nest they originally fledged from, often landing within a few feet of their original nest;

• Females return later at 4 to 6 years of age to look for prospective mates;

• Cahows nest in underground burrows or deep rock crevices; only nests deep enough to be completely dark are chosen;

• 85 % of all Cahows now nest in artificial concrete nest burrows constructed for them as part of the Recovery Program;

• It takes approx 600 lbs of concrete to make a burrow;

• Returned male Cahows try to attract prospecting female birds to their chosen nest burrows; if the female accepts the male as a mate, they will return to the same nest every year for the rest of their breeding lifespan (possibly 30 to 40 years);

• Archival geolocational tags attached to the legs of adult Cahows by Jeremy Madeiros between 2009 and 2012 recorded the birds travelling amazing distances to gather food for the growing chicks;

• The distance an adult travels to gather food to feed the chick once ranges from 1650 miles to 4500 miles or more, taking 4 to 9 days; the record distance for one feeding trip was almost 10,000 miles;

• Cahows can cover distances of 250 – 500 miles a day, using free wind energy from Atlantic storms and gales;

• Cahows eat mainly squid, small fish and shrimp-like crustaceans; studies with geolocators have also shown that Cahows predominantly feed in colder waters well north of the Gulf Stream;

• Cahows are pelagic (oceanic) birds, which only visit land to breed; one of their adaptations for a life on the open ocean are special glands in their tube-like nostrils which enable them to drink seawater, by filtering out the salt so that they can use the resulting fresh water. The excess salt is sneezed out as drops of salty brine;

• Another pelagic adaptation is an ability to sleep in flight by letting one side of the brain doze while the other half stays alert, then switching sides to let the other side get some rest.

• The Cahow is Bermuda's National Bird.

Cahow identification band.

Nonsuch VIP Visit and CahowCam History

On April 14th Jeremy and J-P hosted VIP visitors from the American Bird Conservancy, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership, and the Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, for a private tour of Nonsuch Island to give them an overview of the historic and ongoing conservation efforts.

Whilst Jeremy gave them a tour of Translocation Colonies A&B which ended in the naming of “Tahiry”, this season’s chick from the most prolific pair in the history of the program, J-P the Nonsuch Expeditions Founder and CahowCam creator gave them an overview of the Platform (see videos below), which has been LiveStreaming from the Nonsuch Cahow burrows, for the past 13+ years.

John C. Mittermeier, PhD, Director of the Search for Lost Birds for the American Bird Conservancy:

“In our work on lost birds, we are often faced with the question of whether these lost species are simply lost causes. The fact that the Cahow, thanks to the recovery project on Nonsuch, is now making a comeback after being lost for 300 years makes it the ultimate example of how a lost species can be rediscovered and return. It was inspiring to see the Cahow recovery project firsthand with Jeremy and Jean-Pierre and consider how this special bird can help motivate conservation work on other lost species around the world!”

Olivier Langrand, Executive Director of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) & member of the advisory board of the Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZ):

“Thank you very much for sharing this amazing experience and also for the amazing conservation success for the conservation of the Cahow. I know what it means as the amount of work that is behind this is absolutely huge.”

A year-over-year 25% increase in the number of chicks in the Nonsuch Translocation Colonies

The increase from last year’s record of 19 fledged, to 25+ hatched this year, keeps us on track for setting a new record should the majority successfully fledge this year, and is further validation of the success of the Translocation Program initiated by Jeremy in 2004.

The CahowCam1 chick is being fed regularly as documented by the LiveStream and is now the largest in the Colony, however, next door in CahowCam2 the news isn’t as good as despite the surprise latest Cahow egg-laying on record, the original male and his new mate (which joined him after his original one failed to return last year), will not be hatching a chick this season, though historically this is to be expected of newly formed pairs, see Jeremy’s explanation in the video below:

“I went out to Nonsuch on the 27th to carry out a Cahow nest check; I had intended to try and land on some of the smaller islands, but there was a large ocean swell, almost a ground swell, up to 11-14 feet on the outer reefs, caused by a low pressure center that passed over us the day before and was now to the southeast - unsafe to go around Coopers Point or even attempt landings. Even at Nonsuch, there was quite a surge at the dock.

I can give an update for Nonsuch though - as of Wednesday, 27th March, i can confirm a record number of 25 chicks on Nonsuch, significantly breaking last year's record of 19 fledged chicks, so we have finally broken the 20-chick mark!

Most of the chicks had been recently fed, with several over 300 grams in weight, so the adult Cahows have obviously been taking advantage of the storm system that gave strong winds and rain over the last few days. The heaviest chick on Nonsuch was none other than our own CahowCam 1 chick (nest number R831), which, on its last growth check a week ago on 20th March, weighed in at 190 grams with a wing chord length of 45mm. Yesterday, on March 27th, it had increased to 319 grams (as heavy as an adult female Cahow!), with a wing chord length of 55mm. As this chick is only one-third fledged at this point, with an eventual wing chord length of up to 275mm by the time it will be ready to fledge in about 2 more months, it is obvious that this chick is being well cared for by both adult birds, and I suspect it will become considerably heavier if it continues to be as well taken care of by the parents!

In addition to the chicks, there were also a fair number of adult birds recorded in nests on Nonsuch where the egg had failed. This is normal, as even when the egg has failed in a Cahow nest, the adults will often continue to visit the nest up until the beginning of April, both to strengthen the pair bond and connection to the nest, but also to defend the nest burrow from being taken over by young adult Cahows, newly returned from 3 to 5 years at sea after fledging as chicks, and looking for an empty nest burrow of their own. If the resident male Cahow returns to find a stranger in its nest, it will aggressively eject the stranger from the nest. These fights can be quite vicious, as a Cahow's wicked hooked bill is quite strong and razor-sharp (as I know well, sporting a collection of scars on my hands from adults objecting to me removing them from their nests for id band checks and measurement!)

Finally, to finish up, I was able to confirm at least 1 new pair of Cahows in a spare nest burrow on Nonsuch. I was able to determine from the band number on its leg that the male bird was translocated to the "B" colony site back in 2017, while the female bird originated from a nest on one of the small original nesting islets. This pair should hopefully return next year to the nest to lay their first egg together, which would bring the total number of established breeding pairs on Nonsuch up to 40. There is also still a week or two remaining to discover other new establishing pairs, and hopefully the weather conditions will allow us to make more visits to the nesting islands so that we can determine the total number of hatched chicks for the entire island.”

A 60+ year rewilding Effort: The Nonsuch Island Ecological Restoration Project

For World Rewilding Day 2024, here is an overview of one of the earliest ecosystem-wide Ecological Restoration Projects, (now known as Rewilding) that was started in 1960 on Nonsuch Island in Bermuda, and continues to this day, from which the Nonsuch Expeditions project is based.

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Biodiversity Photography Project

Nonsuch Island is 16.5 acres in area, is well known as Bermuda's most important Nature Reserve and is where many of Bermuda's rarest and most critically endangered plant and animal species survive. Due to the ongoing massive impact of man on Bermuda through development, habitat destruction and introduced mammal predators, some of these species can only survive on offshore islands that are managed to control invasive species and human access. It is also home to several "Lazarus species", that is, species that were thought to be extinct, but were rediscovered barely surviving in unexpected locations, and are now the subject of recovery programs or captive breeding and re-introduction projects.

Nonsuch is also notable as one of the first examples on Earth of Ecological Restoration, or "Rewilding" as it is now known, where restoration and recovery work is being carried out not just for one or two species, but with the entire ecosystem that these species live in and need to survive in the wild. This also involves removal or control of all non-native or introduced plant and animal species that do not belong in that ecosystem but were accidently or deliberately introduced by man. It also involves ongoing management to ensure both survival of the re-introduced native and endemic species, and the continued control or eradication of additional invasive introduced species making their way out to the rewilded areas.

Bermuda Petrels as seen in CahowCam LiveStream

A keystone species the recovery of which is a signature part of this effort is the Cahow, or Bermuda petrel which was rediscovered in 1951 after being thought extinct since the 1620s, by Robert Cushman Murphy, Louis S. Mowbray and a teenage David Wingate. Eighteen pairs were eventually found breeding on four of the smaller Castle Harbour Islands, which led to these islands, including Nonsuch, gaining Nature Reserve status.

In 1962, after studying zoology at Cornell, Dr. David Wingate moved to Nonsuch Island as caretaker, where he conceived and initiated the "Living Museum" project, a monumental, and at the time ground-breaking ecological restoration or rewilding project that aimed to restore Nonsuch as an example of Bermuda's pre-colonial flora and faunal communities and habitats. He was appointed as Bermuda Government Conservation Officer in 1966, with the "Living Museum" project securing Government funding.

David Wingate, 1992 Nonsuch Tour

Between 1960 and year 2,000 when he retired,10,000+ seedlings of Native and Endemic plants were planted on Nonsuch by Dr. Wingate, on the initially virtually barren island, which was followed by another 6,000+ by Jeremy Madeiros once he took over as Warden in 2000 (see below).

Between 1967 and 1978, 16,000 green turtle hatchlings were hatched and released to sea from Nonsuch South Beach, in an effort to re-establish a breeding population in Bermuda. This project was ultimately unsuccessful, due to reasons that were not fully understood at the time.

In 1975 and 1992, two artificial ponds were excavated on Nonsuch to create wetland habitats, which were previously missing from the island. The freshwater pond was excavated in the center of the island and fitted with an impermeable liner to create a freshwater marsh habitat that continues to thrive and create a freshwater source for bird and invertebrate species. A sea-level saltwater pond was excavated and planted with Mangroves in the dune area behind the South Beach, but was damaged by hurricanes in 1995 and 1999, and then totally destroyed by major hurricanes in 2003 and 2010.

Between 1976 and 1978, 44 Yellow-crowned Night Herons were shipped from Tampa Bay in Florida to Bermuda in a collaborative project with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. These were hand-reared on Nonsuch on land crabs and released into the wild. These began breeding here and elsewhere on Bermuda by 1980, eventually encouraging the Fish-eating Green Heron to naturally colonize Bermuda by 2002.

Top Shells and Portuguese Man-0-War in Nonsuch tide pool

In 1982, the re-introduction of the large intertidal West Indian Top Shell or "Whelk", which was wiped out on Bermuda after being collected as food by the early settlers, was carried out on Nonsuch Island, using 86 shells imported from the Turks and Caicos Islands by famed diver Teddy Tucker. This project was successful and the top shell started reproducing by 1986 on Nonsuch and has since recovered island-wide on Bermuda.

By 1990, the native forest planted by David Wingate matured enough to begin self-seeding; this forest has since developed into a closed-canopy, mature forest composed entirely of endemic and native tree and shrub species. Planting of shade-loving fern and shrub species that need the shelter and shade of a mature forest has continued until the present day.

In 2000, Dr, Wingate retired as Conservation Officer, with Jeremy Madeiros, who had worked with Wingate since 1984 as an apprentice and Parks Superintendent, becoming the new Conservation Officer by 2001. Madeiros travelled to Australia in 2001 to receive training for the handling and translocation of Petrels and numerous other seabird species. He has continued as the warden and manager of the Nonsuch Island project for the last 24 years.

From 2004 to 2008, in the first phase of the Bermuda Petrel Translocation Project initiated by Mr. Madeiros, 102 Cahow chicks were translocated from the 4 tiny original islets where the species had barely survived for almost 400 years, to artificial concrete nest burrows constructed on Nonsuch, where they were hand-fed on squid and anchovies and allowed to imprint upon and fledge from Nonsuch Island, so that they could return there to nest once they were mature. This project was successful and the first of the birds returned as adults to Nonsuch in 2008, with the first Nonsuch-born Cahow chick since the 1620s hatching in 2009. Almost 50% of all translocated chicks eventually returned as adults to Nonsuch and the original nesting islets, compared with an average of 33% of chicks that are naturally raised by adult Cahows that return.

Following a number of strong hurricane impacts, which destroyed hundreds of Tropicbird (Longtail) nest cavities on the Castle Harbour islands, over 100 artificial "Igloo" Tropicbird nests were installed on Nonsuch and 5 other Castle Harbour Islands between 2003 and 2012. These have helped to keep the number of Tropicbirds breeding in this area, which represents the largest number of breeding pairs of any single location in the greater North Atlantic area, from declining, and have contributed to this population actually increasing over the last 10 years. A survey of breeding success of over 300 Tropicbird nests was initiated by Madeiros in 2006, and continues to this day.

Jeremy in Cahow Translocation Colony “A” with an almost fully fledged Cahow chick

After the success of the first phase of the Cahow Translocation Project, a second translocation project was carried out at a second location on Nonsuch Island, with a total of 65 Cahow chicks translocated between 2013 and 2017 to artificial nest burrows at this new location. This second translocation has also proved to be successful, with the first birds returning and chicks produced by 2018. The number of Cahow breeding pairs at both Nonsuch nesting colonies reached 39 pairs in 2024, with 25 chicks being confirmed.

In 2010 the Nonsuch Expeditions team launched the CahowCam project which has contributed greatly to the management of the species. They continue to develop tools to solve conservation challenges with the latest, an AI-assisted rodent detection system, with support from the Nature Conservancy, that aims to give early warnings to a global rewilding problem. (see more below)

Another "Lazarus species" that was thought to be extinct by 1963, the endemic Greater Bermuda Land Snail (Pocilizonites bermudensis), was rediscovered in 2000 with small populations located in a couple of locations around Bermuda. These were the subject of a captive breeding program at Chester Zoo in the U. K., from which over 10,000 individuals were brought back to Bermuda and re-introduced to Nonsuch Island starting in 2014. This population began to successfully breed and has been monitored and censused ever since, with a survey conducted in 2023 by Dr. Kristiina Ovaska estimating a minimum of 150,000 now living on about one-third of Nonsuch's total area.

The endangered endemic Bermuda Skink also survives in good numbers on Nonsuch Island, with one of the largest populations still to be found in Bermuda. The confirmation in 2023 that Skink populations are increasing around the two Cahow colony sites strongly suggests a symbiotic relationship between the two species, (as filmed by the CahowCams) ,which is doubly important in light of the fact that the few remaining populations on the main Bermuda Islands are all in decline and may collapse in the near future, due to introduced predators such as feral cats and Kiskadee Flycatchers.

The Lesser Bermuda Land Snail (Pocilizonites circumfirmatus), another endemic species that, like its larger cousin became extinct in the wild by the early 2000s, was also the subject of a captive breeding program at Chester Zoo in the U. K., using some of the last individuals collected before the species disappeared. The first 800 young snails from this program were re-introduced to Nonsuch starting in 2020, with another 3000 snails released in 2022-23. Although breeding has not been confirmed on Nonsuch yet, the released adult snails have survived and there are plans to supplement this population with additional releases in the near future.

The Native and endemic forest cover of Nonsuch has now fully matured and the various tree and shrub species are reproducing well in the absence of invasive pest species such as rats and mice, which eat almost all seed produced by surviving native & endemic plants on the main islands. Annual baiting and trapping programs to prevent these pests (along with a new Ai rodent detection system see below), which can swim on rare occasions across from nearby Coopers Island from becoming established on Nonsuch and the other Castle Harbour Islands. Invasive trees, in particular the invasive Australian Casuarina tree, originally planted on these islands as a windbreak in the 1960s, have now been completely removed from Nonsuch as of 2020. Seed from other introduced pest plant species still are carried out to Nonsuch in the excreta of introduced pest bird species such as European Starlings and Kiskadees, and are removed by an ongoing annual culling program carried out by the Conservation Officer, with 6,000 to 15,000 seedlings removed every year.

Jeremy Madeiros, Senior Conservation Officer (Terrestrial Conservation) Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources BERMUDA 

The Nonsuch Expeditions was founded 20 years ago by Jean-Pierre Rouja in support of these ongoing efforts. Our mission is to participate in, support, and showcase the ongoing conservation and rewilding work taking place on Nonsuch Island, its surrounding waters, and the Sargasso Sea, whilst using Bermuda’s wide range of habitats (with Mangroves, Coral Reefs, Deep Ocean & the Sargasso Sea/High Seas, all within 30 min) as a field station for the development of conservation tech. Please Contact Us for more information.

These efforts include:

• Development and ongoing updating of this (www.nonsuchisland.com) website for education, global outreach, and engagement.

• Producing weekly film and blog updates throughout the 9-month nesting season for the past 15 years.

• The 2005 Higher Ground Educational Film documenting the original Translocation Process

• Designing and building the CahowCams (launched in 2010), from which over the past 13+ years 10’s of millions of minutes of video of the otherwise unknown underground Cahow nesting activities, have been watched by scientists, educators, and viewers from around the World (now in partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology).

• BioAcoustic reef soundscape and spawning aggregation studies with Cornell

• Shipwreck and Coral Reef photogrammetry with UCSD

• Studies of Sargasso Sea eco-systems as Ambassador to the Sargasso Sea Commission

• “Message in a Bottle” Ocean Plastic Tracking Project with Arribada

• “The Sound of Science” Bermuda Whale Song Project, with The Centre for Cetacean Research & Conservation, and Cornell University

• Development of a Sea Grass monitoring platform under a UK Darwin+ grant with Arribada

• Installation of an Ai rodent detection system using off-grid, wirelessly meshed camera traps and the cloud to recognize rodents when they first reach Nonsuch Island, with assistance from the Nature Conservancy.

• Tracking Bermuda Petrels on the High Seas as part of the Bermuda Petrel Biomonitoring Project with global partners

• Producing the first Reference Genome for the Cahow and follow-on population study with BioQuest powered by CariGenetics

• Ocean Technology Development with Station-B, MIT, Woods Hole, URI, UCSD, etc.

A record 22 Cahow chicks on Nonsuch Island, with more on the way!

“A total of 22 Cahow chicks were found to have already hatched, with two additional eggs confirmed as "pipping" in the early stages of hatching, while an additional 3 eggs were confirmed as fertile with normally developing.”

“Following an extended period of time off for a nasty bout of covid, then an additional several days off to recover after testing negative and to satisfy an abundance of caution before handling the birds again, I was finally able to get out to Nonsuch Island on Thursday, 07 March 2024, with research collaborator Letizia Campioni, the last day before she returned home. 

I am very thankful to both Conservation Officer Peter Drew (my assistant and strong right arm!) and Letizia for stepping up while I was incapacitated to continue regular Cahow nest checks, so that we had a good idea of the numbers and dates of Cahow chicks hatching on the various nesting islands, as well as checking any adult Cahows found in the nests, to record adult weights and band numbers.

I have been instructing Peter for a number of years in carrying out nest checks and handling and measurement of the adult and fledgling Cahows, as well as White-tailed Tropicbirds (Longtails), which are the main two seabird species under study and management by the Terrestrial Conservation Division of the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, while Letizia has extensive experience handling and studying a variety of seabird species.

My check on the 7th March confirmed that as chicks have continued to hatch on Nonsuch Island, we are now at record numbers of chicks for the newly established nesting colonies on Nonsuch. A total of 22 Cahow chicks were found to have already hatched, with two additional eggs confirmed as "pipping" in the early stages of hatching, while an additional 3 eggs were confirmed as fertile with normally developing embryos and were still being incubated by adult Cahows. This would well exceed last year's record number of 19 successfully fledged Cahow chicks for Nonsuch Island.

A highlight of the check was finally being able to check and weigh the Cahow chick in the CahowCam1 (R831) nest, the first time I have been able to do so since this chick hatched on February 27th. This chick has been fed almost nightly since hatching, mainly by the male parent (band no. E0197), who was also present when the chick hatched. During the check on the 7th March, however, the female parent (band no. E0212) was in the nest with the chick after arriving the previous night and feeding the chick. Meanwhile, the now 9-day old chick had already increased from its hatch weight of 34-38 grams to 126 grams and is already one of the heaviest chicks measured on Nonsuch. Letizia was able to take a number of photos of this and other chicks on Nonsuch.

At this point, we are just waiting to see how many of the remaining eggs hatch, to know just how many Cahow chicks we end up with on Nonsuch, but it looks all but certain that Nonsuch will host a record number of chicks, and may in fact exceed Horn Rock for the first time as the nesting island with the highest number of chicks fledged for 2024.

This is only 20 years after the translocation program was started to establish new nesting colonies on Nonsuch Island, that are high enough to not be subject to the hurricane flooding and erosion damage that is an increasing problem on all 4 of the smaller original nesting islets. The original islets were the sole nesting location for this critically endangered species for some 400 years, after hunting, destruction of habitat and the introduction of mammal predators such as rats, cats, dogs and pigs destroyed the nesting colonies on the larger islands of Bermuda.

2024 is looking like it will be an eventful one for Bermuda's National Bird!”

(4th) day in the life of a Cahow chick, video highlights - one of many Nonsuch Conservation Tech projects

See video highlights from the CahowCam1 burrow LiveStream where this year’s star chick continues to be well attended to by its parents. The clips in the video below were edited from the archival video from when it was 4 days old. (The cameras live stream video when internet access is available, while in parallel recording and archiving it locally for scientific purposes).

The Nonsuch Expeditions, founded and managed by ConservationTech Developer J-P Rouja, has been LiveStreaming from two of the man-made underground nesting burrows in Translocation Colony A from the world-renowned Nonsuch Island nature reserve in Bermuda for 10+ years. The platform uses custom-built cameras and military-grade 940nm IR lighting arrays, which, as Nonsuch Island is completely off-grid requires ongoing solar power and wireless internet to get the signal back to the Bermuda mainland. From there, it is uploaded to: the cloud, project partners the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and then on to YouTube etc., all of which has been designed and built to be as Hurricane resistant as possible.

For the past 7 years, through a partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology 10’s of millions of minutes of “CahowCam” LiveStreams, archival video replays, and regular nest check videos with the warden Jeremey Madeiros have been watched by scientists, students and the general public from around the World. These observations and lessons learned about the otherwise hidden and unknown lives of one of the rarest seabirds on the planet are contributing greatly to the recovery and conservation of the species and are a key component of the official management and recovery plan.

We leverage, and when required develop technologies to assist with Biodiversity Conservation and to solve conservation challenges, using Nonsuch Island, Bermuda’s wide range of marine habitats, and the Sargasso Sea as a field station and testing ground for conservation tech, with a wide range of global partners, whilst collaborating with and assisting the Bermuda Department of the Environment and Natural Resources.

This includes a recent Darwin+ grant for Sea Grass monitoring, The Bermuda Petrel Biomonitotiong Project, The Bermuda Whale Song Project, The Message in a Bottle Plastic Tracking Project, several passive acoustic projects with Cornell, a cloud-based AI-assisted rodent detection system with The Nature Conservancy, a coral reef photogrammetry project with UCSD, and most recently creating Reference Genomes of the Cahow and other keystone, signature Bermuda species with the new BioQuest NGO, of which JP is also the Director.

Please contact us if you would like more information, or to donate to support this critical work.

13 Cahow chicks confirmed hatched on Nonsuch this far this season, well on track to break record!

March 5th Update from Nonsuch Warden Jeremy Madeiros: “I have not been unable to get out on the islands since the 23rd February, right in the peak of the Cahow egg-hatching period, as I have been recovering from my first-ever bout of covid, which has kept me sidelined for over a week.

During my last visit on the 23rd, (watch nest check video here) only 1 chick had hatched on Nonsuch, with another 3 eggs pipping, or in early stages of hatching. Although I have finally tested negative this morning, I will not be handling any birds for another couple of days, and it was with great relief to me that my assistant, Conservation Officer Peter Drew, whom I have been instructing in the handling and measurement of Cahows and Tropicbirds for just such a scenario, and visiting researcher Letizia Campioni, who has worked extensively with seabirds including Albatrosses, Shearwaters and Petrels,  and has been working with us since 2019 (as part of the Bermuda Petrel BioMonitoring Project) for work in blood sampling, identification of food/prey species and at-sea tracking of Cahows using GPS and GLS tags, were able to get out to Nonsuch on Monday 4th March and carry out a complete check of Cahow nests there.

Thanks to them, I now can report the following results at the two Nonsuch Cahow nesting colonies:

- A total of 13 Cahow chicks were confirmed as already having hatched on Nonsuch; 10 at the "A" colony, and 3 at the more recently established "B" colony.

- A total of 7 eggs were "pipping", or in the process of hatching, 6 at the "A" colony, and 1 at the "B" colony; the chicks in these eggs will all hopefully hatch within the next 1 to 3 days.

- Another 5 eggs were confirmed as fertile but still have more development to go before they are ready to hatch (2 at the "A" colony, 3 at the "B" colony.

- In addition, there are another 2 nests where eggs have been confirmed but cannot be inspected to see whether they are fertile or not. Hopefully, we will possibly get another chick or two from these "wild-card" nests!

As these results indicate that we may end up with a potential total of up to 25 or more chicks, the odds look good that we will exceed last year's record of 19 fledged Nonsuch Cahow chicks. Hopefully, I will be able to start visiting the other nesting islands later this week to get a better idea of the total number of hatched chicks for the entire population number. I look forward to it! “

Jeremy Madeiros | Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer

Where have all our Sharks Gone? Watch “Shark Country”, featuring Teddy Tucker.

PLEASE WATCH THIS FILM

One of the starkest examples of change on our reef is the disappearance of the once ubiquitous sharks.

Teddy Tucker has been described as a Bermuda National Treasure. Peter Benchley, author of Jaws and The Deep, described his close friend, Teddy as a walking encyclopedia: 'A master of every discipline having to do with history and the ocean. One of the great autodidacts in the history of science.’

Teddy mused that: ‘a day not spent in the underwater world, a day not spent diving, would seem to me a day lost, wasted and empty’. This love of the ocean was married to a hunger for knowledge, a sharp mind and a photographic memory.

Teddy Tucker, best known as a shipwreck hunter and underwater explorer was first and foremost a fisherman. On a fishing trip in 1994 he was asked for his thoughts on changes he had witnessed over his time fishing off Bermuda. One of the starkest examples of change on the reef is the disappearance the once ubiquitous sharks.

Other fishermen and hunters share their observations of further change they have experienced over the past 30 years. Together with Teddy they stand as witnesses to the decline in Bermuda's marine environment gleaned over years of consistent free diving and scuba diving on the island's reef.

“The almost complete disappearance of sharks from Bermuda’s eco-system as highlighted in this film, simply can’t be ignored.

Despite all of the ongoing debates regarding how much of, and how best to protect the remaining life that we have left in our waters, there should be no question that we are far worse off now than we were a generation ago.

However, the challenge with personally observing chnages in the ocean is that each successive generation has a shifting baseline of what is normal, and then we don’t always notice gradual changes over time. Whilst those of us who spend time on and under the water will have seen changes within our lifetimes, predominantly for the negative, (though at times positive with recoveries possible when reasonable rules are put in place and enforced), no one can deny the fact that we no longer have sharks on our reefs, along with the cascading impact of losing these Apex predators…

Though obviously not to the same degree, I personally have seen this, which is one of the reasons I am so involved in ocean conservation today. I spent my teenage summers in the early 80’s working on one of the last large fishpot vessels, and at the time after hauling up our offshore Argus and Challenger seamount fish pots we often had to speed to the next location to get away from the sharks that were following us for fear that they might accidentally interfere with our gear when we dropped it back over… Even at that time though, we rarely, if ever, saw them on the reef platform.”

JP > Nonsuch Expeditions Founder

Our condolences to the Tucker family for the recent passing of Edna.

The chick has hatched in the CahowCam1 burrow!

Monday February 26th: The egg in the CahowCam1 burrow that was first seen “pipping” by Jermey during his nest check on Friday the 23rd, now is in the process of hatching.

“Pipping” is the process through which the chick starts pecking and chipping away at the egg shell from the inside as part of the hatching process, which can range anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Around 3 pm, the chick was heard peeping from inside the seemingly intact egg, and @8:45pm the parent shifted to reveal a small hole in the egg accompanied by more peeping.

Tuesday, February 27th @ 9am: A small hole first appeared in the egg around 9pm last night and through brief views of it throughout the night appears to be getting bigger. However as of 9am we can sporadically hear, but have yet to see the chick which may still be in the egg…

Tuesday, February 27th @ 12:45pm: The chick has fully hatched! Watch the replay below.

You may watch the LiveStream here to see the process unfold in real-time. *Please note that as we are still operating on a temporary low-bandwidth wireless internet connection (until our new hardware is in place) the video stream may be sporadic, however, we are recording and archiving the whole process on Nonsuch and will offer a full playback at a later date….

Meet the first chick of 2023/24 Cahow nesting season!

“The windy, stormy weather conditions now prevailing for the last several months have continued to severely curtail my monitoring visits to Nonsuch and the Cahow nesting islands, with rainfall in February already recorded at 8.38 " (213mm). So, when calmer, sunny conditions finally broke on Friday 23 February, it had already been 10 days since I had last been out on the islands. I was anxious to get back out, as any time after the 20th of February is when we can expect to see the first of the Cahow chicks hatch.

So, on the 23rd, I was finally able to get out in the boat with my assistant Conservation Officer Peter Drew, Nonsuch Expeditions founder and filmmaker JP Rouja, Overseas researcher Letizia Campioni, and Lynn Thorne as official photographer. Conditions were perfect, being calm and sunny, and I was anxious to make the best of the day, as heavy rain and strong winds were forecast for the following day.

We first went to one of the original small nesting islands, Long Rock, which has the smallest number of Cahows of any nesting island, at only 13 breeding pairs. It is also the lowest in elevation and as a result, has suffered more from flooding and erosion during increasingly frequent hurricanes than any other breeding site. Despite this, things looked good on Long Rock, with 10 nests still with fertile eggs being incubated by adult Cahows (the other 3 nests were confirmed as having failed). Most exciting, 3 of the fertile eggs were already pipping, or in the early stages of hatching, a process that can take up to 48 hours or more.

Once we had finished the check on Long Rock, we moved on to Nonsuch Island, where we had time to check most of the nests at the "A" nesting colony. On Nonsuch, we confirmed the first hatched Cahow chick, in the R819 nest burrow (where it was being brooded by the Female E0768 Cahow). The eyes of this chick were just opening, indicating that it was only 24 - 36 hours old, and already weighed 46 grams, indicating it had already been fed by the incubating adult. In addition, there were 3 other eggs that were beginning to hatch, or pipping, including the egg in the *CahowCam 1 (R831) nest. Hopefully, we will be able to get out again to the islands during the following week, when we hopefully will see several additional newly hatched chicks!”

Jeremy Madeiros | Senior Conservation Officer (Terrestrial Conservation)

• You can watch the LiveStream here to see the process unfold in real time. *Please note that as we are still operating on a temporary low-bandwidth wireless internet connection (until our new hardware is in place) the video stream may be sporadic, however, we are recording and archiving the whole process on Nonsuch and will offer a full playback at a later date….
  
  

CahowCam1 & 2 have fertile eggs with Nonsuch colony on track to break record!

As of Saturday, 10th February, 2024, most Cahows have already been incubating their single eggs for a month or more, indicating that we are more than halfway through the normal egg incubation period of 53 - 55 days. The first eggs to be laid should be hatching in only about 12 to 15 days, while eggs that were laid later, such as in the CahowCam 2 nest, which was laid at the record late date of 26th - 27th January, if it hatches will not do so until the end of March.

During a check that I was able to carry out on the 10th of Feb, I was able to confirm that the egg in the CahowCam 1 (R831) nest was fertile and looked like it was developing normally and was at 53.5 grams weight. This egg was being incubated by the female bird (band no. E0212), who had evidently just taken over incubation duties from her mate, being at a very high weight (for a female bird) of 397 grams. If all continues to go well, this egg should hatch sometime around the very beginning of March.

In the CahowCam 2 (R832) nest burrow, both adult birds were present, with the new female bird (band no. E0621) incubating the egg. She looks like she is about ready to relinquish incubation duties to her mate and return to sea to feed, as she was measured at only 289 grams in weight, while the older male bird (band no. E0174) is ready to take over at 377 grams in weight. The most exciting news about this nest, where the male lost his long-time mate of 14 years, and now has a new mate, is that I was able to confirm that their first egg together was fertile, with a developing embryo observed when the egg was candled. This was a surprise, as the first egg produced by a first-time breeding female Cahow is often infertile. This egg was measured at 52 grams in weight and as mentioned will probably not hatch until near the end of March, if all goes well.

Although a couple of additional eggs were confirmed to have failed since the last checks, as of now the total number of fertile eggs still being incubated on Nonsuch Island stands at a minimum of 25-26 (the record number of fledged chicks from Nonsuch was 19 in 2023).

On the largest breeding colony on Horn Rock, at least 27-29 eggs were confirmed to still be fertile, stormy weather recently has made it difficult to determine total numbers at the other nesting islets, and stormy weather forecast for much of next week promises to continue to make landings at these small, rocky and exposed islets a hazardous occupation!

Jeremy Madeiros, Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer, Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, BERMUDA