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