Stormy the Loneliest Petrel is back once again!

At 11:17 pm on April 29th, online followers of the CahowCam 2 LIVEstream heard a familiar call from the tunnel, as “Stormy” the very lost, lonely, annoying, and now infamous Storm Petrel was back once again.

He is a diminutive Leach’s Storm-Petrel, (a related species, about one fifth the size of the resident Cahows), a long way from his nesting colonies on the East Coast of the US and Canada, which for the past five nesting seasons has returned to try and nest in the CahowCam 2 burrow much to the annoyance of the current occupants.

In past years he has insisted on living with the Cahow chick until it fledges, during which time he attempts in vain to court it nightly with mating calls and other antics, however, for some reason, the Cahow parents and even the chick which is several times his size, do not evict or hurt him, even though they could easily do so.

Time will tell if this will continue this year, however the first interactions with this years Cahow chick seemed to indicate that it may not be as patient as its siblings from prior years, and it was already being quite quite aggressive towards him.

Watch the LIVEstream here where he can be expected to return around midnight.

"Stormy the Loneliest Petrel" has returned once again!

UPDATE: April 22nd 2020 | Stormy is back once again, returning last night around 1:30 am, making multiple visits throughout the night to a somewhat bewildered Cahow chick. Time will tell if his persistence continues throughout the season as it has in past years…

Original Post from 2019 | For the third year a very lost, lonely, Leach’s Storm Petrel has returned to Nonsuch Island, this time to the still occupied CahowCam2 burrow where he has been interacting with the Cahow chick and its parents to the bewilderment of scientists and viewers around the World.

In past seasons he has returned in June to the empty CahowCam burrow (see Stormy versus Land Crabs) just after the Cahow chick has fledged and spent weeks building a nest and calling out in vain at night for a mate, hence his nickname. However this year, not only is he early, but he does not seem to be deterred by the current occupants that are several times his size.

Leachs’s Storm Petrels normally nest hundreds to thousands of miles away from Norway to the Maritimes and are the size of a starling averaging just under 50 grams versus the much larger Cahows that range from 300 to 450 grams.

His antics over the past few nights have seemed at times aggressive, however the Cahow chick upon examination by Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros seems to be doing fine. The one concern is that the presence of this interloper may be deterring the Cahow parents from feeding the chick properly, so its weight and the night time feeding visits will be watched closely.

Should “Stormy” still be around over the next few nights, efforts will be made to catch, band and hopefully introduce him to a different unoccupied burrow.

Watch Stormy's Land Crab Battle Rematch!

For the second time in 3 years, Stormy defends the now empty CahowCam 2 burrow from an invading Land Crab.

In a rematch from his first battle in 2017 “Stormy” a very lost, lonely Storm Petrel promptly evicted the Land Crab which was most likely scavenging for food in what it expected to be an empty burrow.

Historically as has now been proven by the Live Streaming CahowCams, Land Crabs will wait until the chicks have fledged and the nest is empty before coming in to scavenge for anything edible, including left over food, failed eggs and detritus, effectively cleaning out the burrow.

Stormy also used to wait for the nest to be empty before moving in, however this year much to the confusion of the Cahow pair, their extremely patient chick and 10’s of thousands of viewers from around the World he showed up several weeks early and refused to leave.

The chick fledged several weeks ago and he is now back to nest building and calling out all night long to attract a mate.

Good Luck Stormy!

"Stormy" the Loneliest Petrel remains in nest after Cahow roommate fledges.

For the third year in a row, a very lost and lonely Storm-petrel has been building a nest and trying to attract a mate to the Cahow Colony on Nonsuch Island.

As far as we know, this is the first time a Storm-petrel has attempted this, as although they are found offshore of the island in deeper waters, they have never been known to nest or even land on Bermuda, with their closest nesting colonies being 800 miles away on islands off the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia.

Photo: Ian Fisher

Photo: Ian Fisher

Photo: Ian Fisher

Photo: Ian Fisher

The last 2 seasons he was filmed arriving into the recently vacated CahowCam burrow a few days after the resident Cahow chick had fledged and would spend the next few weeks building a nest and calling out at night for a mate, ultimately in vain.

This year however, he arrived 2 months early and moved into the still occupied CahowCam 2 burrow which he decided to cohabitate with a very patient Cahow chick.

Much to the bewilderment of scientists and the worldwide CahowCam followers, he turned his amorous attentions to the Cahow chick despite it eventually growing to almost 10 times his weight. However the adult Cahows, when encountering the Storm-petrel in the nest during their feeding visits, did not seem to consider him as a threat to their chick and tolerated his presence.

The Nonsuch Team kept a close eye on this to be sure that the Cahow chick that was doing its best to ignore him wasn’t being negatively affected and even tried re-homing him to an empty Cahow burrow after he was caught and banded, as seen in the following video.

Despite this attempt he returned to the CahowCam 2 burrow the following night where he remained through to the Cahow chick fledging a few weeks ago.

J-P Rouja | Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader: “There was even some talk amongst our followers to start a Go Fund Me Campaign to buy Stormy a plane ticket back to where he should be nesting. But as Jeremy pointed out, even if it had been logistically possible, the most that it would probably prove would be how fast he could actually fly back here once released.”

Ultimately his rather annoying persistence did not seem to affect the chick which put on weight faster and grew larger than most others in the colony, though this may have been in part due to the parents more frequent visits to keep an eye on Stormy.

Now back on his own, he has reverted to his old routine of nest building and calling our for a mate of his own and viewers who log on to the CahowCam around 1 AM (or scroll back in the video timeline in the AM) can watch him LIVE.

Stormy the "Loneliest Petrel" battles land crabs and wins!

In the early hours of July 3rd the CahowCam documented its' new resident, a very lost Storm Petrel holding his ground against two native red land crabs during a home invasion. Now named "Stormy" he is back for the second year attempting to attract a mate to the recelenty vacated Cahow burrow on Nonsuch Island. This year he first arrived in early June and as last year seems to have stayed for about a month, building a nest and calling out nightly from the entrance for a mate, before giving up. If he returns the team plans to band him and possibly help attract a mate.

These land crabs use their pinchers primarily for defensive purposes and usually scavenge the abandoned nests helping to clean them out at the end of each season. Stormy was clearly not worried and bit one of them before they gave up and left.

For Second Year, Leach's Storm Petrel documented setting up nest on Nonsuch Island, broadcast live by CahowCam

2017 UPDATE at 3:15 am on June 13th during a thunderstorm "Stormy" returned to the Nonsuch Burrow, when he should be in the Canadian Maritimes.

See the 2016 News Alert:

June 18th 2016: The Cahow nesting season which is winding down, has thus far produced record numbers from the Nonsuch Island Colonies with 6 out of a total 10 chicks having fledged so far and is on track to produce the 2nd highest number of fledgelings from the whole colony, with 58, just down from 59 in 2014.

Recently named “Tempest” the star of the CahowCam livestream, attracted the largest audiences in the CahowCam’s 4 year history with over 6,000 viewers around the world watching live when he hatched and with 10’s of thousands watching his progress over the following 91 days.

J-P Rouja from the Nonsuch Expeditions Team said:

"This year we left the camera running after the chick had fledged on June 5th to see what happens immediately after the burrow is abandoned, and sure enough as happened last year within an hour a land crab made its way into the burrow to start feeding on the nesting materials.

To our utmost surprise however around 4 am a small petrel looking seabird first called into and then entered the chamber as if prospecting for a new nest site. This bird was less than half the size of a Cahow with a different vocal pattern so we knew it was something new. He spent about an hour rummaging around and then departed before sunrise leaving all of us who were watching online not sure what we had just witnessed and thankful that it had been recorded."

Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros initially pointed us towards the Storm Petrel family, which is of the same nocturnal, burrow nesting tube nosed family as the Cahow, however none of these are known to have ever landed or nested in Bermuda, let alone be filmed doing so.

The Nonsuch Expeditions Team digitized the video and the audio recordings so that they could be shared amongst the local and international birding community experts and the consensus thus far confirms Mr. Madeiros’s suspicion that it is the dark rumped variation of a Leach’s Storm Petrel. These normally nest 800 to 900 miles away in the Canadian Maritimes and are less than half the size of Cahow with a wingspan of 19” versus 36” to 38” for a Cahow.

Jeremy Madeiros says:, "We all thought we had witnessed an amazing one off event, however the CahowCam has allowed us to witness two more 3.30am visits as this little bird who seems to be intent on occupying this nest and attracting a mate. The odds of this bird not only deciding to nest in Bermuda 800 + miles from home but also happening to pick the one burrow where we have a camera operating must be a million to one, but now that he is here there is actually the remotest possibility of him succeeding in attracting a mate as the species is known to feed in our open ocean waters.

This is a great gift for today, World Ocean’s day, as it shows that even as we increase our understanding, there is so much more to learn."

What is now evident is that through the ongoing successful management and protection of the slowly increasing Cahow colony there are other positive unintended consequences such as encouraging other species to nest here as well.

As of 4.30 am on June 8th “Stormy” as he is now nicknamed was sitting in the entrance of the recently vacated Cahow burrow on the edge of a cliff on Nonsuch Island calling out to sea for a prospective mate, whilst unknowingly connected to the digital world.

Please login to www.nonsuchisland.com/live-cahow-cam/ for replays and updates or watch live at 3.30 am or so tomorrow morning if you are awake and so inclined.

Best of luck Stormy on a rather stormy World Oceans day. :)

UPDATE: June 9th He visited again between 2 am and 4,30 am arranging the nest and calling out for a mate.

UPDATE: June 10th He is back again!

UPDATE: June 17th He is back yet once again! Virtually every night for the past 12 days!