2020 RECOVERY SUMMARY AND GPS TRACKING PROJECT FOR THE ENDANGERED CAHOW

Despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to human society and economies worldwide, recovery projects for Bermuda’s most endangered and iconic endemic species have been able to continue. There has been good news from the Recovery Project for Bermuda’s endangered National Bird, the endemic Cahow, or Bermuda Petrel (Pterodroma cahow). The Cahow’s 2020 breeding season saw its population increase to a record number of 134 breeding pairs, with 69 chicks confirmed as successfully fledging out to sea, just below 2019’s record number of 73 fledged chicks.

CahowCam 1 pair reveal egg January 10th 2020

The Cahow now nests on 6 islands in the Castle Harbour Islands Nature Reserve, ranging from just over half an acre to the 16.5-acre Nonsuch Island. These islands are kept free of introduced species such as rats through rigorous management and eradication efforts, as the Cahow cannot survive in the presence of introduced mammal predators, such as rats, cats, and dogs.

CahowCam 2 chick “Zephyr” at entrance of burrow June 4th 2020

Two colonies of Cahows were established on Nonsuch Island between 2004 and 2017 through the translocation of near-fledged chicks from the original small, eroding nesting islets, to artificial burrows constructed on Nonsuch. These chicks were then hand-fed daily and allowed to imprint upon the new location until they fledged about 3 weeks later. These projects were successful, with almost 50% of the translocated chicks returning 3 to 5 years later when mature to Nonsuch to choose nest sites and life- long mates.

The first of these returned pairs in 2009 produced the first cahow chick to naturally hatch on Nonsuch since the 1620s, and this new population has since increased to a total of 25 breeding pairs in 2020, making Nonsuch the second-largest Cahow breeding colony. This new population has already produced a total of 87 fledged chicks between 2009 and 2020! So far, 13 of these Nonsuch-born chicks have been recorded as returning to breed, including 9 settling back on Nonsuch, so these colonies are well on their way to becoming self-sustaining.

The Nonsuch Cahow colonies were primarily established as a response to increased erosion and flooding of the original tiny nesting islets from a combination of increased strong hurricanes over the last 25 years, coupled with accelerating sea-level rise due to the melting of ice caps and thermal expansion of warming oceans due to climate change.

Eye of Hurricane Paulette approaches Bermuda September 14th 2020

The value of the Nonsuch populations was proven during hurricanes “Paulette” and “Teddy” in September 2020. Two of the original nesting islets were completely submerged by the 21 to 28-foot waves of these two storms. Many of the artificial concrete nest burrows were damaged, with concrete nest lids washed overboard, burrows filled with debris, and quarter-ton boulders rolled across the nesting colonies, damaging burrows and requiring lengthy repairs. By contrast, the Nonsuch colonies, with burrows constructed at higher elevations than is possible on the smaller islets, were completely unaffected by the storms.

Charles Eldermire - Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Letizia Campioni - MARE-ISPA IU, Jeremy Madeiros - DENR, Monica Silva cE3c-FCUL, JP Rouja - Nonsuch Expeditions

A new, exciting project involving the at-sea tracking of Cahows using advanced GPS tags weighing only 3.3 grams apiece was started in 2019, with a partnership between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Nonsuch Expeditions, and several international researchers. These include Letizia Campioni of Italy, Monica Silva of Portugal, Carina Gjerdrum of the Canadian Department of Environment and Climate Change, and Andre Raine of the Hawaii Endangered Seabird Recovery Project.

Monica Silva of Portugal, Jeremy Madeiros, Letizia Campioni of Italy

Jeremy Madeiros, Andre Raine of Hawaii, Carina Gjerdrum of Canada

Two types of GPS tags were used during egg incubation and early chick-rearing, tracking the at-sea movements of adult Cahows as they carried out feeding trips during these periods. These tags are accurate to within a meter or two, enabling tracking the movement of the birds very precisely, and even to determine the speed of the birds flying between their nests in Bermuda and the distant foraging areas. The information gained revealed that Cahows regularly carry out feeding trips to gather food for the growing chicks spanning thousands of miles, to the edge of the Canadian Continental Shelf, and beyond to the Grand Banks.

The first GPS track of Pterodroma cahow April 2019. A feeding trip by adult Cahow to Georges Bank (off Cape Cod) to gather food for its chick (Letizia Campioni).

GPS tracks of at-sea movement of female (purple) and male (green) adult Cahows during egg incubation Jan-Feb 2019. (Compiled by Letizia Campioni).

In addition, blood and feather samples were collected from nearly 90 Cahows, to investigate a number of factors, including testing for persistent organic contaminants, genetics, sexing, etc. We have already confirmed that the pesticide DDT and its breakdown component DDE, which caused the near-extinction of many bird species and contaminated many people until banned in North America in the early 1970s, is still present in most Cahows. Although the contamination is not in as high amounts as during the 1960s and early 1970s, when it contributed to breeding success rates as low as 27-28%, it is still present in high enough concentrations that it may be causing a reduction in breeding success. It may well be the reason why a relatively high percentage of eggs fail during incubation, keeping breeding success no higher than 53% to 60%, despite intensive management. By comparison, my other main study and management species on Bermuda, the Longtail or White-tailed Tropicbird, has breeding success rates ranging from 68% to nearly 80% at the study locations.

Researchers Letizia Campioni of Italy and Maria Diaz (with Birdlife International in the U.K.) visited Bermuda again between 22 January and 14 February 2020 and worked with me to fit 23 archival GPS tags, all of which have since been recovered. These helped us to determine that the Cahows foraged in very different areas much closer to Bermuda than in 2019 (400 – 800 miles, compared to 800 – 1250 miles). This may account for record-high weights of both adult Cahows and chicks in 2020, compared to those recorded over the last 18 years, which bodes well for the survival of the fledged chicks this year.

Although a second trip to Bermuda planned by Letizia in April was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, funding is being secured for a third field season in 2021, which will hopefully provide additional information important for the survival of Bermuda’s amazing, and recovering National Bird.

Jeremy Madeiros, Principle Scientist – Terrestrial Conservation Section, Department of the Environment and Natural Resources

CahowCam 1 pair may return early to lay egg

All eyes are on CahowCam 1 to see when the female will return for egg-laying and for confirmation that all is well with the pair.

Historically, established Cahow pairs have returned to the colony during the month of November for a few weeks of nest building and mating, before heading back out to sea for December to feed, then returning in early January to lay their single egg.

This season however the star pair from CahowCam 1 were not seen together after a joint health check on November 6th, and once the CahowCam went live on November 10th (the off-season solar power and networking upgrade having been delayed by recent hurricanes) only one member of the pair was seen visiting the burrow at a time.

This was unusual, as in past seasons they had been seen together almost every night, extending beyond the 20th, and though it is possible that they were missing each other returning on alternate nights, this was somewhat concerning to the Team and some of our regular followers.

We do know that they returned early this year having been positively identified together in the nest on October 25th by Jeremy, who based on this summarizes that it is possible that the female, realizing her developing egg had been fertilized by the 7th or 8th simply returned to sea early to feed, leaving the male to continue making nest improvements on his own (see video).

If that is the case, she may return early to lay her egg, so viewers should keep an eye on CahowCam1 at the end of December, probably after the full moon has passed on the 30th, as once she does, she will lay her single egg within hours.

AXIS Sponsors Nonsuch Expeditions / KBB Ocean Plastics Film

Keep Bermuda Beautiful and LookBermuda have announced plans to create an educational film that will raise awareness about plastic pollution.  The documentary will focus on marine debris washing ashore on a Nonsuch Island beach that faces the open ocean.  Students will conduct scientific research and help tell the story about the growing problem of plastic trash escaping into the ocean alongside trash being generated by maritime industries.  This is a crisis that future generations will need to solve, but there are steps that everyone can take now to begin alleviating the problem which this project will highlight. 

KBB executive director Anne Hyde: “We are delighted to welcome AXIS Capital as the lead sponsor for this three-year project.  AXIS has a long history of supporting educational, environmental and social initiatives in our community.  KBB had already chosen to partner with LookBermuda to create the documentary and we were looking for a corporate group interested in lending financial support as well as opportunities for employee participation.  As it turned out, AXIS employees had planned for their annual Community Service Day to do a beach cleanup with KBB.  It was through this hands-on activity of cleaning up another South Shore beach, discussing the array of items we found and identifying how far they must have floated to get to Bermuda, that sparked their interest and forged into a partnership for this project.”

Tiffany Sousa, AXIS Senior HR Business Partner and the Company’s Bermuda Philanthropy Committee Lead: “At AXIS, we are committed to supporting initiatives that, through both awareness and action, tackle pressing needs facing our communities. We are proud to support Keep Bermuda Beautiful which is doing just this through its student-led educational film and ongoing cleanup activities.”  

LookBermuda will document the activities of the students as they catalog and discuss what they’ve found, tallied, measured, weighed and recorded any indicators of the source.  

Filmmaker and CEO of LookBermuda and Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader Jean-Pierre Rouja: “As part of our ongoing Nonsuch Expeditions project with the Department of Environmental & Natural Resources (DENR), we have been setting aside the ocean trash that washes ashore on the small beach on Nonsuch Island, which historically had been removed and disposed of regularly by the chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer and his team.  Nonsuch Island, Bermuda’s most successful nature reserve is closed to the public, and no one is allowed to go there without permission which presents a very unique opportunity, as virtually all of Bermuda’s other beaches get cleaned regularly by the Parks Department, KBB, other volunteers and concerned citizens. But in this case, as we are the only ones collecting it, we have a much clearer picture of the magnitude and variety of trash floating in the open ocean and can track what washes ashore without human interference.  The result was a 3-ton collection over an 18 month period which has now been moved to storage.  We are waiting for the Covid-19 situation to improve and allow for student-led analysis of the materials and subsequent cleanups.”

The project will  produce a documentary that will weave imagery and student-led action into a compelling tale of how big the problem of plastics and trash escaping into our oceans really is.  It will shine a light on the dire impact of mankind’s throw-away culture and daily disposal of massive amounts of packaging and containers as an unsustainable problem for our planet.  In the lead up to the documentary, a series of web videos and blog updates will help convey the key messages that need to be heard multiple times.   The overall project and final documentary will carry a message of hope and what steps can be taken to curtail the crisis of plastic pollution.  

Bermuda students at the senior school or Bermuda College levels are welcome to participate in the project.  Registration and scheduling should be coordinated through interested teachers on behalf of a specific class or group of interested students by contacting Keep Bermuda Beautiful through their website www.kbb.bm or email anne@kbb.bm .  

 To learn more and follow the Project visit: nonsuchisland.com/ocean-plastics

Cahows return for start of 2021 Nesting Season

The 2021 Cahow Nesting Season is off to a great start with the Cahows returning to Nonsuch and the smaller outer islands for courtship and nest-building.

Watch the video below to see Jeremy conduct the first health check for the newly returned Cahow pair from CahowCam2 burrow on Nonsuch Island.

The pairs will then head out to sea for December with the female returning in early January to lay their single egg. She is usually relieved of her incubation duty by the male within hours who will take on the first several week shift so that she can go back out to sea to recharge. They will then alternate shorter shifts until the egg hatches around the beginning of March after which the chick is generally left on its own whilst the parents make several hundred mile excursions to find its food North of the Gulf Stream until around the end of May when it fledges.

Watch this all LIVE on our CahowCams Here.

Hurricane Paulette - Nonsuch Updates

September 16th 2020 | Our first visit to Nonsuch has shown that the most visible damage from Paulette was to a few of the large Bay Grapes on the stairway on the way up from the dock. The outer island however did sustain erosion damage as expected, which will more than likely have been exacerbated by the more recent passing of Hurricane Teddy. The Team is aiming to get out there once the winds settle on the 23rd and will post updates accordingly.

September 14th 2020 | 2pm Bermuda seems to have survived in relatively good condition. We won’t however be able to visit Nonsuch before tomorrow at the earliest and the 6ft drop in the level of beach sand as seen at Elbow Beach further down the coast is concerning…

September 14th 2020 | 06:45 am We have now passed through the eye and the wind has flipped over to the West as Paulette moves away to our North.

September 14th 2020 | 04:45 am We appear to be in the eye as the wind has completely dropped out, the airport radar has been down since 2 am, but we have been able to produce the video below using graphics from windy.com

September 14th 2020 | 02:05 am Paulette’s eye approaches and is expected to pass over is in the next 2 hours. In this radar screen capture we are in one of the last gaps between the bands and are about to enter the red colored high wind 100 knot+ area of the circulation which should continue for the next few hours unitl we reach the eye. Power is now out so not sure re next update. Stay safe…

September 13th 2020 | 10:25 pm Paulette’s eye approaches with 100-knot gusts expected from midnight through to morning… We will keep tracking the approaching hurricane online and will update this page overnight as it progresses (or for as long as we keep our power and internet).

The projected winds will be from the North East, however the hurricane and its swells are approaching from the South East, and as Nonsuch is on the South East corner of Bermuda a great deal of coastal erosion is expected to Nonsuch and the outlying Cahow nesting Islands.

Jeremy and Peter spent the past week battening down and preparing Nonsuch as well as they could, and as the power array was turned off for safety, we will now have to wait until after the storm has passed and we are able to secure a vessel to get out there to see how it all faired.

A bit of good news: Jeremy rescued two Tropicbird chicks from low-lying nests on Nonsuch that would have otherwise drowned from the storm surge and they are now living in his bathroom.

As the Cahows do not return to Nonsuch until November, they should not be affected by this hurricane beyond possible damage to their nests. In similar past hurricanes, whole portions of the outer nesting islands have been known to collapse taking Cahow burrows with them, which was one of the driving forces behind starting the Cahow Translocation Program to Colony A on Nonsuch where our Cams are located…

Elbow Beach erosion

The 2020 Tropicbird Cam chick has fledged!

At 10:30 AM on July the 6th, just as Jeremy and JP approached the dock, the Tropicbird Cam chick that we have been monitoring for the past few months, launched itself out to sea! Watch video below and visit the LIVEstream page for a season summary.

Zephyr the CahowCam 2 chick has fledged! Watch a replay of departure and last health check.

It's official!
Both Zephyr and Nemo the 2020 CahowCam chicks have fledged. 
Watch a replay of her imprinting and exercise activities as she explores the area around the burrow up to and including her departure at 10:32 pm, following her health check earlier that day:

Then continue to watch LIVE as Stormy now has the CahowCam2 burrow to himself...

Last check with Zephyr on World Oceans Day

When Jeremy and JP returned to Nonsuch on World Oceans Day after a weekend of bad weather they found that Zephyr the CahowCam2 chick had not fledged yet and were able to give her perhaps her final health check before she fledges out to sea.

As a positive World Ocean Day news story, this season Jeremy has logged a record number of 134 Cahow breeding pairs and a near record 68 fledged chicks, but more importantly virtually all of the chicks throughout the Colony have been heavier and healthier than usual. This has resulted in, for the first time in 16 years, that Jeremy has not had to rescue or take any of the chicks in for extra or supplemental care.

Apart from when they were nesting on Nonsuch Island the Cahows spend their entire lives over the high seas where they are a true Sentinel of the Ocean. Stay tuned for the results of ongoing and upcoming research with our partners as we use GPS tags to log their travels.

Throughout the 2020 Oceans Week our Team will be highlighting some of the many Ocean Conservation projects that we are involved with, for more details sign up for our Newsletter.

Watch LIVE as "Zephyr" the CahowCam 2 chick prepares to fledge

Viewers should follow this link and alternate between the CahowCam 2 and Surface Cams to track the CahowCam 2 chick as it exercises and prepares to fledge over the next few nights: nonsuchisland.com/live-cahow-cam/#LIVE-CahowCam

It was recently named Zephyr by Lizzy Madeiros, Jeremy’s daughter as seen in the video below.

Nemo the CahowCam 1 chick has fledged!

At 2:03 am on May 25th the recently named “Nemo” Cahow chick from burrow #831 from which CahowCam1 has been live-streaming, fledged.

Jeremy Madeiros | Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer, The Department of the Environment and Natural Resources: “At 86 days old this is one of the fastest fledging times that I have logged.

This is due in part to the fact that this season Cahow parents throughout the Colony have been finding food closer to Bermuda allowing for shorter foraging flights and more frequent feeding visits.

This in turn has resulted in a record # of chicks exceeding 400 grams in weight and in general healthier chicks throughout the Colony.”

Jean-Pierre Rouja | Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader:

“Whilst scientists and followers from around the World watched the Live-Stream I spent the night remotely controlling the infrared camera that is mounted above ground in translocation colony A to track Nemo’s activities as he explored and exercised around the Colony throughout the night.

He alternated between short naps in the burrow and allot of wing stretching in and out of the burrow followed by extending his wings and going though the motions of flight, all of which we captured in great detail as seen in the video below.

Finally just before 2 am he made his way up the hill behind the Colony and out of sight and was not observed returning to his burrow, leaving us all to wonder if he had in fact fledged off camera or was hiding out in an empty burrow elsewhere in the Colony.

This was answered by a tweet from one of our regular followers containing a time stamp of the 2 second period at 2:03 AM  when he flew past the camera which upon review in slow motion was clearly Nemo.

We were also watching, but clearly missed this 2 second blur which proves once again the value crowd sourcing our followers to help monitor the 24/7 cameras for months at a time as we have been doing in conjunction with our partners the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.”

Followers should keep watching the Live Streams over the next few days as the chick from CahowCam 2 will be fledging soon as well...

Watch the LIVE CahowCam streams here and a video of Nemo’s final health check, naming process and a replay of his nocturnal excursions prior to fledging below:

Biodiversity Report: Critically Endangered Lesser Bermuda Land Snail

“Last Friday I celebrated the International Day for Biological Diversity by taking a bumpy boat ride to Nonsuch Island to feed some snails. Sounds like a crazy thing to do, but the snails in question are lesser Bermuda land snails (Poecilozonites circumfirmatus). This species has the dubious distinction of have the conservation status ‘Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct in the Wild)’. We believe it is extinct in the wild, since no live snails have been found in about 16 years, despite lots of searching. The population on Nonsuch Island was introduced in February this year. The snails were bred in England at the Chester Zoo and flown to Bermuda, where they were placed in cages at three spots on Nonsuch Island. Nonsuch offers particularly good habitat for land snails, since it does not have the predators that are found on the mainland. You can read more about the introduction of endangered land snails to Nonsuch Island here.

Above is a photo of two lesser Bermuda land snails from Friday. They are around the size of a green pea. 

While I was closing one of the cages, I heard a rustling in the dry bay grape leaves and looked up to see I was being watched by a large Bermuda Skink. It didn’t run off even after I moved to get the camera. Eventually I went back to what I was doing and I heard it wander off.

Never a dull moment on Nonsuch.”

Alison Copeland, M.Sc | Biodiversity Officer | Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Record number of Cahow Breeding Pairs

The 2020 Cahow Nesting Season has a record number of 134 breeding pairs which have produced 68 confirmed chicks!

Jeremy Madeiros, Principle Conservation Officer: “After my recent nesting island checks I have the stats at present for this breeding season: 134 breeding pairs with 68 confirmed chicks, hopefully all of which will fledge successfully, (although we almost always loose a chick or two in the final month). This compares to 131 breeding pairs and 73 successfully fledging chicks in the 2018-2019 nesting season.

All chicks are also at very good or above-average weights, with the exception of possibly two which may need to be taken into care, compared with last year, when almost all chicks were at below-average weights and over 12 needed to be taken into care or given supplemental feeding to enable them to fledge.”

Watch the latest Health Check video from April 30th

Jean-Pierre Rouja, Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader: “This Season the Cahows seem to have found a food source closer to Bermuda as their foraging flights are shorter and more frequent, resulting in chicks throughout the Colony growing faster than usual. This has led to some interesting interactions when the parents feeding visits overlap as witnessed on the LIVE CahowCams 1&2.”

This Season has also seen the return of the Stormy the Worlds Loneliest (and annoying) Petrel who has once again decided to cohabitate with the Cahows in CahowCam2 where he has been serenading to their chick on a nightly basis… This year the chick does not seem to be as patient as the one from last season and has already evicted Stormy a few times, tune in nightly to watch as the saga unfolds…”

"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.

Rare Cabit found on Nonsuch Island!

A very rare Cabit chick (a Cahow / Rabbit hybrid) has been photographed on Nonsuch Island!

When animals come close to extinction, as in the case of the Cahow, there is always the possibility of cross species heterozygous offspring.

Rabbits from nearby Hen Island must have swum over to Nonsuch Island at some point in the past, prior to the Cahows' rediscovery in 1951 when they were down to the last few pairs and were forced to resort to hybridization to ensure their survival. The gene for the ears seems to be recessive, only appearing every few generations (with the offspring named a "Cabit"), however all chicks in the colony still hatch with soft grey rabbit type fur instead of feathers, which they then molt prior to fledging. The Cahows have also retained the habit of nesting in deep underground burrows which they spend several seasons excavating with their mate.

As explained by Wikipedia:

In biology a hybrid is mix of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera.[1] Using genetics terminology, it may be defined as follows.[2]

In general usage, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the breeding of two genetically distinct individuals.

Jean-Pierre Rouja, Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader:

Back in the 1970's when I was a cub-scout we used to go camping on Hen Island in St. Georges which was still overrun with rabbits. Prior to the Airport being built in the 1940's it would have been a relatively easy swim for them to reach Nonsuch. We spent today trying to catch one so that we could take a DNA sample, however they are just too fast. Fortunatley the CahowCam photographed one early this morning so we have further proof of their existence.

Watch Live Video from the nest here.

Recessive Rabbit-ear gene appears in Tropicbird chick

Researchers on Nonsuch Island have filmed for the first time ever the recessive aure lepus (Rabbit ear) gene appearing in a recently hatched Tropicbird chick.

In past years this extremely rare heterozygous hybrid mutation (a cross between a rabbit and a bird) has been documented in the resident Bermuda Petrel “Cahow” population where the rabbit ears appear every few generations, but this is the first time it has been seen in White-tailed Tropicbird (P. l. catesbyi), which are known locally as “Longtails”.

Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader J-P Rouja: “Our TropicbirdCams are currently offline as normally the earliest they lay their egg is late April, so when I logged into the Cam last night to do some maintenance I was very surprised to find that there is not only a parent in the nest, but a several day old chick. The past few years the Tropicbirds have been returning earlier than usual, in part due to global warming, but as this was much earlier than expected I decided to capture a few minutes of video. It wasn’t until I reviewed it a little later that I observed the aure lepus gene presenting itself, which I believe is the first time ever in Tropicbirds.”

The Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve is the only place that this phenomenon has been documented with the first known observation being with Cahows in 2015.

As explained by Wikipedia:

In biology a hybrid is mix of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera.[1] Using genetics terminology, it may be defined as follows.[2]

In general usage, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the breeding of two genetically distinct individuals.

Coronavirus Nonsuch Island Update

Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic and out of an abundance of caution (as the transmission from humans to animals has not been completely ruled out yet), Jeremy is wearing a face mask and gloves and is disinfecting himself before interacting with the Cahows so as to not risk affecting them.

Likewise, due to social-distancing protocols (making traveling together on a small boat impractical), Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader and Filmmaker J-P will not be accompanying Jeremy to Nonsuch in the near future and will instead be filming from home by capturing the CahowCam live feeds and operating the PTZ SurfaceCam remotely to produce videos such as the one below.

Unfortunately as Jeremy is on the island on his own, and the mic from the SurfaceCam is currently not working, the only available audio is being captured by the underground cameras when the burrow lids are open, therefore it may be substandard in the short term...

You may watch the Cams LIVE here and the latest health update below.

Stay Well

J-P & Jeremy

2020 CahowCam2 chick has hatched!

March 8th 2020 12:46 pm

Scientists, students and followers around the World were watching as the new chick in the CahowCam2 burrow was finally revealed.

Its peeps had been heard for the past few hours once it had “pipped” and started breaking its way out of its egg, but as this process can at time take 24 hours or longer, viewers were not sure as to when it would completely hatch.

This is the second CahowCam chick to hatch this Season as the first had hatched in the burrow being monitored by CahowCam1eight days prior, and is doing very well.

The CahowCam2 female which had been taking turns with its mate to incubate the egg for the past 50 days, fed the chick its first few meals by regurgitating food it had been storing since its last trip out to sea. The following evening it departed to forage for food leaving the chick alone, less than 36 hours after hatching, which is not uncommon for the species. 

J-P Rouja - Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader | "The past 2 seasons the Nonsuch Expeditions Team has been collaborating on a new “Bermuda Petrel Biomonitoring Project” with the DENR and researchers from MARE / ISPA which has been geo-tagging some of the birds in the Colony.

One of things we are observing is that this year the birds seem to be foraging closer to Bermuda than last year, allowing for shorter excursions, more frequent feeding visits and higher overall body weights throughout the colonies.

This is clearly being seen in the CahowCam1 burrow where the chick has been fed almost every night, at times from both parents, versus extreme examples from the past where a parent has flown thousands of miles over 10 days to find food to feed the chick just once… 

Should these favorable conditions continue over the next 3 months it should help us match or even break last years record of 73 successfully fledged chicks.”

Interested viewers can watch the chicks develop in both the CahowCam1 and CahowCam2 nest over the next few months via www.nonsuchisland.com where they may also sign up to the Newsletter for Nonsuch updates and alerts to significant nesting events.

Educators may also contact us for class room resources and video replays.

CahowCam2 Hatching Alert!

March 6th 2020 | The egg on CahowCam2 is on hatching alert! Tune in to watch it LIVE now. Followers that wish to receive email alerts of the realtime hatching should sign up for our Newsletter.

It has now reached its 49th day of incubation so if all goes well it will hatch anytime in the next few days.

Update March 8th, 11 am | The incubating parent has not revealed the egg (or a chick) over the past few hours, and it is not uncommon for the chick to communicate with the parent throughout the hatching process which can take 24 hours or longer once the egg has "pipped", however based on the increased amount of peeping and the parents’ activity, it appears to be in the more advanced stages of hatching.

Tune in to watch live now

This follows the successful hatching of the chick in the neighboring CahowCam1 nest, 1 week ago on its 49th day of incubation, whilst thousands of viewers watched from around the World.

4 day old CahowCam1 chick.

CahowCam1 Highlights: The 1-week-old cahow Bermuda Cahow chick is reunited with one of its parents last night for a long, 6-hour bout of feeding, cuddling, and "nestorations." Throughout the nestling period, both adults will return to feed their chick in between foraging sessions.

Hello World! The 2020 CahowCam1 Chick has hatched!

As the Nonsuch Expeditions Team and followers from around the World watched online, the Cahow chick in burrow #831 where CahowCam1 is located hatched around midnight on Friday the 28th, officially launching the 2020 CahowCam Season…

Watch a video of its’ 1st health check (including highlights of the hatching process) produced by Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader J-P Rouja as he and Jeremy headed out to Nonsuch the following day to check on the Colony. (Read Jeremy’s report below)

Jeremy Madeiros | Principle Conservation Officer (Terrestrial Conservation), Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources 

“As the end of February approached, we began to prepare for the first Cahow chicks to begin hatching, as this usually occurs around the 26th to 28th of the month. Cahow eggs take from 50 - 55 days to hatch after being laid and incubated in turns by both adult birds.

Sure enough, in the early morning hours of 28th February, 2020, an eagle-eyed viewer spotted the first signs of a pip, or small hole in the shell of the egg in the "CahowCam 1" (R831) nest on Nonsuch Island, which is the first sign that a chick is beginning the often lengthy process of breaking out of the eggshell. by 3.00pm that afternoon, the pip was getting larger and the chick could easily be heard cheeping from inside the egg.

By 11,18pm that evening, the egg was splitting apart across the top, and by 11.40pm the chick was clearly emerging. At 11.51pm, the chick was mostly out of the egg, but still wearing the shell on its posterior like a diaper! The chick then fully emerged shortly after. The adult bird incubating the egg during the hatching then gently preened the chick and brooded it until its down had dried out and the chick assumed its normal "fluffy" appearance.

I managed to get out with JP Rouja to Nonsuch Island on the following day, Saturday 29th February (as it was a "Leap Year"), where we found that the CahowCam 1 chick was one of four Cahow chicks that had already hatched on Nonsuch. I was also able to confirm that it was the male bird (band no. E0197) that was with the chick during the hatching, and that the 14-hour old chick already weighed 54 grams. Since a newly hatched Cahow chick weighs between 34-39 grams, it had obviously already been fed by its father. It was also clear that the male had been incubating the egg for some time and was probably on the verge of being relieved by the female, as its own weight was down to 305 grams, compared to 421 grams when it first arrived in early January to begin sharing egg incubation duties with the female bird.

At 4.00am the following morning, after feeding the chick again, the male left the nest burrow, and was seen departing to sea on the surface cam shortly afterwards at 4.07am. After spending its first day alone, the chick was then joined by the female bird, which arrived in gale-force winds as soon as darkness fell at 6.59pm on the night of 1st March. We were relieved to see the mother begin bonding immediately, preening & feeding the chick and then staying over in the nest with it the rest of the night and the following day. We hope to get out again on Tuesday as soon as the current strong winds subside, and see if additional chicks have hatched on the island."

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