ECO Magazine Sargasso Sea Article Photography

On #WorldOceansDay, check out the photos by @nonsuchexpeditions Team Leader & Photographer J-P Rouja (with collection assistance from Chris Flook), in this informative article by the Sargasso Sea Commission Program Manger, Tess Mackey. She outlines why the Sargasso Sea is such a special area of the ocean, and gives great background on a grant that the Commission recently obtained from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This is the first-ever GEF grant designed to address conservation and governance in a well-defined high seas ecosystem.

The Global Environment Facility approved a project titled ‘Common Oceans - Sustainable utilisation and conservation of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction’ - and the Sargasso Sea ‘child project’ in June 2020. The project is supported by the United Nations Development Programme, and the @ioc_unesco is the executing agency. Other partners of the project include @biosstation , @dukeuniversity Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, the @imperialcollegeCentre for Environmental Policy, @edinburghuniversity , the World Maritime University, and the French Global Environment Fund. The project will also benefit from the Western Tropical Atlantic Planning Group for the Ocean Decade.

Read the full article in ECO Magazine!

Tune in to Witness the 2021 CahowCam Chick Fledging!

Over the past few nights, Nonsuch Expeditions team leader J-P Rouja along with Jeremy and our collaborators from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have been remotely operating the infrared surface cam installed above ground in Nonsuch Island Colony A to remotely track, film and live-stream the star chick of the 2021 CahowCam nesting season and her neighbors as they prepare to fledge.

She is expected to fledge imminently and started venturing out of her burrow after dark on recent nights, to exercise, explore, and imprint on her surroundings, (which will assist her in finding her way back a few years from now).

Their parents will have been fattening them up over the past few weeks, often beyond their optimum flying weight. Then, just prior to fledging they are effectively abandoned in the burrow from which will emerge at night to exercise and help convert their extra fat to leaner muscle and, drop weight whilst growing their wings, until they reach the optimum conditions for flight. 

It is their body weight in grams and outer wing length (wing chord) in mm that are used to predict when they will be ready for their first flight (known as fledging). The resulting numbers are based on 21 years of meticulous note taking and statistical analysis conducted by Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros, who over two decades has banded and tracked the growth of virtually every accessible chick throughout the colony. As Cahows only nest in Bermuda he has effectively been able to track the entire species which is quite a rare achievement!

Over this period he has established that a healthy chick will fledge with weights ranging from 265 - 300 grams and a wing chord / outer wing length of 255 mm to 275 mm.

As of June 1st our star chick was 303 grams and had a wing chord of 245 mm so by now (updated June 3rd) she should have lost a few grams in weight as she has not been fed, and her wing chord should have grown to reach 255 mm putting her in the perfect condition to fledge successfully from tonight onwards.

The Team will continue to follow and film them nightly until she fledges, starting just after dark each night and viewers wishing to follow this LIVE or watch replays can do so via the CahowCam Page. 

To meet our star chick filmed during her last health check on June 1st, please see the video below:

Tropicbird Cam chick has newly hatched neighbor!

Watch a replay of the 3 week health check for our Tropicbird Cam chick on May 14th. Its growth rate is above average due to its very attentive parents which this season are finding a good source food nearby allowing for more frequent and regular feeding visits.

Watch the LIVEstream here.

It is being raised in one of the artificial burrows coming up from the dock on Nonsuch Island, and its newly hatched neighbor is quite possibly one of the cutest chicks so far this season.

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.

The 2021 "Longtail" Tropicbird Cam is now LIVE

The 2021 nesting season edition of the White-tailed Tropicbird “Longtail” Cam is now live-streaming from Nonsuch Island.

This years chick hatched on April 24th and as of its first health check on the 29th was up to 55 grams.

Watch the LIVEstream Here

Earth day - Cahow Nesting Season Update

“For Earth Day, 2021, it is good to recognize, and address both the many environmental challenges and disasters, many human-caused, which are ongoing around the planet, but also to celebrate the many successful recovery and restoration projects, which aim to sustain, restore and protect the amazing natural heritage that Earth supports and that we, as humans, are blessed with and dependent on. 

At this point, it is appropriate to provide an update on the progress of this year’s Cahow Breeding Season, as many of this year’s crop of chicks are already reaching the half-fledged point (6 to 7 weeks old). With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic impacting human activities and societies world-wide for more than a year now (and Bermuda undergoing a second lock-down due to a surge in confirmed cases and deaths due to Covid as I write this report), I feel that it is very timely to deliver some good news, for a change! 

1 day old Cahow chick photographed 2/28/2021

I can confirm that we now have a new record high number of 142 established breeding pairs of Cahows (up from 135 pairs in 2020); the number of breeding pairs on Nonsuch Island also increased to 27 pairs in 2021. There are 13 chicks currently on Nonsuch Island (including this year’s CahowCam 2 chick), tying the previous record of 13 fledged Nonsuch chicks in 2018. In addition, we have confirmed perhaps the highest recorded annual number of at least 14 newly establishing pairs, that will probably produce their first eggs next season. Nine of these new prospecting pairs are in the two new nesting colonies on Nonsuch island, which only produced their first fledged chick in 2009. 

Nonsuch was originally a historic nesting location for the Cahow, from which they were completely wiped out by the 1620s through overhunting by the recently arrived human colonists and predation by introduced mammal predators. Near-fledged chicks were moved or translocated to artificial burrows during two projects on Nonsuch from 2004 – 2008 and 2013-2017 and hand-fed squid and anchovies, so they could imprint on Nonsuch instead of the original islets, which were vulnerable to hurricane flooding and erosion and sea-level rise. After fledging from Nonsuch, these birds spent 3 to 6 years at sea before they returned, and as hoped, they mostly came back to Nonsuch Island.

The first of these newly returned Cahows paired up on Nonsuch in 2009, producing the first naturally hatched chick recorded on Nonsuch Island for almost 390 years. Since this first chick, the new Cahow colonies on Nonsuch have increased from 1 pair in 2009 to 30 breeding pairs producing eggs in the 2021 nesting season. The number of successfully fledged chicks produced by these new Nonsuch colonies also increased from 1 to 89 chicks by 2020; if all 13 of this year’s crop of Nonsuch chicks fledge successfully in late May and June, then these colonies will have reached a significant milestone in having produced a total of 102 fledged chicks. It is worth noting that naturally fledging chicks only have about a 33 % return rate; in other words, of every ten chicks fledging, only 3 or 4 chicks survive the first 3 to 6 years at sea before they return to the nesting islands to choose nest burrows, pair up with a partner (generally for life), and start producing their own chicks. 

Of these Nonsuch-born chicks, at least 16 have already returned as adults to pair up, 13 on Nonsuch and 3 on the other smaller nesting islands. Three of these birds have already produced their own chicks, producing the first “second-generation” Nonsuch Cahows.

For the 2021 Nesting Season, I can now confirm that there is a total of 71 chicks presently in nest burrows on all nesting islands, although there may be one additional chick in an especially deep nest that I am still trying to confirm. This is just below 2019s record number of 73 successfully fledged chicks, and is good news to convey on this year’s 2021 Earth Day!”

Jeremy Madeiros | Principle Scientist – Terrestrial Conservation | Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources | Bermuda

The Bermuda Petrel CahowCam 2 chick has hatched!

March 9th 2021 @ 9:42 pm the newest CahowCam Star made its’ first appearance on camera confirming the completion of the hatching process that had started the night before.

Viewers from around the World could hear peeps coming from inside the egg in the CahowCam 2 burrow starting the evening of March 8th, indicating that the hatching process was starting and by the afternoon of the 9th the female briefly revealed the egg showing a “pip” indicating that the process was well under way.

This is the 9th season that LookBermuda’s Nonsuch Expeditions CahowCam Project in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources has been streaming LIVE from the underground Bermuda Petrel nesting burrows located on Nonsuch Island in Bermuda.

Should all continue to go well, viewers will be able to follow this chick right through to fledging 3 months from now and track its growth through the health checks that Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros conducts every few days. Regular followers will undoubtedly be waiting to see if “Stormy the Loneliest Petrel” a diminutive but very vocal Storm Petrel that has decided to cohabitate with the chicks in this nest over the past few years, makes his return.

Jeremy Madeiros Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer, Department of the Environment and Natural Resources:

“On Tuesday 9th March I was able to get out to Nonsuch to do another quick check of the Cahow nest sites and carry out other work. I was able to confirm that another 2 chicks had hatched on Nonsuch since the last check, bringing the total of hatched chicks there up to 12, and upon checking the CahowCam 2 nest, I was able to confirm that hatching was well underway, with the chick already having pipped the first hole through the shell. There was also good news in that the female Cahow, only recently having taken over egg incubation duties from the male bird, who had carried out a 10-day incubation "shift", still was at a good weight, meaning that she would still have good food reserves to feed the chick once it had hatched. 

 The hatching process with a Cahow is lengthy and exhausting for the chick, which can take up to 24 to 36 hours to break out of the shell. This process can sometimes be fatal for the chick, and every year we loose 1 or 2 chicks which die while hatching. As a result, we are always anxious during the lengthy chick hatch period, and by 8.40pm the chick looked like it had successfully hatched. For several hours we did not have a good look at the chick as the protective mother covered it and kept it warm until the chick's warm fur-like down had dried and it assumed its familiar "fuzzball" appearance. I was very relieved to see the chick receiving a good long first feed from its mother between 3.10am and 3.24am, and again just after 9.00am on Wednesday 10th March.

 The hatching of this chick brings the number of chicks of Bermuda's endangered National Bird on Nonsuch Island up to 13, tying our old record of  Nonsuch Cahow chicks set in 2018. Including chicks hatched on the other 4 nesting islands, almost 50 Cahow chicks have now been confirmed as hatching, and we should know the final number in the next couple of weeks.”

Hatching alert for CahowCam2 as chicks continue to hatch early throughout the Colony

All eyes are on CahowCam 2 with viewers around the world logged in to watch LIVE as if all goes well the chick is expected to hatch soon.

During the night of 8th-9th March, there began to be indications that the egg being incubated by the adult female Cahow (band no. E0172) in the CahowCam 2 nest (nest burrow no. R832) was beginning to hatch. The adult began to act "broody", looking under itself & checking the egg frequently, while partly spreading its wings, while a faint cheeping was occasionally heard...

This shows that the hatching process has probably begun, and a check of the laying date shows that the egg was laid about 51-52 days ago, so this is right about on schedule. The chick often starts peeping a few days before hatching begins, and the adult knows that hatching is imminent. 

 The chick will first go into " drawdown", then breaks through the inner membrane into the air cell inside the egg. This is called internal pipping. (Thanks to research associate Carla Marquardt for clarifying the hatching sequence). Using contractions of its neck muscles, the chick starts tapping its bill against the eggshell, with a small, horn-like structure on the end of the bill causing dimple-like punctures or cracks in the big end of the eggshell.

 This is called "external pipping", and once the chick starts to breathe external air through these dimple cracks, this encourages it to make more. This goes on until there are enough of these cracks to weaken the shell so that the chick can push against and pop off the end of the eggshell. The adult keeps the egg/chick warm during this process, which can go on for as long as 8 to 48 hours! 

 After the wet, exhausted chick finally gets out of the eggshell, the adult preens it and then broods it, so that it can rest & dry out. When the chick emerges several hours later, it has magically transformed and looks much larger with its thick layer of down now fluffed out. The adult will often feed the chick within 5 hours with the last of its own food reserves.

 After 1 to 3 days of brooding the newly hatched chick, the adult will leave it to return to sea to forage for squid, fish, and crustaceans to bring back and feed the chick. These feeding trips can last 3 to 5 days or more, covering up to several thousand miles. Both adults will devote the next 3 months to feeding the chick, often losing up to 40% of their own body weight in the process!

Elsewhere throughout the Colony, the 2021 Cahow nesting season is progressing well, with chick hatching proceeding somewhat ahead of schedule after an earlier than usual start.

Jeremy Madeiros | Lead Terrestrial Conservation Officer:

Following visits to the two eastern nesting islands on Friday 5th March, and two of the three western nesting islands on Saturday, 6th March, I can confirm that the number of hatched Cahow chicks now exceeds 40. A tenth Cahow chick was confirmed as having hatched on Nonsuch Island, with another egg in the process of hatching, and three more viable eggs still being incubated. Meanwhile, on Horn Rock, a total of 16 hatched chicks were confirmed on Saturday, with 9 more viable eggs still being incubated. The other chicks are spread out between three other nesting islands.

A good number of eggs are still being incubated by adult Cahows on all islands, and eggs can continue to hatch right up to the 18th to 21st of March, depending on how late they were laid. The first hatched chick was confirmed on the 23rd of February, one of the earlier hatchings on record. Weighing and growth measurements of hatched chicks have already been started, and I am happy to report that chicks are receiving regular feeding visits by adults, with some chicks measured today having increased from their 38 - 43 gram hatch weights to as much as 112 - 126 grams already.

We will keep everyone updated as more chicks continue to hatch; all the best, Jeremy

Record number of Cahow chicks hatching, despite CahowCam1 egg failure.

Keep watching CahowCam 2 where the egg is expected to hatch in the next few days!

The last few days of February saw a record number of early Cahow chick hatchings, with at least 15 chicks having been confirmed as hatching on the Castle Harbour Nesting Islands by the 28th of February. Normally, only 3 to 5 chicks hatch by this date, so things seem to be ahead of schedule with the Cahow breeding season. Much the same is also true with Bermuda's breeding population of White-tailed Tropicbirds, or Longtails as they are universally known in Bermuda, with literally hundreds of them visiting nest sites in the Castle Harbour Islands and elsewhere in Bermuda during the last week of February. For example, on Thursday 25th February, when I visited Nonsuch Island, 5 of the 6 artificial Tropicbird nests along the stairway leading up from the dock had Adult Tropicbirds peering warily at me from the nest entrances! In a normal year, Tropicbirds are not normally visiting nests until mid to late March, so things are definitely running early with both species.

This has had the effect of having to rush to finish re-installing the entrance baffles on all Cahow nests that prevent the more aggressive Tropicbirds; from invading and taking over the nests, and killing the chicks. In the earliest years of the Cahow recovery program, almost 75% of Cahow chicks were being killed by Tropicbirds during nest invasions. Since the baffles were developed, with specially sized entrances that allow the slightly smaller Cahows to enter but keep the larger Tropicbirds out, there have been almost no chick deaths due to this cause. These baffles are taken out during the first stage of the breeding season, when the Tropicbirds are still out at sea, to make it easier for returning young Cahows to prospect for and find nests, and also to allow the female birds carrying large eggs on the verge of laying to enter the nests without restriction.

Last week, we were able to confirm what we had suspected for some time, that the egg in the CahowCam 1 nest on Nonsuch Island had failed and will not be hatching this year. Although this may be upsetting for some people, most pairs of Cahows only successfully produce chicks every other year, so as this pair did successfully produce a chick (named "Nemo") in 2020, they are about average in their breeding success rate. At present, the egg being incubated in the CahowCam 2 nest is fertile and developing well, and should hopefully be hatching in the next 7-10 days. On Friday 5th March, I finished installing the entrance baffles, after which I carried out quick nest checks on Nonsuch Island and a couple of the other nesting islands. I was overjoyed to record 9 Cahow chicks already having hatched at the "A" Cahow nesting colony on Nonsuch, with several more eggs still being incubated by adult birds. (I did not have time to check the second, "B" colony site on Nonsuch, so we may also have 1 or 2 chicks there as well).

Overall, almost 30 chicks have already hatched on all nesting islands, so in the next two weeks, as hatching continues, we should know the total number of Cahow chicks produced this year by the breeding population. At the moment, it looks like there is still a good chance of beating the record of 73 successfully fledged chicks produced in 2019.

Jeremy Madeiros | Principle Scientist - Terrestrial Conservation |Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources

Last few days to participate in the BOPP Ocean Use Survey!

If you would like to provide input towards the future use and protection of our marine environment, please complete the BOPP survey by Monday the 15th.

The Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme (BOPP) is conducting an Ocean Use Survey and is inviting the public to participate by using an online tool to identify areas of importance and what activities are undertaken in, on and around Bermuda’s ocean. Bermudians are encouraged to share where they fish, where they surf, where they dive, and even their favorite ocean view. This data will help BOPP understand important areas for conservation, fishing, and recreation and will be combined with other data sets to inform the Marine Spatial Plan. This survey has been open since last fall and is on-going until its conclusion on February 15th, 2021.  The survey can be found at: https://www.bermudaoceanprosperity.org/oceanusesurvey

Marine Spatial Planning is a public process that uses spatial information about natural resources and human uses to develop a comprehensive management system to maximize human and environmental wellbeing. BOPP will combine the Ocean Use Survey data with ecological data like coral cover, fish species density, water quality, and existing marine protected areas, along with information on transportation like shipping lanes. These data will then be measured against the Principals, Goals, and Objectives developed by the BOPP Steering Committee and stakeholder groups. This modeling process will develop several plans that will be presented to the Steering Committee, stakeholders, and the public for review and discussion.

Stakeholder engagement is a critical component to the success of the Programme: It is important that we hear from you about what kind of future you wish to see for Bermuda. BOPP Site Manager Cheryl-Ann Mapp and Communications Coordinator Weldon Wade, along with other Programme leaders, will continue to engage stakeholders and connect with communities throughout the process to further share BOPP’s mission, answer questions, and ensure every voice is heard.

 About BOPP

BOPP is an inclusive initiative to support sustainable growth of our ocean economies while maintaining the health of the ocean from now into the future. Lead by the Government of Bermuda, in collaboration with the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Waitt Institute, this partnership has vowed to identify sustainable economic growth possibilities for ocean industries like fishing and tourism, as well as create a binding marine spatial plan to sustainably manage Bermuda’s ocean environment. The partnership also commits to preserving 90,000 square kilometers (50,000 square miles) of Bermuda’s waters as fully protected areas in order to support ocean livelihoods well into the future.

Get involved:

Website: https://www.bermudaoceanprosperity.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BermudaOceanProsperity/

Instagram: @BermudaOceanProsperity

Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCv0Ef5KIcG6vtOfSCOGnE4g

Shadow the 2017 CahowCam 1 chick has returned and found a mate!

Whilst conducting nest checks this week, in a previously unoccupied burrow Jeremy found a new pair and when he checked the band numbers he identified the male as “Shadow” the CahowCam 1 chick from 2017!

This burrow is 30ft up the hill from CahowCam 1 burrow from which he fledged, further reinforcing Jeremy’s observation and theory that the male Cahows are more likely to return to their original nesting colony than the females which are often times found on neighboring island colonies.

This trait may have saved the species from what could have been catastrophic in-breeding especially during the several hundred years that they were thought extinct when they numbered no more then a few dozen pairs breeding on a few small islands…

Record Breaking Cahow Nesting Season Underway

“This year, it looks like the number of breeding pairs (those that have produced an egg, whether it hatches or not) has increased to 142, a new record high, up from 135 pairs in 2020. On Nonsuch Island, the number of breeding pairs at the two nesting colonies increased from 23 in 2020 to 26 in 2021”

Report from Jeremy Madeiros | Principle Scientist - Terrestrial Conservation | Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources | BERMUDA

January 2021 has so far been unusually windy and stormy, with frequent weather fronts and winter storm systems forming off the east coast of North America and sweeping out to sea towards the Bermuda area. These have been bringing unusually heavy rain and strong to gale force winds, sometimes two to three times a week. Although this has made it difficult to get out to Nonsuch and the other offshore islands that are the sole breeding grounds of the Cahow, it has been good for the birds themselves, as the strong winds provide free energy to enable them to travel to and from their distant feeding grounds.

Therefore, on Wednesday morning (20th January), when winds finally dropped to 10 - 15 knots before the next onrushing weather system blew into the area, I decided to drop everything and go in the work boat from Flatts Inlet approximately 8 miles to Nonsuch island, on the southeast side of Bermuda, where I was able to carry out a complete check of all nesting burrows. As it turned out, I only had four hours to carry out the check before having to hurriedly leave Nonsuch and beat my way back across Castle Harbour and down North Shore in winds that had already increased to near gale-force. This is definitely not recommended in a 17' open Boston Whaler, or any other small craft for that matter! I arrived back to safety at Flatts Inlet, soaked but happy that I was able to carry out the check in the brief window of time available

The check confirmed that as of the 20th January, essentially all of the breeding Cahows have now returned, laid their eggs, and started incubation of them. This year, it looks like the number of breeding pairs (those that have produced an egg, whether it hatches or not) has increased to 142, a new record high number, up from 135 pairs in 2020. On Nonsuch Island, the number of breeding pairs at the two nesting colonies there increased from 23 in 2020 to 26 in 2021, in addition to two more pairs that established, built nests, but did not produce eggs (these pairs will probably produce their first eggs next year), and three additional nests that were being prospected by young returning Cahows. These Nonsuch colonies were established by two separate 5-year projects, involving the translocation of near-fledged chicks from the original small nesting islands to artificial burrows, where they were hand-fed daily and allowed to imprint on the new location, returning to their point of departure when they matured in 3 to 5 years.

One final surprise arising from this check was the confirmation that the male bird in one of the new pairs on Nonsuch was a bird that we had very much seen before - when I took the bird out from the nest to check its weight and band number, I was able to confirm that I had banded it as a chick in the CahowCam 1 (R831) nest burrow in 2017, and that it had been named "Shadow" by JP Rouja's daughter Sophie on June 1st of that year. So welcome back, Shadow, after three and a half years of living out on the open Atlantic Ocean!

So, overall, things are looking well for this year's nesting season, but with more strong winds predicted, it will be several days before I can go out again to start candling the eggs to see how many are fertile and likely to hatch in 50 to 55 days.

CahowCam 1 Pair Return and lay egg > Watch VIDEO REPLAY

As followers from around the World watched LIVE, the male from the underground CahowCam 1 burrow returned at 6:25 pm on January 9th.

Amazingly, despite having been apart, at sea, for over 2 months he was able to coordinate with his mate which arrived less than 4 hours later at 10:20 pm.

As Jeremy had predicted the day before, she then laid her single egg within the hour, revealing it to our online viewers by 11:24 pm

They spent the next few hours alopreening and adjusting the nest before she left at 3:24 am, leaving her mate alone to incubate the egg for the first few weeks whilst she recuperates at sea.

Here is a REPLAY of the nights activities:

If all goes well the egg should hatch around the beginning of March, followed by 3 months of feeding trips, which can cover hundreds to thousands of miles as the parents seek out cold water fish, shrimp and squid north of the Gulf Stream.

All of this and more can be watched LIVE

Report from Jeremy Madeiros, Principle Scientist - Terrestrial Conservation Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources:

"The 2020 breeding season of Bermuda's National Bird, the Cahow, has now kicked into high gear, as the adult birds have been returning over the last week to lay their single eggs after spending the last 5 to 6 weeks out at sea. The birds feed intensively during this period, enabling the females to develop an egg which can reach over 20% of her total body mass, and the males to pack on fat deposits in preparation for incubation of the egg.

In nest checks that I carried out on Tuesday 5th January and Friday 8th January, it was determined that more than half of the Cahows in the breeding population have now returned to their nest burrows on several of the Castle Harbour Islands, the only location on Earth where the Cahow breeds. Measurements carried out on the returned birds show that for the second year in a row, the birds are at very healthy, near-record weights for the beginning of egg incubation, with some males recorded at over 500 grams. This indicates that they have been able to find plenty of foot items during the last month at sea, which is a good sign for the chicks when they hatch in early to mid-March.

All signs point to a record number of breeding pairs of Cahows this year. When the Cahow was first rediscovered in 1951, after being thought extinct for over 300 years, there were only 17 to 18 nesting pairs. Following intensive management since 1960, and the establishment of new nesting colonies on the larger Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve, this number had increased to a record 134 nesting pairs in 2020, and indications are that the total number this year may be more than 140 pairs. This is still a tiny overall population, with the Cahow remaining one of the rarest seabird species on the planet, being listed as critically endangered."

This the 9th Season of LookBermuda’s Nonsuch Expeditions CahowCam project, in partnership with the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources and more recently the Cornell Lab of Ornithology with over 40 million minutes of CahowCam video being watched over that period.

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.