Latest Green Island nest check shows record fertility rates > watch extended video

Nonsuch Expeditions founder J-P Rouja: “Watch a video of the latest Green Island nest check filmed on January 31st, where 8 out of the 11 nests that we checked that day were found to have fertile eggs!

This is well above average for this colony, and follows a similar trend for the larger Nonsuch and Horn Rock colonies, boding well for the 2023/24 nesting season!

The wetter and stormier than usual weather patterns in 2023 (which was the wettest on record for Bermuda) and into 2024 have limited our access to the islands, however, these same conditions seem to be beneficial to the Cahows, so we are not complaining :)”

Watch the extended Green Island nest check video above:

Never say never - if you are a Cahow - A Big surprise for CahowCam2

JP and I were able to get out on the Cahow breeding grounds on the Castle Harbour Islands yesterday, (31st January 2024), as conditions were perfect with easterly winds at just 6 to 9 knots, with the forecast for the next few days being strong winds gusting to gale-force. What a difference a day makes, as 24 hours later we have recorded winds at 51 to 64 knots (49 to 75 mph) at the west end of Bermuda, and I just lost my power about 30 minutes ago!

During yesterday's check, the calm conditions finally enabled us to land on Green Island, which has been imposible to land on for the whole month due to strong winds, rough seas and adverse tides. Expecting the worse, I was happily surprised by a high percentage of nests with Cahows incubating fertile eggs. Although I only had time to check about half the nests on the island, out of 12 nests checked, 8 of them contained fertile eggs that were being incubated by adult birds. This is the highest breeding success rates confirmed on this island at this stage in 16 years.

Over on Nonsuch, we had a real surprise with the CahowCam 2 (R832) nest. The longtime male Cahow claiming this nest recently lost his partner and mate of 14 years, who did not return for the courtship stage of the current nesting season in October & November 2023. However, in late November, a new young female Cahow started entering the nest, and the male, after initial hostility eventually accepted her, with the pair observed mating and resting together, before separately heading back out to sea for the month of December as is the norm for all Cahows.

As a result, we were waiting to see her back to lay her 1st egg in early January (eggs are usually laid between the 1st and 15th of January, (with the latest date recorded around the 22nd Jan). As of my last check on the 24th she still had not returned and as a result, we had given up hope of seeing the female lay her first egg this season. Imagine our surprise when i checked the CahowCam 2 nest on the 31st of January and found the male bird incubating a recently laid egg! When JP checked the camera logs (the CahowCam live-streaming network is still facing challenges, however, the system JP developed is still archiving recordings on Nonsuch), we were able to determine that the female had returned on the night of the 26th/27th of January to lay her first egg (see replay video), the latest egg-laying date that I have ever recorded. This was probably due to the pair not getting together until the latter half of November.

As we are grounded for the next few days as this strong storm system moves through the Bermuda area, I am left once again with a deep respect for the natural toughness of the Cahow and it's ability to survive the most adverse weather conditions. And while I have been writing this update, my power has come back on, although the gale continúes to rage outside. I also checked my rain gauge and found that we have recorded 3.92 inches of rainfall in a 14-hour period between 1.00am this morning and 3.00pm this afternoon. I am very glad that I am not out at sea or on those tiny nesting islands in these conditions!

Jeremy Madeiros Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer

Good and bad news for the CahowCam pairs, whilst Nonsuch colonies are on track for record year.

“As of Jan 23rd, essentially all Cahows have returned from their pre-egg laying exodus and have laid their eggs in their underground nest burrows on the half-dozen small islands in the Castle Harbour area, with the exception of a couple of nests where the male birds have returned but are still waiting for the return of their mates.

For the two "CahowCam" nest burrows on Nonsuch, which are fitted with infrared live-stream video cameras, there is mixed news:

In "CahowCam 1" (the R832 nest burrow), the Female returned at 11.05pm on the night of the 6th of January 2024, laying its egg an hour later at 12.05am on the 7th of January. The male bird in this highly synchronized pair returned less than 2 hours later by 1.49 am. This pair laid an unusually large egg, weighing 62 grams and measuring 62.7mm by 42.54mm. It first showed signs of fertility on 12th January, which was confirmed by the 15th of January. At the last check on 23rd January, the embryo appeared to be developing normally. This Cahow pair, consisting of the male (band no. E0197) and female (band no. E0212), started nesting together in 2010, and in 14 years have produced 7 successfully fledging chicks. 

In the "CahowCam 2 (R832 nest burrow), it has been a sadder story as the male bird (band no. E0174) appears to have lost his long-term partner and mate (band no. E0172). This pair, which also started nesting together in 2010, has been one of the more successful nesting pairs that I have monitored over an extended period of time, produced an amazing 12 successfully fledged chicks in 14 years of nesting together (several of which have been confirmed as already returning and establishing new nests on Nonsuch and Long Rock). The female had already shown herself to be a resilient bird, suffering a severe foot injury in 2019 which healed enough for her to raise another 3 chicks, but it appears that something happened to her at sea between June and October 2023.

It is always sad to lose a member of a successful pair. I had translocated all 4 of the birds that ended up settling in the 2 CahowCam nests in 2005 and 2006, from the 4 tiny original nesting islets as near-fledged chicks to artificial nests on Nonsuch (included in the 100+ chicks from the 1st Translocation Program that I initiated after taking over as Warden). As part of the Program, I then hand-fed them for 2 to 3 weeks, and allowed them to imprint on and fledge from their new "adopted" home on Nonsuch, to which 51 eventually returned and paired up 4 to 5 years later (including these 4) in artificial nests usually right next to the ones they originally fledged from.

Despite the ongoing Live-Streaming connectivity challenges that are out of our control (ISP and shore-based receiver issues which are being addressed by Nonsuch Expeditions founder and CahowCam developer Jean-Pierre Rouja), the cameras are still archivaly recording on the island which allowed us this past November to observe as the Cam2 male waited in vain for his mate to return. As it became obvious that she was not returning, another young female Cahow (band no. E0643), which had fledged as a chick from the C19 nest on nearby Horn Rock and was obviously looking for an eligible bachelor male, started visiting the male in his burrow on the 9th November. Despite originally aggressively spurning her advances, he eventually accepted her and they were seen to be mating and resting together in the nest. The male returned in mid-January, and as of the writing of this update was still waiting for the return of his (hopefully) new mate.

Overall, at the Nonsuch nesting colonies, Cahows have returned to all 39 of the active nest burrows on Nonsuch Island, up from the first pair of returned translocated birds in 2009. This was the first time that Cahows had nested on Nonsuch since they were wiped out there in the 1620s through hunting by the early colonists and introduced mammal predators, now eliminated on Nonsuch. With the help of Carla Marquardt, who has experience with the candling of eggs to determine fertility and the rate of development of the embryos, we have been able to determine that out of these 39 nests, as of the 23rd January 2 had males still waiting for the return of their mates, 2 had confirmed failed eggs/nesting, 25 had confirmed fertile eggs being incubated with developing embryos, and 10 had eggs that were either too recently laid to detect a viable embryo yet (it takes 4 to 5 days after laying before the embryo can be detected), or were probably infertile.

In between a near-continual barrage of strong winds and rough sea conditions since the beginning of the year, I have also been able to visit two of the other nesting islands in the last couple of weeks to determine which nests there also contain fertile eggs and which have failed. Once I have had a chance to visit all nesting islands, I will have a good idea of just how many fertile eggs there are in the whole breeding population, and we will be duly reporting these numbers in a future update.”

Jeremy Madeiros | Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer

Jan 7 2024 Nonsuch Cahow Colony Update

Jeremy Madeiros, Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer: "The 2024 breeding season of the Bermuda petrel or Cahow, which is critically endangered, one of the rarest seabirds on Earth, and nests only on Bermuda, has entered what is arguably it's most exciting phase, with the return of the breeding pairs to lay and begin incubation of their single eggs.

This breeding season actually began in late October and November, 2023, with the birds returning to their nest burrows on 6 small islands totaling only 22.4 acres in area at the east end of Bermuda, to re-unite after 6 months apart at sea, carry out courtship and nest-building activity and mate, and then fly out to sea for 4 to 6 weeks on what is called a "pre-egg laying exodus". They then return at the beginning of January, often arriving within hours of each other back at their nest burrows.

The weather conditions so far this winter has been unusually wet and windy, only enabling visits to the Castle Harbour Islands possible on 1 or 2 days of each week in between weather systems and the strong to gale-force winds that they often bring. Luckily, brief gaps between storm systems allowed us to visit the nesting islands twice in the last few days. On Thursday 4th January, I was able to visit Nonsuch Island with J.P. Rouja to check the Cahow nests at the "A" Cahow colony, where we confirmed that Cahows had returned to 4 nest burrows. In two burrows (R819 and R821) single adult Cahows were incubating the first confirmed eggs of the season, while in two other nests (R833 and R834) pairs of adult Cahows were together in the nests but had not produced eggs as of yet.

On Saturday 6th January, we were joined by Lynne Thorne, who assisted us in taking notes and photographs. We were able to confirm that Cahows had returned to two more nest burrows at the A colony, the R822 nest where the female adult was incubating a newly laid egg, and at the R829 nest, where the male bird was also incubating an egg, which is the first one produced by this new nesting pair, which only got together in early 2023. In addition, returned Cahows were also found in two nests at the second, "B" Cahow nesting colony on Nonsuch, a single recently returned young Cahow in the B8 nest, and the other a male adult incubating an egg (also the first egg produced by this new pair), that when it was candled with a flashlight, revealed a developing embryo that appeared to be about 7 to 8 days old (see attached photos).

Finally, on the night of the 6th-7th January, the female Cahow using the CahowCam 1 (R831) nest burrow returned from the open sea to the nest, captured by the livestream video camera installed there. After arriving at 11.05pm and spending the next hour re-arranging the nest material, the female laid her large, single egg at 12.05am, and promptly begin incubating the egg. Then, as to emphasize how well-synchronized these birds are after being separated by hundreds of miles at sea for the last 5 weeks, the male bird arrived at the nest at about 1,49am, with the birds mutually preening each other (known as allopreening) and the male trying to convince the female to relinquish the egg so he could begin his incubation "shift".

For the moment, he has been unable to convince her as of yet and the female was still incubating the egg!

This brings to 9 the number of Cahow nests on Nonsuch Island with returned Cahow as of the 7th January, out of a total of 40 on the island. We will be reporting on the progress of the 2024 Cahow breeding season as we are able to get out in the continuing stormy weather pattern.

The egg has been laid in the CahowCam1 Burrow!

January 7th 2024 @12:05 am We have an egg in the CahowCam1 burrow!

On the night of the 6th-th January, the female Cahow using the CahowCam 1 (R831) nest burrow returned from the open sea to the nest, captured by the livestream video camera installed there. After arriving at 11.05pm and spending the next hour re-arranging the nest material, the female laid her large, single egg at 12.05am, and promptly begin incubating the egg. Then, as to emphasize how well-synchronized these birds are after being separated by hundreds of miles at sea for the last 5 weeks, the male bird arrived at the nest at about 1,49am, with the birds mutually preening each other (known as allopreening) and the male trying to convince the female to relinquish the egg so he could begin his incubation "shift".

Jeremy Madeiros, Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer:

A Stormy Start for the 2024 Cahow Nesting Season

The CahowCam1 pair are back (watch the LiveStream here) for the official start of the 2024 Cahow nestin season.

Colony Update from Jeremy Madeiros: “The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season has been a busy one for Bermuda, with 2 Hurricanes and a Tropical Storm coming close enough to affect the island with strong winds and high storm waves and surge. The strongest of these has been hurricane "Lee" on September 14th, which passed 146 miles west of Bermuda and affected the island with winds gusting at 120 - 132Kph (75 - 82 mph) and waves on the South Coast at 6 - 8 meters (20 - 25 feet). Luckily, there have been no direct hits, and only a minor amount of damage was caused to Cahow nest burrows on the smaller exposed nesting islets, involving the replacement of one concrete nest lid washed overboard, minor damage to the entrances of 2 concrete artificial nest burrows, and clearing of stones and other debris washed into the nests by waves on two of the lowest elevated islets. The largest nesting colonies on Horn Rock and Nonsuch Island were relatively unaffected.

As we move into late October, the return of the Cahow breeding population from their non-nesting season in the central Atlantic is well under way, although the almost incessant strong winds, heavy rains and frequent hurricane, tropical storm and small craft warnings have only allowed visits to the islands on 1 or 2 days a week for the entire month. Coupled with my other administrative duties, management of onshore Nature Reserves and responsibilities, this has meant that some weeks I have not been able to get out in my little 17' Boston Whaler boat at all, which has been the case for much of the year. However, on the 19th October I was able to get out to Nonsuch Island to help release 2 late Tropicbird (Longtail) chicks which had been rescued by members of the public after being washed out of their nests during hurricane "Lee" and rehabilitated and raised by licensed wildlife rehabilitator Lynn Thorne. After both chicks were successfully released by Lynn and flew out to sea, I checked the "A" Cahow nesting colony on Nonsuch and was able to confirm that the first Cahows had already returned to their underground nest burrows. 

3 adult Cahows were found and briefly removed from their burrows to check their body condition, weight and their band (ring) number, which allows identification of individual birds, as 90% of Cahows have been banded as chicks while still in their nests for over 20 years now. A Cahow found in the R825 nest (band no. E0623) turned out to be a First-return young adult, banded as a chick in the Inner Pear Rock B9 nest in 2018 and now returning to the nesting grounds in Bermuda for the first time since fledging. In addition, in the R833 nest the female E0215 Cahow had returned to the nest she has shared with her mate since they began nesting here in 2012. And finally, the male E0577 Cahow had just returned to the R841 nest which it has first occupied with its mate in 2022. This bird has additional meaning for JP Rouja and me as it fledged from the CahowCam 1 (R831) nest in 2017 and was named "Shadow" by J.P.s daughter Sophie!

On the 23rd October, I was able to get out to Nonsuch for a couple of hours following meetings and confirmed that more Cahows were taking advantage of the continued rough, breezy conditions to return. At the "B' Cahow colony, although at least 3 nests had been visited, only 1 adult Cahow, the male C0894 bird from the B1 nest, had stayed over in the nest for the day. Over at the "A" Cahow colony, at least another 7 nests had returned Cahows in residence, although time restraints only enabled me to check the birds in a few of them. One of these was the R817 nest, where the E0162 male Cahow , which has been nesting since 2011, had returned. Another was the CahowCam 1 nest (nest no. R831), where both adult Cahows were together in the nest. Both birds were in good physical condition, with the male E0197 bird a healthy 375 grams and the female E0212 bird almost as heavy at 373 grams. This pair has nested together in this nest since 2010 and has produced 7 successfully fledging chicks in that time. They have a long record of nesting successfully one year, then failing the next, and as they failed earlier this year, hopefully this means that this nesting season that they will be successful again! As repairs and re-positioning of the CahowCams and the live-stream antennas have been completed, JP has been working hard to get them up and running hopefully in the next couple of days, so that we can again follow the exploits of the committed Cahow couple in this and the other, CahowCam 2 nest!

Further updates will be coming; all the best, Jeremy"

Passage of Hurricane Lee

Update Sept 15th @ 5:30 am: Hurricane Lee passed 140 miles to the west of Bermuda during the night, however the windfield was so wide that we still were impacted by periods of hurricane-force winds. We have also been subject to days of 20+ft waves from the South that continue to impact Nonsuch and the smaller Cahow nesting islands, stay tuned for a report once it is safe to venture out on the water. There will undoubtedly be the need for emergency repairs to the burrows prior to the Cahows returning in mid-October / November for their fall courtship period.

Sept 12th: For the third time in just over two weeks, Bermuda is due to feel the effects of a Hurricane or Tropical Storm, so here we go again.

After hurricane "Franklin" passed about 130 miles to the northwest as a 90-knot (105mph) storm on the 30th August, giving winds on the island of 50-60 knots, then Post-Tropical Cyclone "Idalia" after hitting Florida and the Southeast United States, curved back out into the Atlantic and eventually on the 2nd September passed only 36 miles south of Bermuda as a 50-knot storm again producing winds of 50 to 60 knots.

Here we are again on September 12th, watching the approach of a large, strong Category 3 hurricane "Lee" with sustained 115 mph winds and a much larger wind field than the previous storms. At present about 450 miles south of Bermuda, it is still moving west-northwest, which should take it about 150 miles west of Bermuda on late Thursday night and Friday morning.

Large, growing ocean swell has already been pounding the south coastline for two days, predicted to increase to 16' to 28' by late Thursday (watch the above LiveStream from Nonsuch Cahow Colony A). Sounds like I may have some nest repair work to tackle on the smaller Cahow nesting islets before the return of the Cahow population from the open ocean in mid to late October.

The photograph is a capture from 8pm local time today showing the hurricane and its central eye looming into view at the bottom, while Bermuda is the tiny 21-mile-long yellow dot on the upper fringe of the storm. We already have the high cirrus "exhaust" overcast of the storm overhead, which gave us a lurid red sunrise this morning ("red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning" comes to mind) and a distinct halo around the sun for much of the day. Hopefully, the forecasters have it right and the hurricane will go further west before it makes its anticipated turn to the north.

Fingers crossed!

Review of 2023 Cahow Nesting Season

Jeremy Madeiros > September 2023 “I am reviewing the 2023 Bermuda Petrel (Cahow) nesting season to write my annual report for the Management Program for the species, so it seems like a good idea to review this year's nesting season of Bermuda's critically endangered National Bird.

In 1960, the entire population of Cahow consisted of 17 - 18 breeding pairs that produced a combined total of 7 - 8 successfully fledged chicks annually. These nested on 4 tiny, isolated islets with a combined area of only 2.4 acres.

In 2023, we reached a new record number of 164 breeding pairs with 76 successfully fledged chicks, nesting on 6 islands (including Nonsuch Island) totaling 22.5 acres. The 2 nesting colonies on Nonsuch, established in 2 projects involving the translocation of chicks from the original islets to artificial burrows on Nonsuch and hand-fed on Squid and Anchovies until they imprinted on their new site and fledged out to sea, are increasing the fastest, having risen from the original pair of returned translocated birds, that produced their first chick in 2009, to nearly 40 breeding pairs producing 19 successfully fledged chicks in 2023.

This year was also noteworthy in having Cahows dig and successfully raise a chick in the first natural soil burrow (all other nest burrows on Nonsuch are concrete or plastic artificial nests) on Nonsuch Island since the 1620s, as far as records show.

We are just waiting to see if hurricane "Lee" causes any damage to nests on the small original half-acre nesting islands, as the 10' to 12' storm waves already pounding the coastline are on the verge of overwashing the lowest of these. By Thursday night, when the storm is at its closest (presently forecast at 150 miles), waves outside the reef are forecast to reach 16' to 28', although the hurricane itself will hopefully be loosing strength by then. Any damage on these smaller islets will need to be repaired before the Cahows return for their next breeding season in late October (they are still safely out in mid-ocean where they have the room to fly around these storms).

This will be the 3rd tropical system to affect Bermuda in the last 2 weeks, and to be honest, it would be great to catch a break for the rest of hurricane season!”

Bada the 2023 CahowCam2 chick has Fledged!

At 1:18 am, on the June the 11th, after 4 nights of exercising and imprinting on her surroundings, “Bada” the 2023 CahowCam Star fledged!

Stay Tuned for video replays and her last Health Check video.

For World Oceans Day celebrate the imminent fledging of "Bada" the CahowCam2 chick!

In Celebration of World Oceans Day, we have named this year’s CahowCam2 chick “Bada”, for the Korean word The Sea / Ocean.

She is expected to fledge prior to the 10th, and has already started exercising outside of her burrow at night as seen in the video below from the 4th of June.

Tune in over the next few nights as the Team aim to LiveStream her movements around the Colony with the remote SurfaceCam, and if lucky you will witness her launch into her first flight, from which she will return should all go well in 3 to 6 years, never having touched land in the interim!

Watch the LiveStream Here

The CahowCam2 star, is expected to fledge by June 10th.

The 2023 CahowCam2 star is on track to fledge around June 10th and will start its nightly excursions outside the burrow in the next few nights. During its May 30th health check, (as seen in the video below) Jeremy found that its weight and wing chord growth were progressing perfectly for a chick of its age and should reach the optimum ratios for fledging within the next few days, not to touch land again, until it returns should all go well, in 3 to 5 years!

During the nesting season, especially when food is abundant and the foraging locations are closer than usual, (as appears to be the case this year) the parents will often feed the chicks so much that their weight after feeding visits can exceed 450 grams. The chicks must then drop the excess weight, converting it to muscle and feathers to get down to an optimal range of 265-300 grams for fledging, and the parents will often abandon them in the last week to help this happen.

In parallel the chick’s wing chord length (the distance from their wrist joint to wing tip) should reach at least 255 mm. The wing growth rate of a healthy chick increases by 1cm (10mm) every 2 days, reaching the 255-275mm range just prior to fledging, which along with its weight, is used by Jeremy to track and predict the eventual fledging dates. Over the past few seasons we have found this to be quite accurate.

Also just prior to fledging, Jeremy uses bill length measurements to estimate the sex of the bird, without the need of invasive bloodwork, which when checked after they return a few years later for breeding, is proving to be 95% accurate.

Watch the LiveStreams at night over the next week, and if lucky will witness our star fledge.

Its Cahow fledging time on Nonsuch once again!

The older Cahow chicks are fledging out to sea after their 12 to 14-week developmental period in their nest burrows on the Castle Harbour Islands, Bermuda. (Watch the LiveStreams here.)

They will not return to the nesting sites on 6 small islands in Castle Harbour for 3 to 6 years (2026 to 2029!) to establish new nest burrows and choose mates, which, generally being monogamous, they will stay with for the next 30 to 40+ years.

Out of a total of 73 chicks at all nesting colonies in 2023, a record number of 19 were produced at the 2 new translocation-established nesting colonies on Nonsuch Island. As of May 31st, 7 of the 19 have already fledged from Nonsuch, 5 are in their pre-fledging exercise period, with another 7 due to fledge by mid-June.

In the video below, watch as a chick exercises in the Nonsuch A Colony whilst imprinting on its surroundings.

Free Lecture On Bermuda Cahow Reference Genome Project

“The Nonsuch Expeditions and CariGenetics are inviting members of the community to a public lecture with a twist! On Saturday, 20 May 2023, we will be hosting our first relay public lecture, where each set of presenters speak for 15 minutes, offering the audience insight into the Bermuda Cahow Genome Project. The lecture begins at 2pm.

“Leading off the lecture is Jason Howard, Scientist at MiRXES and a former program co-ordinator for Bird 10K Project and Vertebrate Genome Project at Duke & Rockefeller University. Jason will be providing the global context to petrel genetic work.”

“Next will be the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Jeremy Madeiros, who will be discussing the local context to cahow conservation work on the island and the collection of the samples for the Cahow Genome Project.”

“The third leg of the lecture will feature Dr Carika Weldon and Tahdaé Tucker of CariGenetics; they will be discussing the birth of the Cahow Genome Project and data generation steps.”

“Professor Miten Jain of NorthEastern University and Karamoko Dickens of Conci will be rounding out the discussion as they talk about the data analysis steps that led to genome assembly and how local capacity for bioinformatics has been established.”

“This lecture is free to the public and will take place at the Bermuda College in North Hall Lecture Theatre G301.”

“To follow cahow facts and insights leading up to the relay lecture, follow CariGenetics on all social media platforms.”

The Nonsuch Expeditions contribute to the Bermuda Cahow Reference Genome Project

As part of the ongoing Bermuda Petrel BioMonitoring Project, the Nonsuch Expeditions Team and its Global Partners led by Letizia Campioni, are proud to be contributing to, and collaborating on, the Bermuda Cahow Reference Genome Project with CariGenetics. Be sure to join us for a talk on Saturday May 20th at the Bermuda College.

Nonsuch Expeditions partners with the Endeavour No Limits Program For Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day 2023, Endeavour has partnered with JP Rouja, Founder of Nonsuch Expeditions and Jeremy Madeiros, Chief Terrestrial Officer for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for an experience of a lifetime for students and teachers from The Berkeley Institute and Dellwood Middle School, as part of the BF&M No Limits Sailing Programme which engages students on the autism spectrum in hands-on STEAM activities and sailing as recreational therapy.

As part of this experience, five students and five teachers joined Endeavour team members to take part in a marine debris beach clean up at Nonsuch Island, on Friday, April 21st as part of the Nonsuch Expeditions Message in a Bottle Ocean Plastics Project. Jeremy Madeiros also provided a special educational experience for the students to learn about and interact with Bermuda's national bird the Cahow, a pelagic seabird which means it spends most of its life out on the open ocean, which the group were given the special opportunity to name and chose “Captain”.

Nonsuch island is a 14-acre world renowned wildlife sanctuary, and access to the public is strictly limited. The restoration or “re-wilding” of the once barren island into a 'Living Museum of pre-colonial Bermuda' is the lifetime work of now retired Bermudian ornithologist and conservationist David B. Wingate and now his predecessor Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros, and part of their efforts is to bring back from near-extinction the once plentiful, endemic nocturnal seabird, and national emblem of Bermuda, the Cahow.

Ashleigh Lowe, ASD Teacher, The Berkeley Institute said, “The students were thrilled to participate in an excursion on Nonsuch Island. Upon arrival, the students’ faces lit up when they saw the shipwreck with numerous fish swimming at the dock.”

Mr. Madeiros is a passionate storyteller who brought the island’s history to life and highlighted the significance of the island’s ecosystem. The students were highly engaged throughout the walking tour. Watching the students connect STEAM lessons from Endeavour to the activities on Nonsuch Island was incredible. Students could make connections and apply their knowledge in this new environment. Additionally, students were captivated by their rare close encounter with a Cahow chick. They learned about how Mr. Madeiros measures and takes care of their growth.

So many sensory elements from the ecosystem enabled students to become fully immersed in the Nonsuch Island expedition. It is a living classroom that provides high-quality experiential learning opportunities for students on the autism spectrum. It’s a tremendous opportunity for young people to learn about the importance of our ecosystem and how we need to take care of the environment to protect Bermuda’s local species.

Endeavour provides valuable experiential learning opportunities for Berkeley ASD students. The ASD Team at Berkeley is highly grateful for the BF&M No Limits Sailing Programme in partnership with Endeavour and its positive impact on our students.”

JP Rouja, Founder and Team Leader for Nonsuch Expeditions said, “It was a pleasure to host the students, teachers and Endeavour Team for a Nonsuch tour, and we are looking forward to working with them more in the future.”

Jennifer Pitcher, Endeavour’s Executive Director said, “We are grateful to have formed a new partnership with JP Rouja and Nonsuch Expeditions along with Jeremy Medeiros and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This memorable day enabled our BF&M No Limits sailors and their teachers to have a unique educational experience, while contributing to our efforts to build awareness for autism acceptance and the importance of taking care of our Island’s natural resources.”

Endeavour’ work with Bermuda’s youth would not be possible without the incredible support from valued donors, partners, and supporters enabling us to create a positive impact in diverse young lives across Bermuda. Special thanks to BF&M Limited and Endeavour’s founding lead sponsor, Orbis Investments, for their unwavering commitment and support of our work with Bermuda’s youth.”

Visit www.endeavour.bm to learn more about Endeavour’s experiential learning programs.

Happy Earth Day from Nonsuch Island!

Meet the 2023 Nonsuch Easter Chicks

Jeremy and the Easter Cahow chicks, Nonsuch Island Translocation Colonies A&B, April 8th 2023. Photography by Nonsuch Expeditions Founder and Team Leader Jean-Pierre Rouja.

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Nonsuch Cahow colonies break records, however, hurricanes affect success on smaller islands.

“With the recent confirmation that there is a chick being fed in the first known natural Cahow burrow (dug out completely by the birds themselves) on Nonsuch Island in over 300 years, the two Nonsuch colonies now host a record number of 19 chicks! While this is proof that the nearly 20-year Cahow Translocation Projects (Two separate projects to establish the two different nesting colonies) have been successful, recent visits to the four smaller original nesting islets indicate that hatch rates on three are significantly lower than last year.

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3 week old CahowCam 2 chick

This is partly due to erosion and flooding of these lower-lying islets during hurricanes "Earl" and "Fiona" in September 2022, which submerged many of the nest burrows under salt water from huge waves, more than 25' high. A number of nest burrows were damaged or their heavy concrete nest lids washed away, making extensive repairs necessary, especially on the worst affected islets of Green Island and Long Rock.

When nest burrows are submerged, this often reduces the following season's hatch rates, due to the rocks making up the burrows being saturated with salt. The salt is hygroscopic, absorbing moisture from the humid air and making the burrows permanently wet. It can take a couple of years for all the salt to seep out of the rocks so the burrows can dry out, improving hatch rates again.

On Nonsuch, there are now a total of 37 active breeding pairs (29 pairs at the "A" colony and 8 pairs at the "B" colony), of which 19 have been successful and produced chicks this season. In addition, there were 4 completely new prospecting pairs of young Cahows taking possession of empty artificial nest burrows, 2 each at both nesting colonies. Preparation has already begun for the construction/installation of additional artificial nest burrows to accommodate the growing Cahow population on Nonsuch Island.

Following recent surveys of all of the nesting islands, there appear to be 71-72 chicks in total for this nesting season. This is down from 2022s record number of 78 successfully fledged Cahow chicks, due largely to the after-effects of last year's two hurricane impacts.

Although this number is a bit disappointing, overall the total number of confirmed active breeding pairs of Cahows has risen to a record number of 164, indicating that overall, the Cahow breeding population continues its slow recovery from the edge of extinction."

Jeremy Madeiros | Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer.

18 confirmed Nonsuch chicks are a testament to the success of the Cahow Translocation Project

As a testament to the success of the groundbreaking Translocation project being conducted by Jeremy Madeiros and his team over the past 20 years, there are 18 confirmed chicks this year, between Nonsuch Translocation Colonies A & B. In parallel the CahowCams now in their 10th year continue to offer a view into the otherwise secretive lives of the Cahows hidden in their underground burrows. (see below)

For context, Cahows were exterminated by introduced mammal predators and hunting by the early English colonists by 1620 from Nonsuch Island and were also thought to be completely extinct throughout Bermuda (and globally) by that time.

They were not rediscovered until 1951, when only 18 breeding pairs were found nesting on 4 tiny isolated half-acre rocky islets. These were so difficult to access that they were rarely visited by humans and were so small and rocky that even predators such as rats could not survive for long. It required the development of new techniques and technology by researchers in New Zealand, Australia and the United States to enable Jeremy and his team to carry out translocation projects to re-introduce the Cahow to Nonsuch Island, which is much larger and more elevated than the original nesting islets.

The first Cahows were translocated to Nonsuch “Colony A” as chicks between 2004 and 2008, with the first of these fledged chicks returning to the island by 2008 to choose nesting burrows and attract mates. The first breeding pair nested the following year, producing the first known Cahow chick since 1620 to hatch and fledge on Nonsuch in 2009. A second translocation project moved chicks to a second site on Nonsuch between 2013 and 2017 to “Colony B”.

Since that first breeding pair and chick, in the last 14 years, the number of breeding pairs at both sites has increased to a total of 34 in 2023, with the number of confirmed chicks at a record number of 18, with a possible 19th chick in a deep natural burrow.

In addition, a total of 25 Cahow chicks were also confirmed on the 23rd March at one of the original nesting islets. Three other small nesting islets still have to be visited to confirm just how many chicks have hatched there, as conditions have generally been so rough and/or windy that safe landings have so far been impossible there.

In addition to the record number of hatched chicks at the two translocation colony sites, Nonsuch Island is also experiencing a increase in the number of returning, or prospecting nonsuch-hatched Cahows, which have spent 3 to 5 years at sea since fledging as chicks from nests on the island.

As the parent birds were translocated or moved as chicks from their original nests on the original tiny nesting islets, these "first-generation" Nonsuch-born birds are now driving the accelerating increase in the breeding colonies there and are also attracting many young Cahows originating on the original islets to pair up and nest on Nonsuch.

This may be due to the fact that the original islets have been heavily eroded and flooded by hurricane and storm events at their exposed locations near the edge of the reef line, increasingly compounded by accelerating sea-level rise, to the point where two islets may no longer be useable by Cahows in the nest 20 to 30 years. Another islet has partially collapsed due to severe hurricane erosion, and it seems like the surviving birds from these islets instinctively sense that Nonsuch is a larger, more elevated and safer place to nest and raise their single chicks.

CahowCam Observations

Prospecting Cahow interacting with 3 day-old chick.

The CahowCams now in their 10th year continue to offer a view into the otherwise secretive lives of the Cahows hidden in their underground burrows. This year for example viewers have been able to witness the ongoing interactions between the CahowCam1 pair as they continue to bond several weeks after the egg was due to hatch and now 10 days since it clearly failed and was removed from the nest.

Over in CahowCam2 we have been able to observe a younger prospecting cahow that has been visiting the nest almost nightly since the chick was only three days old. As the colony becomes more and more successful and increasing number of birds start returning before Jeremy and the team can build additional burrows for them to move into, there are going to be more and more of these interactions. It's passive-aggressive reactions with the chick hint at how easily these interactions could escalate and go wrong. These prospecting birds however will return to the open ocean by the beginning of April, leaving the chicks in peace and only being visited by the adult birds bringing food back from the open ocean on their multi-thousand-mile foraging trips.

The CahowCam2 chick is doing well

The CahowCam2 chick seen in screen captures from the Nonsuch Colony A SurfaceCam.

“I was finally able to get out briefly to Nonsuch Island on Monday, 13th March, to check out how many Cahow chicks had hatched at the two nesting colonies on the island and see if we had in fact exceeded last year's record of 15 fledged chicks. I can now report that I confirmed 18 hatched chicks on Nonsuch, with an additional "wild card" possible chick in a natural deep soil burrow dug under the roots of native Buttonwood trees at the "B" colony. (I cannot see the nest chamber to confirm a chick, and will have to see if adult visits continue until April to do so).

Most chicks have had recent feeding visits from adults, and the oldest have already increased from their hatch weight of 30-40 grams to almost 200 grams, indicating that the stormy North Atlantic Ocean is providing adequate food for the adult Cahows to gather on their multi-thousand-mile foraging trips to provision their chicks. Now, I just need a few more calmer periods to get out to the other nesting islands!”

Jeremy Madeiros, Chief Terrestrial Conservation Officer

Meanwhilst the failed egg in the CahowCam1, which if it had been fertile would have hatched in late February, ruptured whilst still being incubated by one of the parents. It then stuck to its plumage and was dragged out of the burrow with the parent retuning an hour later to rest before fully abandoning the nest the next day. This pair have on average produced a chick every other year which is on par for the species, and will now head back out to sea a few months early, which should give them more time to recharge and build up their fat reserves in time for next season.