Once, the legend prevailed that Bermuda was a place where things vanished. Nowadays,
if anything disappears, it’ll be those frown lines, as you relax into the vibe on this postcard-pretty pink-fringed island in the sun...

...But things could have been very different for this 21 squaremile island covered in sherbet coloured houses and awash with oldschool British elegance, a place where locals pass you in the street and call out “Good morning” or “Good evening ”. It could have been “Buenos días” or “Buenas noches”, for the first recorded European explorer to land on Bermuda was Spanish. Captain Juan de Bermúdez discovered the island in 1503. However, it’s said that, due to the island’s massive population of the now critically endangered cahow bird—a nocturnal creature whose elaborate aerial mating dance and screeches happen in the dead of night—Bermúdez and his amigos thought the island was haunted. They named it the Devil’s isle, and chose not to settle on the island...

...Meanwhile, over on the other side of the island, something equally special takes place. Within Castle Harbour Nature Reserve is Nonsuch Island, where a conservation miracle is happening. The cahow bird, which produces just one egg per pair, per year, and nests in under- ground burrows, was thought to be ex- tinct thanks to man’s introduction of animals (including dogs and pigs) to the island since colonization in 1609. How- ever, in the 1950s, 17 breeding pairs were discovered on a tiny outcrop of islets and, since then, thanks to the dedicated work of Dr David Wingate and now Jeremy Madeiros, this Lazarus species has risen to a population of over 300. Thanks, also, to cameraman Jean-Pierre Rouja’s invention of a military-grade night-vision camera nicknamed the CahowCam, the hatching of this amazing species is watched all over the world by schoolchildren and scientists alike...