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.