On January 23rd Jeremy and JP were finally able to get out to Nonsuch and get a second look a the CahowCam2 egg; the Good News is that it is viable, the Bad News is that we have identified a problem…
This particular pair successfully fledge a chick every other year giving a 50% success rate, which is the average for the species, with failures and losses occurring for a number of reasons… However in their case the CahowCam1 LiveStream through which they have been observed for the past 14 seasons has shown that they regularly fight over who gets to take on the incubation, at times quite aggressively, and in doing so sometimes accidentally damage the egg shell, and which may also contribute to the failure of the embryo even when there is no obvious damage to the shell.
Egg shell damage was the cause last year when the egg in this same nest failed due to a “dimple” dent that Jeremy tried to rescue using a coat of clear nail-poilsh (a trick learned from captive breeding programs) which works 50% of the time for Cahows. This year we once again have a dimple which Jeremy can be seen treating in the attached video, however as this one is smaller, and was treated early, there is still hope that they will be successful this year.
Jeremey, JP and the online followers were already concerned this season after a several hour very aggressive battle occured on January 9th when an unknown male fought with the resident female for control of the egg before giving up and flying away before sunrise. We are on the fence as to whether or not this was the resident male, however the following night he did return and the pair resumed their traditional passive-aggressive incubation arguments with her remaining with him for the following 5 nights before finally departing for her well deserved recharging period back out at sea. Cahow females generally leave within hours of their mates return as they urgently need to recover from egg-laying, however as she is the largest female in the colony she may carry enough fat reserves to allow her to hang around longer…
As of this writing she was still out at sea so keep watching the CahowCam LiveStreams for her return, after which the pair will generally alternate week-long incubation shifts until, if still viable, the egg hatches towards the end of February.