First reveal of egg in the CahowCam2 Burrow
All eyes are on the CahowCam LiveSteams as followers from around the World await the return of the CahowCam2 pair to their burrow, which despite an apparent false-alarm due to a visiting prospector the night before, is still empty as of 8pm on Jan 14th.
Update#1: The male returned in the early hours of the 15th and remains in the burrow waiting for his mate.
Update#2: The female returned @7:17pm on the 18th, and by 8:05pm she had laid her egg!!!
The resident pair are traditionally amongst the latest to return and lay their egg, and are expected back in the next few nights. Watch the LiveStream here over the next few evenings (or sign up for our Newsletter’s CahowCam Alerts option) and as with the recently returned CahowCam1 pair, their egg is usually laid within hours of the female’s return.
Here is the latest Nesting Season / Colony update from Jeremy:
“Despite frequent winter weather systems passing through the Bermuda area over the last 2 weeks, there were actually some calmer periods where J-P and I have been able to get onto some of the Cahow Nesting Islands and begin monitoring the return of the first of the Cahows from their 5-week pre-egg laying exodus out on the open ocean.
On 30th December, 2022, during a check to bring grass clippings to make nests in the nest burrows for the birds on the rugged, rocky Green Island, which lacks its own vegetation for the birds to make nests with, I was only able to confirm one nest with a returned Cahow.
By the 3rd January 2023, a visit to Horn Rock revealed that Cahows had returned to 6 nests, in which 3 already had birds incubating eggs.
By the 4th January, Nonsuch had the first returning birds, with Cahows returned to 5 nest burrows, with eggs being incubated in 4 of them. On the same day, a visit to Long Rock revealed 5 nest burrows there with returned birds, including a pair together. 4 of these contained eggs that were being incubated by the adult birds.
Finally, on Monday 9th January, a check at the Nonsuch Island "A" nesting colony showed the continuing return of Cahows by revealing that the number of Cahow nest burrows with returned Cahows in them had increased to 15, with eggs being incubated in 12 of them.
These included the newly arrived "CahowCam 1" nesting pair, which had just returned. The male bird (band # E0197) had returned on the 6th/7th January and weighed in at an impressive 420 grams. The female bird (band # E0212) was also at an impressive weight of 362 grams, which is the heaviest weight i have ever weighed a female Cahow at only one day after laying an egg that weighed 60 grams. This means that before this female laid her egg, she also would have weighed over 420 grams. This particular bird is one of the largest female Cahows in the entire breeding population, and after spending one more day in the nest incubating the egg with the male, she departed out to sea to feed and regain her energy after producing her single large egg, which can weigh more than 20% of the body mass of the female. The egg will now be incubated for the next 50-53 days by both adult birds, and after a generally longer first shift by the male they will alternate in 5-7 day "shifts".
We will commence further visits for candling the eggs, for which Carla Marquardt will be accompanying us for the 5th year. The 2023 Cahow breeding season is moving into high gear, and the remaining Cahows in the population should all return within the next 2 weeks.”
Jeremy