Tropical Shearwater breeds at Desroches for first time

Adult Tropical Shearwater with egg (Jo Bluemel)

Jo Bluemel, Island Conservation Society Conservation Officer at Desroches reports as follows:

"In October 2015 during a site visit Dr Gerard Rocamora identified the call of the Tropical Shearwater and a burrow was located containing an adult and an egg. This was the first record of this species nesting on Desroches Island. The Tropical pair were monitored weekly by the ICS Desroches conservation team, but unfortunately this nesting attempt failed.

The pair then returned to the same burrow in May 2016, but were not seen again the following month. On the 27th July the burrow was rechecked and inside a extremely fluffy first stage chick was found. This is the first recorded Desroches Island Tropical Shearwater chick, and we hope there will be more to follow in the future. Tropical Shearwater calls have been heard during monitoring in the Wedge-tailed Shearwater colony, but so far no other burrows of this species have been found."

News of the first attempt in 2015 appeared in a national Geographic journal which can be downloaded here.

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Tropical Shearwater chick (Jo Bluemel)