Cory’s Shearwaters off the shores of Faial in the Azores

Dear Readers, I’ve been in love with Cory’s Shearwaters ever since I met them, en masse, during my Azores trip back in 2024. On our last night we were taken to the spot where the parent birds, who have been fishing all day, return to feed their babies, following the calls of their particular chicks in the pitch blackness. It’s honestly one of the most extraordinary sounds I’ve ever heard. 

Anyhow, the problem is that when the birds hatch, they head straight out to sea. Unless, that is, they’re distracted by the lights of the towns and cities round about, at which point they crash land and sit there, dazed. On our way back from our trip, we rescued two birds that this had happened to – we popped them on rocks by the side of the road, in the hope that they’d find their way out to sea the next day. But on a bad night, dozens of the young birds might be found stranded, vulnerable to predation and starvation. With three-quarters of the world’s population of Cory’s Shearwaters living in the Azores, this is clearly a problem.

There is also an organisation, SOS Cagarro, which works across the Azores: volunteers search for stranded birds, pop them into artificial ‘nests’ over night, and then release them seaward in the morning. However one Azorean island, Corvo, has gone one better.

Corvo has only 430 human inhabitants, but during five nights of the peak fledging season, the residents turn off all external lights from 9p.m. It cheers me when humans are prepared to undergo any inconvenience to assist their animal neighbours, and who knows how many birds manage to get away cleanly as a result?

Health Update – had a shower without passing out! Husband rejoices.