#storm petrels

An illustration from George Dawson Rowley‘s Ornithological miscellany v.2 (1877), captioned “Mother Carey and her chickens.” According to Wikipedia, Mother Carey is a personification of the dangers of the sea. Storm Petrels, birds thought by sailors to be harbingers of storms, are sometimes referred to as “Mother Carey’s chickens”.

The full text is available here.

Full video: Leach’s Storm-Petrel “Stormy” Visits Cahow Family In Nesting Burrow, Cornell Lab / Nonsuch Expeditions

(the little one making all the noise is Stormy, an adult storm-petrel who seemingly has a faulty navigation system and comes to this cahow/bermuda petrel nest every year instead of to his breeding range further north. As far as he’s concerned this is his nest, the cahows disagree!)