When discovered, about 1505, the island's habitat was dominated by the remnant, old-growth forest of Bermuda Juniper (Juniperus bermudiana).

Underwater archaeology of the caldera basin to the north shows that the area was once densely forested with junipers when it was above sea level.

In the 1940s, it was realised that two species of scale insect, Lepidosaphes newsteadi and Carulaspis minima, had accidentally been introduced, and were rapidly killing off the junipers, which had no immunity to their toxicological effect.

Attempts were made to control the infestation naturally, which involved the large-scale introduction of ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae), but these were to no avail.

Unlike in the 19th century, many plant species that had been introduced, some, like the Casuarina, specifically to replace the windbreak lost with the juniper, spread virulently.

The juniper grows slowly by comparison to many of the introduced species, and has been unable to thrive in the presence of Casuarina and Brazilian pepper trees.

Other native insects survive, including the migratory monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), which has become threatened due to the loss of milkweed, which has been eradicated as a weed.

Humans are believed to have killed millions of them after settlement began in 1609, and feral pigs, introduced presumably by Spaniards decades before, also attacked their nests.

After sightings of the bird at sea, a young Bermudian, David B. Wingate, theorised cahows might still be nesting on rocky islets of Castle Harbour.

He visited these islets with ornithologists Robert Cushman Murphy and Louis S. Mowbray in 1951 and discovered a handful of nesting pairs.

Species that arrived by natural dispersion and become native after human settlement include the barn owl (Tyto alba), and the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura).

Despite the decimation of the cedar, those parts of the island not covered in buildings and tarmac are now densely covered in trees and shrubbery, including allspice (Pimenta dioica ), fiddlewood, Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla), bay grape (Coccoloba uvifera), Surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora), poinciana (Delonix regia), fan palms, coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), royal palm (Roystonea), pittusporum, Natal plum, loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), oleander (Nerium oleander), and hibiscus.

A succession of winter storms and a few powerful hurricanes that have struck over the last two decades have reduced woodlands, and available nest sites for small birds.

Today, introduced feral species, particularly cats, are blamed for falling numbers of native birds, from bluebirds to longtails, but the primary threats are loss of habitat, due now to overdevelopment, and climate change (rising sea levels, increased hurricane activity, and rising temperatures are all having an effect on cahow nests, particularly).

Precipitation in wintertime is controlled by fronts moving eastward from the North American continent and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed through the year, but is somewhat less reliable in April and especially May, Bermuda's driest months on average, when the Bermuda-Azores High can bring extended dry spells.

It is not uncommon, during the summer, to ride on sunbaked roads, then round a corner to come suddenly on drenched and steaming tarmac where a shower has passed only minutes earlier.

Oriented west-to-east to the near south of Bermuda, clockwise flow around the surface high brings prevailing winds from the southwest for much of the summer and subsequently prevents fronts from reaching the island.

[4] In fall and winter, the ridge near Bermuda becomes more transient, allowing frontal systems to affect the island.

[5] On otherwise fair, hot summer days with light southwesterly winds, convective clouds can develop along the length of the island and blow to the northeast growing.

This phenomenon also occurs in the less common northeasterly wind regime ("reverse" Morgan's Cloud) but its effects are felt in the western parishes.

The key to Morgan's Cloud forming is light winds blowing along the length of the island which is often warmer than the surrounding waters on hot summer days.

Cold air blowing over warm water decreases atmospheric stability, allowing convection to form and grow into showers.

These roads served both to demarcate the boundaries of lots, and also as access routes to the shoreline, as the primary method of transport about Bermuda would remain by boat for the next three centuries.