A few murres settled down at the colony during the project's first year, and some laid eggs. Last year, the third year of the repopulation effort, nine breeding pairs made Devil's Slide Rock their home, and 30 other non-breeding birds hung out at the colony. Some of the murres, who can live more than 20 years, were probably members of the original colony wiped out by the oil spill. Seeing their native breeding grounds once again teeming with life, they may have decided to give Devil's Slide Rock one more chance. With muscles still aching from the previous day's climb, they trained their binoculars on Devil's Slide Rock from the highway and counted 30 murres.
Murres fly around the cove and swim near Devil's Slide Rock.
The birds are waiting for the biologists to leave so they can have a little privacy. As the biologists hover over their wooden chicks and eggs, a California gray whale surfaces 30 feet from the rubber boat. San Pedro Rock, where murres last nested 90 years ago, frames the other end of the cove. The murre biologists decided that since the Devil's Slide Rock colony is attracting murres so successfully, they should try to repopulate San Pedro Rock as well. Once the rock climbers have nestled the last decoy chicks and eggs into place on Devil's Slide Rock, Carter picks them up and ferries them across the cove.