There is a lot of exciting news to report this month. The biggest news of all is that this year marks the first time in 10 years that we will not be putting decoys on Devil’s Slide Rock! Thanks to all the school children who re-painted them each year, the decoys have successfully done their job by attracting murres back to the rock. Devil’s Slide Rock is full of birds and noise. For the past couple of years, the numbers of murres on the rock have been increasing and we believe that the murres no longer need the decoys to attract them to the rock. Although there are no decoys, the biologists of the Common Murre Restoration Project will still be watching this colony closely. During the breeding season we will be counting the birds, their eggs and their chicks to make sure the colony continues to grow.

The other good news is that the two video cameras on Devil’s Slide Rock are back up and running. So, you can see what is happening on the rock by going to our website http://www.fws.gov/sfbayrefuges/murre/murrehome.htm or by visiting the Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel. The murres are getting ready for the breeding season so they are visiting the rock almost every day. They are busy finding a mate and defending their territories. Murres usually return to lay an egg on the same spot every year. Mates greet each other by bowing their heads and preening each other. The Brandt’s Cormorants are also a beautiful site to see this time of year; they throw their heads back and show off the bright blue gular pouches on their throats trying to attract a mate.

In addition to the internet, the murres of Devil’s Slide Rock will be appearing on television soon. A film about the Murre Project called “Returning Home” will be shown on the series “Natural Heroes” on PBS. Check your local PBS station for show dates.

March 2006 Counts of Common Murres on Devil's Slide Rock

* Compiled by Lisa Eigner

Devil’s Slide Rock is not the only busy place this breeding season. Murres are also nesting on the steep mainland cliffs across from the rock. Last year was the first time that murres laid eggs on the mainland and this year there have been 18 eggs laid and one chick has hatched. Over 60 murres visit the mainland each day.

The Brandt’s Cormorants on Devils Slide Rock are doing well. There are over 100 nests on the rock and 85 nests have chicks. Many chicks are big and spend most of the time begging their parents for food. You can even hear their chirping and squeaking on the live streaming video on our website!

June 2006 Colony Counts of Devil’s Slide Rock

* Compiled by Lisa Eigner

July has been a very exciting month on Devil’s Slide Rock. Most of this year’s murre chicks have jumped off the rock and swum to sea with their fathers. The first chick fledged on Independence Day. A lot of them fledged on July 14 because the were good. We were able to watch several chicks jump off the rock at sunset on July 14, when good sea and weather conditions influenced a large number of them to “take the plunge.”

off too! We recorded over 350 breeding sites on the rock this year, the most since the Murre Projectbegan restoring the Devil’s Slide colony in 1996! We closely monitored 176 of them, and 50 chicks fledged from these sites. Earlier in the month, there were over 400 murres visiting Devil’s Slide Rock, but the numbers quickly went down as chicks and adults left the rock.

On the Devil’s Slide mainland, murre chicks are also departing. Five chicks have fledged so far, and three are still at their nest sites. Over 30 murres attended the mainland each day in 2006. The Brandt’s Cormorant chicks on Devil’s Slide Rock are doing great! Most of them are large and are close to fledging. They have grown out of their downy feathers and attained shiny contour feathers. There were over 100 Brandt’s Cormorant nests on the rock and about 230 chicks reached fledging age (older than 30 days). They too are leaving the rock to fend for themselves.

July 2006 Colony Counts of Devil’s Slide Rock

*Compiled by Deasy Lontoh

This month common murres have been seen every day on Devil’s Slide Rock reestablishing nesting territories and looking for mates. We had a high count of 740 murres on April 28th. Our first two murre eggs were seen on Devil’s Slide Rock on April 30th.

Brandt’s cormorants have been busy setting up nests and laying eggs on Devil’s Slide Rock this month. We now have 82 cormorant nests that we are monitoring on the rock, with many more birds still collecting nest material and looking for mates. One of our favorite cormorants, Old Gray, has returned to the island and has been seen with a mate and a little bit of nest material. Old Gray was banded in 1985 on the Farallon Islands with a metal band #02486 on his left leg and a plastic gray band on his right leg; he is 22 years old! We are all hoping his nesting attempts this year will be successful .

Old Gray with mate on April 22, 2007

So far 41 Brandt’s cormorant nests on Devil’s Slide Rock have eggs. Looking for eggs requires a lot of patience since we have to wait for the incubating bird to move. Sometimes we can see a flash of white from one of the eggs as the bird moves around on the nest, but often we have to wait for the mates to switch (cormorants take turns incubating their eggs) in order to count all the eggs in the nest. Because Devil’s Slide Rock is about 300 meters off shore, we use the video cameras that are installed on the rock and telescopes to observe the birds.

Biologist Lisa Eigner looks for Brandt’s Cormorant eggs on Devil’s Slide Rock.

*Compiled by Sandra Rhoades

The Murre Maniac
The Common Murre Project Update May 2007
Murre Eggs!

The common murres on Devil’s Slide Rock have been busy laying eggs and are now sitting carefully and still while they incubate them. Murres do not build nests; they lay their eggs right on the bare rock. In fact most murres will lay their egg in the same spot on the rock each year. Murre eggs have a special shape, narrow and pointed at one end and wide at the other. This pear shape causes the egg to roll in a circle and helps prevent eggs from rolling off the rock. Murre eggs are unique and come in a variety of colors with black or brown spots. This helps to camouflage the egg and protect it from predators that fly over the colony. On Devil’s Slide Rock, we have seen a range of shades from white to pale blue to mint green and bright turquoise. All the eggs have black splotches and the pattern is different on each egg, which may help the murres recognize their own eggs. There have been 220 eggs laid on Devil’s Slide Rock so far this season! We expect to see murre chicks by the first week of June.

Four different murre eggs on Devil’s Slide Rock.

Brandt’s Cormorant chicks are hatching on the rock. We have counted over 45 nests with newly hatched chicks! Brandt’s Cormorant chicks are very small and helpless when they are first born. At first, these chicks do not have any feathers at all and they must be guarded very carefully from the weather by their parents. After two weeks the chicks grow in down feathers, which helps to keep them warm.

May 2007 Colony Counts of Devil’s Slide Rock

*Compiled by Lisa Eigner

approximately 460 adult murres attending daily. Common murre chicks stay on the rock approximately 23-24 days before they jump off from the rock into the sea.

The mainland colony has been a bustling little colony with around 80 Common Murres attending daily. The first murre chicks were seen on the first week of June. There are about 20 chicks on the mainland, and two of them have fledged.

Site # 530 preens it’s 21 day old chick

The Murre Maniac
The Common Murre Project Update July 2007

This has been a busy month on Devil’s Slide Rock. Most of the Brandt’s cormorant and common murre chicks have fledged. Cormorant chicks continue to run all over the rock so that we can no longer tell who came from which nest, but some have already left the rock and many of these fledglings can be seen roosting down by the water’s edge.

Most of the murre chicks have also left the rock. When they are ready to fledge, at about 22 days old, they go to the edge of the rock with their parents and make the 75 foot jump off the rock and down into the ocean below. There the chick will stay with its father until it is ready to be off on its own (about 1 to 2 months). Chicks won’t return to the rock until they are ready to breed, somewhere between 4 and 8 years old. Most chicks make this jump in the evening just as the sun is setting, but we watched a few take the plunge during the middle of the day.

Fledging
After being fed for about 22 days, a little murre is ready to change his ways. Instead of continuing his life on land, this fledgling is ready to leave the island. Slowly and carefully he begins to edge over towards the ledge. He hears his dad in the water call and Mom encourages him not to stall. But because he cannot yet fly, he must find another way to try. Finally, he takes one big jump and plummets into the water. Kerplump! Once in the water he’ll stay with Dad for a month or two- he’ll be very glad. He’ll learn how to swim and dive and to catch fish while they’re still alive. He won’t return to Devil’s Slide again until he becomes an adult, and then he’ll walk around and find a mate. They’ll lay an egg and incubate.

* Compiled Sandy Rhoades