COEUR d'ALENE - Bald eagles are continuing to land around Lake Coeur d'Alene, and credit is going to a rising number of kokanee spawning on the shoreline.

Carrie Hugo, wildlife biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, counted 259 eagles - 215 adults and 44 juveniles - on Friday.

That tops last year's high of 254 she counted on Dec. 23.

"We might have even more," she said.

Hugo tallied a majority of the birds in the Beauty Bay area and the hillside across the water from Higgens Point. On that hillside alone, she counted 115. But at Higgens Point, a popular viewing area thanks to ample parking and trails, she saw only three.

"Higgens Point is still fairly a disappointment," she said.

The eagles were active Friday and feasting on plenty of kokanee. The spawning number continues to improve, Hugo said.

"I think it's progressively gotten better every year," she said. "You can see lots of kokanee washed up on the shore."

Melo Maiolie, Fish and Game regional fishery biologist, said the number of adult kokanee spawning in Lake Coeur d'Alene has risen dramatically in the past three years.

Fish and Game counted 33,900 spawning kokanee in 2006; 34,000 in 2007; 28,000 in 2008; 333,600 in 2009, and 506,200 in 2010.

This year, it's estimating the adult kokanee spawning number will reach 767,000.

"You have to go back to 1996 before you had more kokanee," he said Friday.

Then, Fish and Game counted 1.41 million adult kokanee.

Eagles, he said, should be well fed this year. There are dying fish all along the shoreline.

"There's definitely a lot of food for them," he said. "Any eagle that's hungry, it's because he's not looking around. It's pretty easy pickings."

Maiole said the kokanee are coming back following a decline in the late 1990s. Once the numbers in the lake fell, they stayed low because chinook were pretty much devouring them each year.

"The chinook just ate them all as they became 1 and 2-year-olds," he said.

Fish and Game tried to help by reducing the harvest allowed on kokanee and even closing the kokanee season at times, while raising the limit on chinook and also not stocking the lake with the predator.

Finally, in 2009, kokanee began to rebound and their population grew faster than chinook could eat them.

It should stay that way.

"Now there's no stopping them," Maiole said.

And that's good for those wanting to see bald eagles in action.

Hugo said the Mineral Ridge trailhead is a nice, safe place to pull over and watch them. If people are patient, they should be rewarded as eagles soar high or swoop low to snatch a kokanee.

"They're still across the bay, but they're coming out to fish," she said.