CATALDO - With the duck cradled in his tiny hands, Rydge Oertli walked slowly to the water's edge, crouched down, and let it.

He watched as the waterfowl flew low across the slough near Whiteman Lumber, quacking loudly. The 6-year-old covered his face with his hands and grinned.

"Neat," he said.

Oertli was among a handful of Canyon Elementary School students who left the classroom behind Friday morning to learn about ducks - and even careers in the outdoors.

Eight kids and a few parents helped Idaho Fish and Game wildlife technician Aaron McKarley put lightweight aluminum tags on ducks that were captured, and then set them free.

The goal is to learn about migration routes, age, population changes, nesting and wintering areas.

"This is one of the main tools that we've used since the 1940s," McKarley, who is an avid bird lover, and hunter, said. "We rely on hunters to shoot them so we can learn how old they are, and where they were shot tells us where they were going and we learn about migration routes."

McKarley displayed a delicate touch as he handled a pair of pliers to outfit each duck with a numbered ultra-light aluminum band on a webbed foot.

'We want to make it to where they don't even notice it," he said.

The numbers on the bands are then recorded, and the ducks are set free - in this instance by the Canyon students, who released them back into the wild to joyous quacks from the hens, and throaty croaks from the drakes.

All told, McKarley will catch and release about 400 ducks through August.

Canyon Elementary School Principal Sue Hansen-Barber believes it's helpful for students to be out in the wild at such a young age, seeing what types of careers are out there if they maintain their interest in the wild.

"The biggest thing is fostering a connection to the environment and the community, and just letting them know what's out there for them locally," she said. "We like to talk about careers with wildlife and science that they could pursue where they grew up."

To coax the ducks into the humane trap, McKarley puts work in weeks before he even intends to start tagging them. He starts a few weeks before the planned duck banding, using sweet corn and peanut butter - which is akin to candy for the fowl - in the place where the trap will eventually be placed, so "they learn to keep coming this way."

He then constructs the trap, but leaves the top free so the birds can still leave at will, and continues revisiting for the sweet snacks. Finally, he puts the top of the trap on, and the birds are captured and ready to be tagged and released back into their habitat.

"Once they leave here, there's no way of knowing where they could be going without their bands on their legs," McKarley said. "It could be in Texas, California, some even just go to Oregon for a bit of a working vacation. Just because they aren't suffering through the ice and snow and sleet doesn't mean they don't have to continue to find their own food and home before they come back."

Brad Corkill, who runs the Whiteman Lumber Mill, welcomed the students and the duck project.

"It's a little hands-on experience in the wildlife, which is always good," he said.