As wildlife biologist Wayne Melquist and his crew pulled their boat up to a piling in Cougar Bay on Saturday morning, an adult osprey flew from the nest situated high atop the piling.

The bird began screeching its objection, circling overhead as Melquist ascended a ladder to the nest. He lifted three young osprey briefly out of the nest so the nearly 200 people on board the annual Osprey Cruise a short distance away could see them through binoculars. The three young birds in the nest were different sizes, he said, because osprey lay eggs in two-to-three-day intervals, so birds in the same nest hatch a couple days apart.

"Their legs were too small to band them, so we will come back in a couple of weeks," Melquist said after he boarded the cruise boat a short time later, adding that banding usually begins around July 15.

Melquist has been banding osprey with aluminum bands that are gently placed around the leg of the young birds in Cougar Bay since 1972. The purpose of the bands is to determine survival and mortality rates of the osprey, as well as their migration patterns. The banding is done just before fledging, which is when the birds begin to fly, and Melquist said the earliest fledging occurs around July 17.

Having climbed ladders to nests thousands of times, Melquist said he has only been hit by an "aggressive female" osprey one time.

"She came down and whacked me on the head ... and they don't strike you with their talons out, what they do is it's like a fist, so it's really just an impact," Melquist said.

Cruise organizer Sandy Emerson said Lake Coeur d'Alene is one of the best places to view osprey because Cougar Bay historically has had 50 or more each year. The Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce Natural Resource Committee started the annual Osprey Cruise more than 15 years ago to education the community about the osprey and other area wildlife.

"The idea is, you can take this cruise and from the top deck you can look out and look into the bay and see the nests, talk about the birds, talk about the programs — and on a good day, watch them being banded," Emerson said.

There are several dangers that birds, particularly raptor birds, are subject to. One of the most important dangers for the public to be aware of is fishing line. Melquist actually found fishing line in the nest with the three youngsters in it Saturday, which can be deadly to osprey, as well as other wildlife.

Lisa Manning, Lake Coeur d'Alene Waterkeeper with Kootenai Environmental Alliance, said public awareness that fishing line is dangerous to wildlife is important. It can tangle around their legs, wings and even their necks. She said there is several fishing line collection stations set up around the lake.

Another danger the bird faces is, because it is a raptor with long curved talons to grab fish, if the osprey grabs a fish that is too large for it to pull from the water the talons may get stuck and the fish will pull the bird into the water and drowns it.

"But most of the time the osprey are really good at fishing," said Beth Paragamian with Idaho Fish and Game.

Paragamian said there was a time, 25 or 30 years ago, when there were very few osprey in the area. Some had to be trans-located from other states and brought into the area to build the population, but now there is a large enough population that the osprey have recently been trans-located from North Idaho to the Dakotas.

The osprey come to North Idaho in the spring to nest and then fly south for the winter, some to Texas or California, and others flying as far south as South America.

The guests enjoyed the two-hour cruise with binoculars and cameras, listening to the many speakers talk about wildlife, as well as Manning and a representative from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe who spoke about water pollution.

Larry Kettle of Coeur d'Alene was with a group of 13, including himself, his wife and granddaughter. He said they decided to take the cruise because "osprey are interesting" and his granddaughter had just moved to Coeur d'Alene from Oregon.

"We wanted to introduce her to the area and learn more about northern Idaho," Kettle said, adding that the cruise was all they hoped for. "I was able to get some good pictures, learn some things — I've enjoyed myself."

As Kettle was speaking to The Press, Kris Buchler with Coeur d'Alene Audubon appeared on the lower deck of the boat with an owl. Every camera on the boat came out as she walked through the crowd so everyone could say hello to "Jack," a great-horned owl Fish and Game acquired about 10 years ago after his shoulder and wing became dislocated.

"That was worth the whole trip right there," Kettle said after Buchler passed by, getting Jack to raise his wings that spanned out to about 4 1/2 feet.

Darci Warner came from Los Angeles to visit her parents. She was part of the other family with Kettle's group and was impressed with the osprey and the owl, as well as the Coeur d'Alene area itself. She was with her two sons, one a 14-year-old actor and the other a police officer. She was also with her sister's family as well as her parents who live just a few houses away from the Kettles'. She and her youngest son have been in Coeur d'Alene for more than two weeks and she said she is "good at hunting events."

"He's having a good time," Warner said of her youngest son, adding that they went horseback riding the day before. "The cruise is gentle, but it's also very scenic. And it's neat to see them go up to the nests, get pictures of course, and it's nice that they have the owl too."

She said the education was good too, especially about things like the fishing line. She said people don't always realize it can be so dangerous to wildlife, although she pointed out sometimes when the line breaks there is "not much you can do about it."

Information about osprey, other area wildlife and the "Reel-in and Recycle Project" can be found online at www.cdaaudubon.org.