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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

40 Years Of Studying Region’s Osprey

This juvenile osprey was nesting above Lake Coeur d'Alene on Saturday. North Idaho has the largest nesting population of osprey in the Western U.S. (SR photo: Kathy Plonka)

As an adult osprey circled overhead, Wayne Melquist perched an extension ladder against a piling in Cougar Bay and scrambled up to the nest. “There’s two here – one big enough to band,” he called down to others in the pontoon boat. As Melquist attached an aluminum band to a wriggling young osprey’s leg, boat operator Ross Walkinshaw worked to keep the craft from rocking in the wind that swept across Lake Coeur d’Alene. For more than 40 years, Melquist has been making precarious ascents to band juvenile ospreys. The long-running research project offers valuable insight into the lives of the majestic birds, which raise their young on the region’s lakes and rivers but winter in Mexico and Central America/Becky Kramer, SR. More here.

Question: Have you ever watched an osprey drop and snare a fish on Lake Coeur d'Alene?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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