By Beth Jett, FOX 21 News

DULUTH - It's Mid-April, the peak time to see the spring migration of birds returning from their winter getaways.  A shortage of funding in the last two years forced the non-profit "Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory" in Duluth to stop its spring count of the birds that fly through here.  But more money this year allowed the staff to resume their count.  In this edition of "Northwoods Adventure", FOX 21 joined them at the perfect viewpoint of the action--Thompson Hill.

"Oh, I see," marvels Karl Bardon, watching a red-tailed hawk soar over the Twin Ports. "That's beautiful! Look at that!"  The birds are migrating back to their nesting territories, by way of the Northland.  Bardon is counting them for the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory.   He clicks a small metal counter and says, "We've had quite a few red-tailed hawks, maybe 50 or so."  On this day, Thompson Hill in Duluth is a hot spot to see the mighty birds, including turkey vultures.  In fact, this spot is one of the best in the country for bird-watching.

"Of all the spring watch sites in the United States, we actually have the highest average numbers of bald eagles and red-tailed hawks coming right through Duluth here," said Janelle Long.  She's the executive director of Hawk Ridge and says the Northland is right in the middle of the path, or flyway, that the birds travel as they use the wind to their advantage.  "We have this pretty nice ridgeline and so there's wind that gets pushed up against the ridgeline creating these updrafts and so the birds are also able to use those updrafts to help them save some of that energy as they're migrating back North," she explains.

Long says in the fall, the birds use the Northland wind for the same effect as they fly South along the Mississippi River corridor.  Thus, Northlanders have the perfect vantage point to watch it all and count.

"It's a great way for us to collect data and really look at some of the population trends to help bird conservation and see what's actually going on with all those different species," said Long.

"We've counted over 3000 bald eagles, actually 3500 I think for the season," said Bardon.  While Bardon is the head counter, he says he can always use more eyes to find birds. No experience is necessary, maybe just a good set of binoculars and an interest in birds.  "The more eyes there are, the more birds you'll see," Bardon said.  He counts them by the hour, everyday, starting March first until the end of May.

You can see the numbers of the birds flying through at www.hawkcount.org which is linked to the website for Hawk Ridge at www.hawkridge.org.