DULUTH, Minn. — Hawk Ridge would be a more welcoming and easier place to visit and to watch birds under a major project in the works by the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, including permanent toilets, an amphitheater and a covered outdoor classroom/picnic shelter.
The proposed improvements also include expanded handicapped-accessible trails, children's learning areas, permanent seating for bird watchers along with improved parking and traffic safety at the site along Skyline Parkway in eastern Duluth.
Hawk Ridge is one of the best places in North America to watch the fall bird migration, especially hawks and other raptors, as they avoid flying over Lake Superior and skirt across Duluth. An average of 76,000 raptors fly over the ridge each autumn. But the site has offered very limited amenities to the thousands of bird watchers and school groups that come each year to watch hawks, eagles and other birds fly over.
