The tourism business is booming in parts of eastern Lucas and northern Ottawa counties. May marks the annual migration of millions of birds from the tropics to Canada and Alaska. Many stop here in northwest Ohio. Some 50,000 birders will make their way to northwest Ohio this month to what's now listed as one of the world's top ten birding areas.

Birds bring birdwatchers and they bring money. Cars were on hand displaying plates from Maryland, Oregon, Michigan, Pennsylvania and more [Alaska]. That kind of spending is feathering the nest of local business owners.

Giff Beaton drove all the way from Atlanta, despite high gas prices. "Our hotel is in Oregon (Ohio). We are staying here for a week. We are buying gas and eating all our meals here." Jay Bousliman is the owner of the Garden Restaurant. He says, "It's a significant boost to our bottom line. But more than that, we enjoy the bond we form with these folks." Lance Woodworth pilots the Jet Express ferry service.

"We took 170 people across [Lake Erie to Point Pelee, Canada], birdwatchers. I took one step up from novice to intermediate birdwatcher myself." Bill Yuhasz owns the Kokomo Bay restaurant. He told us, "We had a group of birders staying at a local motel and they've been in our restaurant five times. So this really has a big impact."

More than 10,000 people turned out Saturday for International Migratory Bird Day. How much money do they spend? The last economic study of birders here was ten years ago. Even then, they spent several million dollars.

Magee Marsh and the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge are hot spots for tens of thousands of birds this time of year. "The marsh region provides an amazing habitat for them to stop, rest, eat a ton of insects, store up a bunch of fat and then take off on migration to their wintering grounds and then on to their breeding grounds," [Kim] Kaufman elaborates.

It's not just about seeing nature for Kaufman. The BSBO is about infecting people with a passion for wildlife.

"We've been doing all this research, we have all this knowledge about migration, about this rich resource, now we want to take it to the kids. We want to share it with them, inspire them, the next generation, to protect all of these valuable resources that we have," she says.