About Tom Bartlett

 

Hello and thanks for visiting a very special site by Tom Bartlett- The Lake Erie Islands Natural History Studies.

 

Tom Bartlett is a Master Bird Bander for the U. S. Geologic Survey and a certified bird bander/trainer for the North American Banding Council. He has banded over 85,000 birds of 225+ species. He has led bird banding and census efforts at Springville Marsh State Nature Preserve for over 40 years and the Lake Erie Islands for more than 20 years.

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Bartlett’s love of birding arose from his inability to decide a career path when he moved from New Jersey to attend Heidelberg College in Tiffin, where he still lives. He would eventually graduate with four majors—religion, psychology, biology and American studies—but it was taking an ornithology class with the late Dr. Howard Hintz on a whim that hooked him to avian life.  That class in 1070 introduced him to the late Jean Knoblaugh of Old Fort, Ohio and the world of bird banding.  In 2006 he retired as a secondary school science teacher has spent most of his time studying birds.  He became a licensed bird bander while still in college and is one of a few in Ohio with a Master Bird Banding Permit. He is also certified by the North American Banding Council to train and teach banding of passerines and near-passerines. He is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Ornithology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

 

Bartlett has traveled extensively and compiled many life lists. He’s been to Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, England and Costs Rica, the latter nine or ten times. He has accumulated many life lists such as an ABA Life List, a U.S. Life list, a Canada life list, a Seneca County life list, a twice-seen life list, a twice-seen-birds-in-Ohio life list, an east of the Mississippi life list, a retirement life list, every state except Hawaii, and a few others. All told, he’s approaching 2,000 species of birds observed world-wide.  Strange that he doesn't have a Lake Erie Islands list (OK he does...).  Below is what this webpage is supposed to be about:

 

Lake Erie Islands Natural History Project

 

          H. Thomas Bartlett                                        Cleveland Museum of Natural History

          1833 South Winfield Drive                           Research Associate

         Tiffin, Ohio 44883                                          Department of Ornithology

          hthomas.bartlett@gmail.com                      1 Wade Oval, University Square

          419-447-0005 (H)                                         Cleveland, Ohio  44106

          567-278-2300 (C)

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Purpose

 

     The purpose of the Lake Erie Islands Natural History Project is to collect and document data on the organisms of the Lake Erie Islands in order to show the importance of the islands to migrating birds, nesting birds, wintering birds, resident birds and other organisms.  Although mainly dealing with avian species, data is also collected on any flora or fauna found on the islands.  To this end, data is primarily collected using field surveys, collection, photography, and bird banding.  This data may then be used to assist in protection of habitat on the islands, making land use decisions, and the purchase of available habitat on the islands.  All of this is done in conjunction with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Kelleys Island Audubon Club, The Lake Erie Islands Conservancy, the Lake Erie Islands Nature and Wildlife Center, the Put-in-Bay Township Park District, the Pelee Island Bird Observatory, The Western Reseerve Land Conservancy, ODNR-DNAP, ODNR-Parks, and some OSU-Stone Laboratory classes.

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History

 

     During the mid-1980s, as part of the first Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas project, Tom Bartlett was assigned Kelleys Island to survey for breeding birds.  At that time he became aware of the importance of these islands to breeding and migrating birds.  In the mid-1990s he was asked to speak at the spring birding event called Nest with the Birds.  This event was designed to show birders and islanders how productive Kelleys Island was as a birding area.  They had guided bird walks and speakers over the course of a week in May.  The event is still happening to this day.  This activity was spearheaded by a group of Bed and Breakfast owners.  It lead to the formation of the Kelleys Island Audubon Club and still occurs to day primarily during the third week of May.  In 1995, Tom and Pat Hayes, an owner of The Inn on Kelleys Island B & B and President of the Kelleys Island Audubon Club, were talking about how good a birding area Kelleys Island was.  Tom commented that it would be a good place for a bird banding station, especially the area on Long Point on the northeast part of the island.   Much of this area was already owned by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and is a preserve.  In addition the land next to this was the Morse Farms and the owner, Mrs. Helen Morse was very interested in seeing research conducted in the area.  So beginning in the spring of 1996 on the last day of Nest with the Birds, Tom and his banding crew conducted a bird banding session.  That first year over 200 individual birds were banded of 46 species.  Over 100 guests visited the station that day.  Since then banding has occurred many more days during each year.  In 2018, the crew banded a record number 2119 individual birds over 64 banding days.  1804 people visited the banding stations in 2018.  To date, 15011 individual birds of 118 species have been banded.  In addition, numerous recaptures banded by Tom and his crew, as well as several foreign recaptures have occurred.  The principle banding locations are the Jones Preserve and Morse Farms, The Scheele Preserve, The Inn on Kelleys Island feeders and the Kelleys Island State Park.   In 2003, the crew began a Northern Saw-whet Owl project at the Scheele Preserve on Monaghan Road.  Through the fall of 2018, over 731 Northern Saw-whet Owls have been banded and over 40 foreign recaptures have occurred.  Foreign recaptures have come from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Quebec, and Ontario, Canada.  Some of the owls banded on Kelleys Island have been recaptured in Ohio, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

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     Also in the Spring of 2003, a bird banding project was begun on South Bass Island in conjunction with a Road Scholar program.  The banding project and program has grown into more than 4 weeks of banding on South Bass Island.  Tom and his wife, Paula continue to teach at the Road Scholar programs on South Bass Island.  In the fall of 2009, a program was begun on Middle Bass Island covering some of spring and fall migration.  Then in the summer of 2010, Dr. James Marshall, a sub-permittee of Tom's and a summer professor at Stone Laboratory began a study of the birds of the North Bass Island vineyards.  Dr. Marshall also does some banding on the other islands in the summer with his students.  To date, over 10,000 individual birds of 118 species have been banded on the three Bass Islands.  And this data has been used to purchase/protect numerous plots of land on all four of the United States islands by the Lake Erie Islands Conservancy, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

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     In addition to the bird banding projects, in the fall of 1997, Tom, Pat Hayes, and Vic Fazio devised a monthly survey route in order to get a snapshot of the bird life on the island each month.  It is generally conducted sometime during the third week of the month.  The route begins at the Kelleys Island Ferry dock around sunrise.  It continues west along Lakeshore Drive, around Carpenter’s Point, up the west side of the island past West Bay to Titus Road.  Titus Road is then walked to the State Park, the State park beach, and into the North Quarry.  From here it continues south on Division Street to the cemetery (which is walked) and onto the Kelleys Island School at the corner of Division Street and Ward Road.  It continues east on Ward Road to the North Pond Trail.  The North Pond Trail is then walked.  From here it continues east on Ward to Hamilton and onto Monaghan Road.  It turns north on Monaghan Road and continues to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Jones Preserve.  The route takes a short walk across the preserve to the east shore and back before continuing south down Monaghan to Lincoln Road.  It follows Lincoln Road east to the lakeshore before returning to Monaghan Road and continuing south to Woodford Road.  It then goes east to the lakeshore at the end of Woodford Road and returns to Harbor Lane.  It then goes south on Harbor Lane to East Lakeshore Drive and follows East Lakeshore drive back to the Kelleys Island Ferry dock.  The whole route generally takes five to five and half hours to complete.  Since the fall of 1997, the survey has been conducted every month except January and February of 2000 when surveyors were unable to get to the island due to continued bad weather and lake conditions.  With the completion of the January and February surveys in 2018, every month now has 20 years of data.  To date 255 species of birds have been recorded on the monthly survey route.  Data for each month is (or will be...) listed in the Statistics section of this webpage.  All data is also deposited with the Kelleys Island Audubon Club, Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the ODNR Division of Wildlife.  It provides an excellent snapshot of the monthly birdlife on Kelleys Island and baaseline for the future.  It is hoped that similar routes may begin on each of the islands.  Pelee Island Bird Observatory also conducts avian surveys during their banding season.  Their webpage is www.pibo.ca .

 

All of this data has lead to the publication of a bird checklist of the Lake Erie Islands.  This data and historical records bring the list of birds observed on the Lake Erie Islands to more than 325 species.  This checklist can be found on this site.

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Feel free to Contact me for any news, comments or suggestions .

 

Happy Birding....... Tom

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