Local naturalist and bird researcher Tom Kashmer made ornithological history this fall when he became the first person in Ohio to capture and band two shorebirds that are uncommon in the East and Midwest.

Wilson’s Phalarope is common in the prairie marshes and western lakes of North America. The bird winters in Argentina. The Red-Necked Phalarope breeds in the Arctic and subarctic regions of Canada and Alaska and spends the winter at sea off the coast of South America. Both species are rare to Ohio.

Both birds were captured on the mud flats at the western end of Muddy Creek Bay. The birds were part of a much larger research project conducted by Kashmer and fellow bird-bander Tom Bartlett, of Tiffin. The shorebird research project is a cooperative venture with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, The Ohio State University, Winous Point Marsh Conservancy, and local private marsh owners.

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