About Tom & Paula Bartlett
A Career Built on Sharing.
Tom’s influence is difficult to measure because so much of it lives in other people. He has trained banders, mentored young naturalists and citizen scientists, taught adult learners, led field programs and shared his enthusiasm with audiences of nearly every age. Paula has been part of that public-facing work as well, helping teach, record, organize and connect people to what happens at a banding station.
The best summary of his legacy may be the simplest: Tom did not just spend a lifetime noticing the natural world. He taught other people how to notice it, too.
A Life Shaped by Curiosity.
Tom Bartlett did not arrive in Ohio with a master plan to become one of the state’s best-known bird banders and field naturalists. He arrived from New Jersey in 1969 to attend Heidelberg College, curious about the world and still deciding where life might lead.
An ornithology class with Dr. Howard Hintz changed the direction of that life. Through the class, Tom met bird bander Jean Knoblaugh and discovered a form of science that combined everything he loved: observation, field work, questions, data, wildlife and the chance to keep learning every single day.
He began bird banding in Ohio in February 1971 and earned his federal banding permit while still a college student. What began as an interest became a lifelong vocation.
Teacher, Naturalist, Researcher.
Tom spent roughly 30 years teaching biological sciences in Ohio. He taught at Clyde Junior High School and later at Tiffin Columbian High School, where his work included general, advanced and Advanced Placement biology. He also served as science department chair and director of the planetarium, and later taught natural sciences as an adjunct lecturer at Tiffin University.
The classroom, however, was never limited to four walls. Tom led ecology programs, nature clubs, field trips and birding programs, and he has spent decades helping people learn by putting binoculars in their hands and getting them outdoors.
Science in the Field.
Tom’s research interests are broad. Birds are at the center, but his field work has also touched plants, reptiles, fish, insects, habitat communities and the larger ecological relationships that connect them.
His work has included bird banding, breeding-bird studies, wildlife surveys, population monitoring, taxonomy and long-term baseline research at Springville Marsh, the Lake Erie islands and other important natural areas across Ohio.
Paula Bartlett: Partner in the field.
Tom’s story is his own, but much of his life in the field has been shared with Paula. The two met at Heidelberg College. Paula earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Heidelberg and later a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from Bowling Green State University. She built a career working with people with disabilities before retiring in 2010.
Retirement did not mean slowing down. Paula works alongside Tom during spring and fall migration, records band numbers and measurements by hand for later entry into research databases, and has served as both a scribe and extractor at banding stations. She also teaches with Tom in Road Scholar programs on South Bass Island. Their field seasons can mean ferries loaded with gear, nets opened before sunrise and, during owl banding, nights that stretch well after dark.
Their partnership has become part of the public story of the work. The documentary A Bird in the Hand follows Tom and Paula as they approached the 100,000-bird milestone and focuses not only on the science of bird banding, but also on the relationships they have built with volunteers, researchers and communities along the way.
Paula was recently awarded the 2026 Education and Outreach Volunteer of the Year by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory at their Volunteer Appreciation Day. This is their first year presenting the volunteer awards.
