Another rare bird spotted in Indiana

The past few weeks have been a special treat for Southern Indiana bird watchers who love seeing rare species.

On Sunday, bird watcher Jim Brown, an electrical engineer from Bloomington, spotted a rare piping plover in a muddy marsh at Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area in Linton.

The rare shorebird, smaller than an American robin, had once been captured by researchers because it had metal and plastic bands on both legs. The bands are used by scientists to identify and track the birds.

There are only 70 breeding pairs of these state and federal endangered piping plovers left in the Great Lakes region. They're only rarely spotted so far inland. The last sighting at Goose Pond was in 2008.

Lee Sterrenburg, a bird-monitoring volunteer for the Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday on the Friends of Goose Pond Facebook page that based on the color of the bird's leg band, federal researchers believe this particular plover was likely from the Great Plains region. There, the birds are federally threatened.

Meanwhile, Sterrenburg said Goose Ponds' managers have drained some of its marshes to make it a desirable stop-over spot for migrating shorebirds such as plovers.

Clearly, it worked.

The piping plover sighting is also the second time this month that Southern Indiana bird watchers flocked to see a rare migrating bird.

Earlier this month, Jeremy Ross spotted Indiana's first-ever black-tailed godwit near Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge in Francisco in Gibson County.

The gull-sized shorebird is normally native to Europe and Asia.

Call Star reporter Ryan Sabalow at (317) 444-6179. Follow him on Twitter: @RyanSabalow.