SCARBOROUGH – According to the website birding.com, 418 different types of our feather friends have been seen in Maine.

As of Wednesday morning, make it 419.

While leading a weekly walk through the Scarborough Marsh for the Maine Audubon Society, Doug Hitchcox saw something most birders only dream of, the first sighting of a rare bird in his state.

A recent University of Maine grad who’s spent the past four years guiding Marsh tours, Hitchcox had seen the Snowy Egret before – and he thought at first that’s what he’d spotted in his scope this time. But as he to scan the pannes, he saw two “amazing, long” plumes streaming in the breeze from behind the bird’s head. Another, closer look, and he made out the grey lore, or skin patch, under each eye. That’s a feature that disappears from the snowy egret soon after adolescence.

There was no doubt, Hitchcox said, that what he had spotted was a Little Egret, an “old-world” bird normally found only in Europe and Africa.

Using his iPhone, Hitchcox posted his find to the Internet. The news took flight, so to speak, and soon, binocular-wielding crowds were building in the dozens, some bird-watchers driving up from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, each looking to cross a species off his or her “life list.”

“I was out doing my ‘long walk’ and I was like, ‘Damn!” said Liz Southworth, a biologist at Boston University who got the news on her mobile device. “I ran home four-and-a-half miles. I was almost ready to keel over by the time I got back. But I grabbed a water, grabbed some food, grabbed my scope and I was out the door.”

“I’ve seen the Little Egret in Europe,” said Southworth, “but I don’t have it on my North American list. Life is measured in rarities, I think.”

Many get the birding bug just as Frank Mitchell, of Wells, did – with a backyard bird feeder, like the one given to him 23 years ago.

“Some months later we got a bird book, just to know what we were seeing.” he explained. “By the next Christmas my wife’s sister got a pair of binoculars, so we all shared a very small pair of binoculars and started birding further away from home.”

Now, Mitchell has crossed 425 species off his “life list” from all across the U.S.

“This is huge,” said Rob Speirs, as he focused his lens the Little Egret. “To see this and check it off, it’s a bird you may never see here again. You really feel like you’ve hit a home run.”

For Hitchcox, as the person who will get credit for discovering the Little Egret in Maine, the thrill is greater still.

“This is the coolest thing ever,” he said, beaming, eight hours after his find, as birders continued to trot down the trail to take up viewing spots by his side. “This has been one of the best days of my life.”

“Everyone’s dream is always to find a rare bird,” said Hitchcox. “Birders, we chase birds all over the state – all over the country – but usually birds that are found by other people. So, to find your own, especially this one that’s a first state record, that’s pretty special.”

David Finch, who rushed over from New Hampshire to see for himself what Hitchcox found, has spied roughly 380 of the 419 birds documented on Maine soil. He’s a member of the committee that tracks rare birds of Maine and says the Little Egret will be added to that list very soon.

“This is a big deal,” said Finch. “This will be admitted to the state list immediately, without any quarrel, or argument. It’s a slam dunk.”

Birdwatchers on the Eastern Trail in Scarborough Marsh stand
enthralled by the sight of a rare Little Egret, seen Wednesday for
the first time in Maine. Shown, from left, are, Liz Southworth,
Denny Abbott, Davis Finch, Doug Hitchcox and Frank Mitchell. (Staff
photo by Duke Harrington)
The Little Egret, spotted in Scarborough Marsh, Wednesday – a
first sighting of the species ever in Maine. (Courtesy photo by
Doug Hitchcox)