All that stood — or perched, rather — between Ethan Whitaker ’80 and a state record was an Ash-throated Flycatcher. 

This particular bird is native to the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico, and spotting one in Maine, in November, is as far-fletched a happening as you could ask for.

Nevertheless, the bird in question was right there, perched on a gravestone in the cemetery at St. Martin’s in the Field in Biddeford Pool, just waiting to be spotted and documented by Whitaker, as his 318th bird this year.

A lot led up to this moment, including three years of planning, two knee replacements, and one attempt at a Big Year, which is what birders call an attempt to identify as many species of birds as possible in one year, in one geographical location. 

For Whitaker, his location was Maine, and the record to beat was 317 species, set in 2017 by Josh Fecteau of Kennebunkport, Maine. And on Nov. 7, 311 days into his Big Year, with that sighting of the dun colored, lemon-bellied Ash-throated Flycatcher, which the experts at Cornell Lab of Ornithology describe as “reminiscent of a desert just before sunset,” Whitaker set a new state record.

Spotting the bird you’re looking for can be a huge moment, and according to Whitaker, it’s the best part of birding.

“It’s just a real adrenaline rush. I used to run and you know how they talk about a runner’s high? It’s almost the same thing when you see a bird that you’ve been looking for.”

Birders can spend hours, days, and even weeks staking out a spot if they think a bird is likely to fly by. They have to be ready to go on a chase at the drop of a hat, and full-time work can get in the way of that, especially if you’re looking for the likes of the Ash-throated Flycatcher “rare but regular vagrant to the East Coast,”

On his birding chases this year, Whitaker has added about 60,000 miles on his Subaru Crosstrek, with the license plate “GR8SKUA,” for Great Skua, a seabird. He’s taken whale tours — not to see whales, mind you — and lobster boats out to spot seabirds. He’s hiked mountains and frequented backyard and public bird feeders to check off his list.

“I went places this year that I never knew existed in the state of Maine,” Whitaker said. “It gives you a real appreciation of that. I think it’s a great recreation and I think there’s a lot of science that comes out of birding.” 

Birding isn’t often depicted in media and pop culture: The 2011 film The Big Year, featuring household names like Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson, is widely regarded a box office flop, but is still “easily the most famous” movie about birding, according to the Audubon Society.

And about 10 years ago, Whitaker was inspired by that very film to attempt his own Big Year.

“I didn’t know much about birds and I thought it was a fun movie,” Whitaker said. “I just kind of put it in the back of my mind.”

At that point, Whitaker’s contact with birding was limited, he says, to running through the local Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary with the �ֲ���ý cross country team as a student.

“And then I met this woman back in 2013, and we went on a date, and she was a birder.”

Whitaker tried to impress his date by taking her to a birding spot with egrets he’d heard about, but unbeknownst to him, the egrets had migrated four months earlier.

“She was very polite, but she knew I didn’t know a thing about birding,” Whitaker laughed. 

But still, they were birds of a feather. “We ended up getting married, and she took me birding and bought me good binoculars, and I really got into it.”

Whitaker’s wife, Ingrid, joined him on many of his chases this year when she wasn’t teaching her fourth-graders at Pond Cove School in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. 

As Whitaker got better at birding, the idea of pursuing a Big Year took flight. And chasing after the state record would just be another feather in his cap.

“I would meet all these people on birding trips, and I was rubbing shoulders with royalty,” Whitaker said. “As I got more involved in the birding community, I began to realize that this was a big deal in the Maine birding community: who held the state record.”

Finally, after years of the idea circling in his head, he said to Ingrid, “‘What would you feel about me doing a Maine Big Year?’ And I think she was just being polite, but she said, ‘I think you should do it.’”

To get ready for a Big Year, Whitaker had to get a few things taken care of: He retired from his career in software development, got both his knees replaced, and did lots and lots of research. 

When he finally spotted the Ash-throated Flycatcher and beat the record, there was a moment of celebration, a rush of adrenaline, and then, Whitaker thought, “Okay, now let’s get another bird.”

Of course, the congratulations from the birding community was nice, said Whitaker, but the chase isn’t over yet. He still has his list, and nearly two more months. Ingrid had her list as well, and on Nov. 30, she became the eighth person to spot 300 different bird species in a single year in Maine.

Whitaker’s list includes birds that are easy to find in Maine, like Northern Cardinals and American Kestrels, and also rarer birds like the Western Kingbird — Whitaker’s “white whale” of the year — and a Golden Eagle, which he spotted on Nov. 1, atop Mount Agamenticus in York, after waiting in the cold wind for three hours.

“I was about to give up, and there was one flying overhead,” Whitaker said. “I’ve got some great photos, and it’s the only one seen in Maine this year. So that was a real thrill.”

For birders, documenting a Big Year relies on honesty; saying they saw a bird is enough to “prove” they actually did, but most try to get photo or audio proof of their spot. Whitaker tries to take photos of every new species he spots, and .

In terms of sharing sightings, the telecommunications revolution has made it so much easier. Professor Emeritus of Mathematics David Haines, secretary of the , recalls how things worked in the pre-internet era, when he and a handful of fellow birders had an informal call tree. “We’d phone each other with rare sightings, then hit the road immediately. Now we have resources like  , which gives immediate information on rarities to be chased.”

And there are apps: Merlin, for example, allows you to hold your phone up to record birdsong and get an answer about what’s out there. 

Nationally, there’s created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology The “citizen science” nature of the site means there is room for error — and according to Whitaker, chicanery  — but a host of volunteer reviewers help to vet the information added to the site.

“There’s a line in the movie The Big Year that goes like, ‘Everybody knows who cheats at golf and no one wants to be that guy,’” Whitaker said. “Sometimes, Ingrid and I will see a report of a rare bird. We see who reported it and we won’t bother because it’s probably made up or misidentified. 

“So what I try to do is take photos of every bird that I see, or record it, because there are two ways to count it. But since I was going after the record, I tried to photograph as many as possible.”

Currently, Whitaker’s count sits at 323 species, and he thinks he might add a couple of birds before the year is over. 

“There’s just very few birds that we either haven’t seen or have any chance to be passing through Maine, because migration is basically over,” Whitaker said. “So the only birds that are gonna show up are birds that are really lost. I think if I got another two birds this month, that would be extraordinary.”

In a few weeks, when he reaches the end of his Big Year and finalizes his completed list, Whitaker is starting to wonder: What’s next?

“I’ve been planning this for a long time. I retired, and I’m working on a book about the whole thing, but at some point I’m going to go, ‘All right, what’s the next chapter?’ We’ll have to figure that out.”

For now, he gets to bask in the only jackpot: pride. “There’s no trophy, there’s nothing. But everybody in the birding community knows. And that’s why you do it.”

Benjamin Thorne was a Lewiston farmer and Freewill Baptist preacher in the early 1800s whose surname provides half the name of the popular and well-known Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary, about 1.3 miles from campus managed by the Stanton Bird Club.

‘Saintly Mother’

Thorne was born in March 1779 (exact date unknown) and died Dec. 4, 1864, at age 85.

Thorne’s mother, Eliza, is credited with helping to organize a branch of Freewill Baptists in Lewiston. “Several times [Eliza] walked from Lewiston to Westport, a distance of 30 miles, to attend Quarterly and Yearly Meetings,” according to The Centennial Record of Freewill Baptists: 1780–1880.

Benjamin was inspired by his “saintly mother,” according to Memoirs of Eminent Preachers in the Free Will Baptist Denomination. As a teenager, he began making similar journeys “through an almost unbroken wilderness” to attend Freewill Baptist meetings.

Deep Thinker

Despite only a few months of formal schooling, Thorne on his own acquired “a commendable knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, knew something of Hebrew, and mastered the French after he had passed his 80th birthday,” according to Memoirs of Eminent Preachers.

“While others were asleep or too stupid for thought, his mind labored with an unwearied and most patient devotion.”

Thorny Question

While various Freewill Baptist histories spell his last name as “Thorn,” the gravestones for Benjamin and his wife, Alice, in Herrick Cemetery spell the name “Thorne.”

‘Retired and Unknown’

Thorne was one of the “best and most talented ministers of his time,” according to Memoirs of Eminent Preachers. Still, he was humble about it, “his position…somewhat retired and unknown. ”

Indeed, Thorne’s preaching power was well hidden, only displayed on “special occasion[s].” One such occasion was a five-day religious debate with a Universalist minister that ended when his opponent “begged leave to withdraw.”

When Thorne died at age 85, he was Lewiston’s oldest citizen. In his 80s, “he appeared more like a man of 65,” so great was “his vigor of mind and body.”

From �ֲ���ý’ Beginning

Thorne “hailed the birth and location of the Maine State Seminary as a harbinger of good.” On June 26, 1856, he delivered the prayer of invocation at the laying of the cornerstone of Hathorn Hall. (Another “Thorn”?)

Thirty-three years earlier, says Professor Emeritus Doug Hodgkin, whose family history dates to Lewiston’s earliest years, Thorne spoke at the 1823 dedication of the first bridge between Lewiston and what is now Auburn, the latter not incorporated until 1842.

Patriot

Born during the Revolutionary War, Thorne “imbibed its patriotism” — his five grandsons all fought in the Civil War “sustained by the deepest sympathies and prayers of their aged veteran sire.”

One and Only (Almost)

As far as we can tell, the only other instance of “Thorncrag” used as a place name is Thorncrag Lane in Midlothian, Va.

Thorn + Crag

In the 1900s, some of the Thorne farmland was bought by Alfred Anthony, a �ֲ���ý professor and trustee who wrote the college history �ֲ���ý College and Its Background.

Anthony dubbed his new spread “Thorncrag,” with “crag” describing the granite ledges and outcroppings near the property’s 500-foot hill. He gave his land to the Stanton Bird Club when he retired to New York City around 1918.

Today, Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary offers both recreation and research opportunities for the �ֲ���ý community.

We’re in Carnegie Science Hall, peering into a vintage display case of stuffed birds.

The nameplate says it’s the Waterman Collection. That would be Willard H. Waterman of Auburn, an avid birder of the early 20th century and a longtime director of the local , which gave the collection to �ֲ���ý many years ago.

The Waterman Collection is in Carnegie Science Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

The bird club is named for legendary �ֲ���ý professor Johnny Stanton (1834–1918), a polymath who taught ornithology, among other topics, and had a tradition of taking students on

Stanton assembled his own prodigious collection of stuffed birds, and in the photograph below he poses with his birds in Carnegie Science Hall shortly before his 1918 death.

Jonathan Stanton poses with his bird collection in Carnegie Science Hall in this circa 1918 photograph. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

Most of Stanton’s collection went from �ֲ���ý to the Maine State Museum around 1980 but a few specimens stayed behind, and they share the Carnegie display case along with Waterman’s birds.

The style of the tag on this common bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula europoea, indicates that it was part of Stanton’s collection.

This preserved common bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula europoea, was part of Stanton’s collection. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Though preserved birds are used in �ֲ���ý classrooms and research today, these older birds aren’t — arsenic was likely used to preserve them.

And while Stanton collected a lot of specimens from around the world (�ֲ���ý publications of his era say he netted the kestrel in his collection while tramping about the ruins of the Parthenon), his collection never was particularly useful to later researchers. Besides the poison problem, the tags on his specimens all lack dates and locations.

The tag on this Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica, is of a different and, perhaps, better style, telling that the bird was taken on July 10, 1949, on Herring Island, famous for its puffins, off Labrador.

Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

�ֲ���ý does maintain a varied collection of bird specimens that are safe for teaching and research, including this snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus

Its tag says that the bird was found dead in 1991 in Rangeley, Maine, and also gives the bird’s weight (1,110 grams) and says that starvation was the cause of death.

Snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

As a healthy snowy owl weighs between 1,400 and 3,000 grams, explains �ֲ���ý Professor of Biology Don Dearborn, finding a bird weighing just 1,100 grams would be a clue that starvation did it in.

Other clues would be a “lack of subcutaneous fat and, more extreme, reduced size of major muscles due to catabolism, when an organism meets its metabolic needs by breaking down its own muscle.”

Catabolism can happen when an animal is badly injured and unable to obtain food.

“A broken wing would do that,” Dearborn suggests. “If the bird could get to a safe perch, it would then slowly starve. A rotten way to go.”

Here’s a red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, native to North and Central America. Like the osprey, red-winged blackbirds can be seen around Lake Andrews, where they nest in the cattails.

Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

In his research, Dearborn and colleagues have used museum specimens to make a discovery about red-wing blackbird feather colors.

They found low levels of the hormone corticosterone in their feathers correlates with brighter red epaulets.

Since bright epaulets attract females, and since birds release corticosterone when they are stressed, it might follow that a stressed male with less-bright epaulets will have trouble finding a mate — which is sad for the male but, under Darwinian thinking, the way it goes.

Here are a few more images of birds in the Woodman display case:

Eastern rosella, Platycercus eximius, native to Australia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Ending our avian meet-and-greet is this resplendent quetzal, Pharomachrus mocinno, found from southern Mexico to western Panama. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Spruce grouse, Falcipennis canadensis, native to North America. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Common snipe, Capella gallinago, native to northern Europe and northern Asia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, a species that can be found on all continents except Antarctica. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

• The conference begins at 1:30 p.m. with a presentation by William Barnard of Norwich University on Radio Telemetry Studies of the Gray Jay in Vermont.
• At 2:30 p.m., Bill Sheehan and Riche Hoppe of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will discuss, Design and Operation of the Maine M.A.P.S. Program.
• At 3 p.m., Falk Heuttmann of the University of New Brunswick will discuss, Winter Transect off Grand Manan Island.
• At 3:30 p.m., Sarah Bartos, a senior at �ֲ���ý, will discuss, A Comparison of American Redstart Territory Size and Habitat Selection in Two Forest Types on Kent Island: Implications for the Conservation of the Species.
• At 4 p.m., Andrew P. Weik of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Endangered and Threatened Species Group will discuss Conservation of Grassland Birds in Maine: Field Survey Results from 1997 and Plans for 1998.
• At 4:30 p.m., Victoria Perry of the Cornish Elementary School will discuss, Birding with Children.
• During the 6 to 7:30 p.m. dinner in Commons dining hall, Bonnie Bochan, field ornithologist and botanist and co- director of the Vermont and Maine Breeding Bird Atlas projects, will discuss, Birds of Jatun Sacha: Following the Breeding Birds of North America to the Tropics of Ecuador.

• At 6:30 a.m., The Stanton Bird Club will sponsor a campus bird walk. Participants will meet in front of the Olin Arts Center.
• At 8:15 a.m., coffee and muffins will be served, and registration will be held in the Olin Arts Center lobby.
• At 8:45 a.m., Thor Hanson of the University of Vermont will discuss, Foraging Behavior of Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches and Golden-crowned Kinglets in Heterospecific and Conspecific Flocks.
• At 9:15 a.m., Peter Vickery and W. Gregory Shriver of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Center for Biological Conservation will discuss, A Regional Survey for Breeding Grassland Birds in the Northeastern United States.
• At 9:45 a.m., Nat Wheelright and Jennifer J. Templeton of Bowdoin College will discuss, When Do Fledgling Sparrows Learn to Forage Independently?
• At 10:30 a.m., David I. King of the University of Massachusetts will discuss, Avian Reproductive Success in Clearcuts and Groupcuts in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
• At 11 a.m., Kyle Apigian of Bowdoin College will discuss Foraging Efficiency and Preference in Black-capped Chickadees.
• At 11:30 a.m., Randall B. Boone and W.B. Krohn of the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Evidence of Transition Zones in Bird Distributions.
• From noon to 12:45 p.m. lunch will be served in Chase Hall.
• 12:45 to 1:30 p.m. Panel discussion on Bird Conservation programs in Maine: Alternative Funding Sources at Work will be held.
• At 1:30 p.m., Thomas Hodgmann of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Bird Group will discuss, Partners in Flight Program: Opportunities for Monitoring Bicknell’s Thrush and Other Mountaintop Forest Birds.
• At 2 p.m., Herb Wilson of Colby College will discuss, The Effect of Supplemental Feeding on Wintering Black-capped Chickadees.
• At 2:30 p.m. Mitschka Hartley of the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Effects of Selective Silviculture on Breeding Songbirds.
• At 3 p.m., Taryn L. Kruger of Bowdoin College will discuss, Nest Box Choice and Site Fidelity in Tree Swallows.
• At 3:30 p.m. Judy Kellogg Markowsky and William Halteman of the Maine Audubon Society and the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Roadkilled Birds, Foraging Substrate, Season and Road Type.
• At 4 p.m., David Evers and Peter Reaman of the Biodiversity Research Institute will discuss, Mercury Exposure in Maine Fish-eating Birds.

The conference will cover several ornithological topics, including endangered bird species; the effects of different forestry practices on bird habitat; and bird behavior. Speakers include Ed Mair, chairperson of the American Birders’ Exchange, who will discuss Birdwatching in Cyberspace, and Peter Stangel of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, who will speak on the Voyage of the Wood Thrush: Winging Our Way to a New Century of Bird Conservation.

Further information on the conference is available from David Haines, professor of mathematics, at 207-786-6144.