Brad and April Brown dared go where few parents of five children 7 and younger would: to a two-day birding event, the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division's Youth Birding Competition May 2-3.

But after a full day of birding Saturday, May 3, the McDonough family had logged about 30 species and as many memories. "It has been a really awesome experience," said Brad as the Browns relaxed during the evening banquet and awards ceremony at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center.

The third annual statewide bird count sported plenty of highlights, including the most ever:

Participants – 126, ages 3-18.

Bird species spotted or heard – approximately 200.

Money raised for conservation in Georgia – $3,642.

Flyboys member Luke Simmons, 15, listed a black-bellied whistling duck and a roseate spoonbill as unexpected finds for the Watkinsville team. Another highlight: The Flyboys’ four teens searched out birds from Jekyll Island to Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield to compile a competition-record 133 species and win the high school division.

Other division leaders included in middle school, the Thunderbirders from Watkinsville (129 species); elementary, Home School Hummers from Suwannee (112); and, pre-elementary, Birds of a Feather from LaGrange (82 species).

Birds of a Feather and the Thunderbirders won their divisions in fundraising, collecting $523 and $1,419, respectively. Brown Thrasher Boys & Girls from Decatur topped the elementary category at $135. Nutty Nuthatches from Bainbridge led among high-schoolers with $367. The money will go to a variety of conservation groups, including American Bird Conservancy, Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center and the Jekyll Island Banding Station.

There were also 195 entries for a first-time T-shirt art contest. Grand prize went to Kelly Redford O’Mara, a senior at Darlington School in Rome. The night of the banquet, some 200 people were wearing sky-blue shirts printed with O’Mara’s painting of a blue-gray gnatcatcher.

Art winners took home gift certificates to Michael’s. Awards for the birding teams ranged from binoculars to field guides donated by event supporters such as Eagle Optics, Atlanta Audubon Society, Georgia Ornithological Society, Identiflyer, Softscribe and The Environmental Resources Network, or T.E.R.N.

Earlier in the evening, participants enjoyed a bald eagle program by Charlie Elliott wildlife interpretive specialist Pete Griffin as judges Tim Keyes, the competition organizer and a Wildlife Resources Division biologist, and expert birder Giff Beaton pored over teams’ species checklists.

Jasper County High School science teacher Elizabeth Proctor sat with some of her students she had convinced to take part. The team, dubbed Birdzilla, counted 46 species from Friday night through Saturday, learning “a lot” in process, Proctor said.

Members Megan Studdard, 16, and Ashley Stowe, 15, recalled hearing an owl and calling in a Chuck-will’s-widow the night before at Charlie Elliott. “I liked trying to find the owls at night,” Studdard said.

Owls also figured into a Youth Birding Competition highlight for Tim Keyes. He heard 3-year-old Delaney Matthews of the Blairsville Bird Brains assure her mother that "hoo hoo ho-hoo is an owl," a barred owl to be exact.

"It was fantastic!" Keyes said.

The 2009 Youth Birding Competition is scheduled for April 25-26. Buying a nongame wildlife license plate or making a donation via the Give Wildlife a Chance state income tax checkoff supports this and other conservation education efforts in Georgia. Sales of the bald eagle/American flag and ruby-throated hummingbird license plates provide vital funding for Wildlife Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section, which receives no state funding.

YOUTH BIRDING COMPETITION RESULTS

Pre-elementary division

Birds of a Feather from LaGrange – 82 species; $523.20 raised

Love Bugs from McDonough – 33 species; $125 raised

Marshbay Bluebirds from Braselton – 16 species

Song Birds from Shady Dale – 24 species

Elementary division

Blairsville Bird Brains from Blairsville – 41 species

Brown Thrasher Boys & Girls from Decatur – 38 species; $135 raised

Chaotic Kestrels from Jackson - 58 species

Coot Club from Mansfield – 54 species

Hatchet Hawks from Demorest – 27 species

High Fliers from Braselton – 42 species

Home School Hummers from Suwannee – 112 species

Wood Thrushes from Atlanta – 63 species

Middle school division

Dragon loons from Flintstone – 44 species

Eagle Eyes Girls from Augusta – 60 species

Golden Eagles from Flowery Branch – 25 species

Gross-beaks from Macon – 62 species; $118 raised

Thunderbirders from Watkinsville – 129 species; $1,419.72 raised

Victorious Vireos from Athens – 68 species; $440 raised

High school division

Birdbusters from Clarksville – 34 species

Birdzilla from Monticello – 46 species

Cardinals from Marietta – 53 species; $100 raised

Eagle Eyes Boys from Augusta – 81 species

Flyboys from Watkinsville – 133 species

Free Birds from Lakemont – 79 species

Magnificent Frigatebirds from Stone Mountain and Macon – 121 species; $279.19 raised

Nutty Nuthatches from Bainbridge – 105 species; $367.25 raised

Potato Chips from Rome – 113 species

T-shirt art contest winners

Pre-elementary: turkey vulture by Clareese Spahn, kindergarten, Albany

Elementary: barn swallow by Emily Butler, fifth grade, Milton

Middle school: belted kingfisher by Jackson Pittard, eighth grade, Savannah

High school (and grand prize): blue-gray gnatcatcher by Kelly Redford O’Mara, 12th grade, Rome