Birders, from left, Jan Hoover, Tom Pullen and Christine Liberto look for birds along the Mississippi River Saturday as part of the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. At top, a great egret is seen from the tour boat.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[1/4/04/]Tyler Strange and Heather Smith spent their Saturday morning doing something other than what most teens were doing.

They spent half their day on the Mississippi River, counting birds with the local chapter of the National Audubon Society. They were among about 15 bird watchers who took a 20-mile, 4-hour tour of the river and Yazoo Diversion Canal as part of Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count. They rode on the Sweet Olive, a tour boat based at City Front.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve loved animals,” said 14-year-old Heather. “This is just fun for me.”

Heather and 17-year-old Tyler both say they want to become biologists, but aren’t waiting for college to start working. This summer, they worked with Jan Hoover and his wife, Dena Dickerson, both biologists with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center, on a project studying fish and other wildlife.

Hoover said Heather and Tyler won the 2003 Mississippi Wildlife Federation Youth Conservation Award for their studies and education programs at Tara Wildlife Refuge, north of Vicksburg.

“We’re really proud of them,” Hoover said, “like they were are own kids.”

Tyler first met Hoover and Dickerson four years ago at a display in Clinton, where he ended up spending the day helping them display reptiles. Then Heather contacted Dickerson three years ago in pursuit of information about how to care for her pet lizards.

The two teens have spent each summer since working with Hoover and Dickerson on projects and going on trips to conferences and events. This weekend, instead of playing video games, watching TV or visiting with friends, they were on the annual bird count.

“They’re very good naturalists,” Hoover said.

Heather and Tyler helped identify birds such as the great blue heron and the great egret, both common along the Mississippi River in Vicksburg. Their counts will be added to others across the region, state and nation as part of Audubon’s annual survey of bird migration habits.

About 50,000 people participate nationally in the event that was begun in 1900 as an alternative activity to an event called the “side hunt.” In that event, participants chose sides, then set out to shoot as many birds as possible. The group that came in with the largest number of dead birds won the event.

The bird census takes volunteers on specified routes through designated 15-mile-diameter circles. Locally, the center of that circle is the Interstate 20 bridge and eight different groups counted all day Saturday, said Bruce Reid, director of bird conservation with the Vicksburg chapter of the Audubon Society.

This was the first year for a count by boat on the Mississippi River.

“It really gets people out participating in the activity and hopefully in the stewardship of bird habitats,” Reid said.

The counts are conducted nationally between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. The data is then made available on Audubon’s Web site.

Last year, counters tallied 19,928 birds and 99 species in Warren County. The tallies for this year were expected to be completed this week.