CLAY TWP — Brendyn Baptiste has enjoyed studying and watching birds for most of his life. He even knows the exact date he got serious about it.

“It was on my sixth birthday. I got some bird stuff, a feeder and a bird book, and I started learning from that,” he said.

Brendyn, now 16 and a sophomore at Moniteau High School, got a boost on his path toward a career in environmental science when he was awarded a scholarship by the Bartramian Audubon Society allowing him to participate in a six-day summer educational program in Maine.

He was the winner of the first Gene and Joanne Wilhelm Scholarship and in June joined a small group of high school students at the Coastal Maine Avian Studies Program for Teens at Hog Island Audubon Camp off the coast of Maine.

Brendyn recently gave a presentation on the habitats of coastal Maine at the Bartramian Audubon Society’s monthly meeting where he showed photographs from his trip and talked about what he learned. He will also give a presentation this month at Penn Christian Academy in Penn Township and in February for the Allegheny Highlands Bird Club in Smethport.

Brendyn, who had never been to Maine, said he enjoyed getting to experience the natural surroundings including a wide variety of bird species, some of which cannot be seen in Pennsylvania.

“It was amazing, there’s just so much variety. It’s a bit different than here,” he said.

His experience at Hog Island included banding several species of migratory birds. The students would catch a bird with a net, attach a small band to its ankle containing a tracking number and release the bird.

Researchers around the country will then look for birds that have been banded and record the birds’ location into a digital database to help scientists understand where species of birds are traveling.

The students also took a boat ride to a nearby shore area where they saw Atlantic puffins, a seabird that nearly went extinct but was successfully reintroduced in the 1970s.

The students also participated in bird “skinning,” dissecting hawks and owls that died of natural causes to study anatomy.

Brendyn worked on spotting 104 species of birds listed on a checklist. With the help of a pair of binoculars, he managed to check 95 species off his list.

The trick to spotting a bird in the woods is to recognize it’s call first, he said.

“You listen for them first, and once you hear them look for movement and try and put them in your binoculars,” he said.

Gene and Joanne Wilhelm started the scholarship last year as a way to support students who are interested in ornithology.

“Like many organizations, we’re looking to our younger people to become the ones who will carry on the conservation and preservation efforts in the future,” Gene Wilhelm said.

They already knew Brendyn from seeing him at Audubon Society meetings, and Wilhelm said he is impressive.

“He’s quite the field person, he really knows his birds and can identify them in the field,” he said.

Wilhelm, who is a former vice president of education for the National Audubon Society, said Hog Island is a location visited by the top ornithologists in the world because of its wide variety of bird species.

He said the scholarship will continue indefinitely and, if there is enough interest, they may expand it to two recipients.

Any group interested in hosting Brendyn and seeing his presentation can send an e-mail to bapt96@yahoo.com.

The deadline for 2016 scholarship applicants has passed, but the application period for 2017 opens up later this year. For information, call 724-794-2434.

The Bartramian Audubon Society chapter covers Butler, Mercer, Lawrence and Venango counties. Starting in March, it has meetings open to the public at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of the month at Jennings Environmental Education Center, 2951 Prospect Road, Slippery Rock.