Snowy Egrets are spectacularly beautiful birds that we came very near to losing. In the early 1800s birds in North America were so numerous that John James Audubon insisted that no act of man could ever wipe a species out, including the Snowy Egret – yet by 1913 the Snowy Egret was flirting with extinction. The cause? – lady’s hats.
It had become all the rage for fashionable women in North America and Europe to wear fancy hats adorned with the feathers, wings and even entire taxidermied birds.
The feather trade was a sordid business. Hunters wanted only mature birds for the trade which were most efficiently hunted at rookeries so hatchlings were left to starve. It was common for hundreds of birds in a rookery to be wiped out in a short time. The London market alone consumed over 130,000 egrets (of several species including the Snowy) in a single 9 month period.
Snowy Egret in flight over a pond, 1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 400, 500 f/4, natural light
But in 1896 two Boston women, Harriet Lawrence Hemenway (a passionate birder) and her cousin Minna Hall became disgusted with the sordid business and started a revolt by urging women to stop wearing feathered hats. The same year they organized the Massachusetts Audubon Society and within a short time there were Audubon Societies in many states and those organizations would eventually be called the National Audubon Society.
Pressure from these groups resulted in the passage of the Weeks-McLean Law in 1913 which effectively ended the feather trade and in 1920 the Migratory Bird Treaty Act which protected over 800 species of migratory birds including egrets and others used in the plume trade.
So thank you Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall. Your passion and hard work left us your legacy – many species of birds that otherwise would most likely no longer be with us. I actually don’t know if you were mothers but if not you certainly had some of their best instincts – including the nurturing and protection of the weak and defenseless.
Hats off to Harriet and Minna!
Ron
how fitting to have a story about these two women. Hats off, indeed!
Wonderful info, and such important work to preserve species, especially from such senseless destruction as for fashion and fads.
Wow! I didn’t know this! Thank you for sharing this info as well as your always outstanding, well-cropped photos. It is amazing what just a few dedicated people can do to help the birds and our planet.
Heart warming. Thank you for giving us this truly inspirational story. I have always liked the phrase ‘the first one to wear this fur coat/these feathers died in it’. Powerful and true.
I’m glad you enjoyed the history, Elephant’s Child. They were truly inspirational women, particularly considering the time in which they lived and the way things were back then. .
A fantastic shot and very interesting information.
Thanks very much, Charlotte.
Hats off indeed! And wonderful photo Ron. White birds are so tricky for me…
White birds are tricky for everyone, Bryce. Early or late light is often the best solution to that frustrating exposure problem.
The near loss of egrets, herons, pelicans, and other waterbirds for their feathers was also the catalyst for the Nation Wildlife Refuge system, initiated. I recall by Teddy Roosevelt. The very first refuge was Pelican Island in FL, and the first warden (whose name I cannot recall, but can see his face) single-handedly went up against the armed bird killers with just his own shotgun, and stood fhem down. We owe a huge debt to all these people, and I think of many of them every time I put a brown pelican, reddish egret, spoonbill, etc, in my viewfinder.
Neat comment, Lane. I agree, we owe them a lot. And I love the NWR system. I visited one a couple of weeks ago and will see another one this week.
Dear Ron, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, along with a breathtaking photograph of a snowy egret. I’d known about the beaver trade and men wearing beaver hats, but not about women and their
feathered hats. Peace.
Thanks very much, Dee.
…great post Ron…hats off (no pun intended) to Harriet and Minna!
Nancy, Pun intended or not I absolutely loved it. I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to edit my text to include it!
This is a wonderful post, Ron. Thank you so much.
I’m glad you liked it, Sharon. Thank you.