Biography:Helen Hays (ornithologist)
Helen Hays | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Hays on Great Gull Island, 2009 | |
| Alma mater | Wellesley College |
| Occupation | Ornithologist |
| Years active | 1956-present |
| Home town | Johnstown, New York |
| Awards | Honorary doctorate, University of Connecticut |
Helen Hays is an American ornithologist. As chair of the Great Gull Island committee at the American Museum of Natural History, Hays has lived on Great Gull Island for six months of the year since 1969.[1]
Early life
Helen Hays grew up in Johnstown, New York.[1] She attended Wellesley College,[2] graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology in 1953.[3] She conducted graduate work in Manitoba at Cornell University’s Delta Waterfowl field station, but both Cornell and Wellesley refused to credit her with a master's degree for her work, studying ruddy duck breeding biology; Wellesley said her study was “not relevant.” But nevertheless, her research into ruddy ducks was eventually published in the leading peer-reviewed ornithological journal in North America, The Auk, as well as the Handbook of North American Birds.[3]
Career
Without a graduate degree, Hays began her career in 1956 in low-level positions cataloguing specimens and performing secretarial work.[3]
When Hays first came to Great Gull Island in 1969,[4] the numbers of breeding pairs of common terns and roseate terns had been greatly reduced in North America.[5] Hays dedicated her life to helping restore the local population and as of 2014, over 26,000 terns lived on the island, more than 10 times the number when Hays started.[5]
During her stays on the island, Hays lives in former barracks and is assisted by other volunteer conservationists in her work. The researchers weigh the terns and help monitor hatchlings.[5]
Awards
Hays has received the Conservation Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York chapter of the National Audubon Society, and an Alumnae Achievement Award from Wellesley.[2] In 2015, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Connecticut.[3]
Personal life
In the portion of the year not spent on Great Gull Island, Hays lives in Manhattan.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kilgannon, Corey (2012-07-22). "Helen Hays Revives Great Gull Island’s Tern Population". https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/nyregion/helen-hays-revives-great-gull-islands-tern-population.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Helen Hays" (in en). 2009. https://www.wellesley.edu/alumnae/awards/achievementawards/allrecipients/helen_hays_53. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "UConn Names 2015 Honorary Degree Recipients" (in en-US). University of Connecticut. May 1, 2015. https://today.uconn.edu/2015/05/uconn-names-2015-honorary-degree-recipients/.
- ↑ Laux, E. Vernon (August 21, 2001). "Tiny Island Offers View into Lives of Rare Birds: Terns come back to their Summer Home to Dive, Fish and Nest". https://linnaeannewyork.org/great-gull-island/20160729-Helen-Hayes-GGI-2001.html.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Woman dedicates life to endangered birds on N.Y. island". 2014-09-03. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-dedicates-life-to-endangered-gull-island-birds/.
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