February 18, 2011
Snowy egrets were both hunted to the brink of extinction a century ago when their long, fluffy mating plumes became all the rage for women’s hats -— fetching up to $32 an ounce. Laws protecting egrets represented one of the nation’s first conservation success stories. Egrets are among 65 species of herons.
Stories this photo appears in:
Mark the joyful hour
The snowy egret froze, gazing into his reflection as the wind ruffled his nearly fatal feathers. My heart froze to see him, cast back to the last time I saw my father in the sunlight.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Requires free registration
Posting comments requires a free account and verification.
Or login with:
OpenID