Helen Hays is an American

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and conservationist. Hays has lived on

Great Gull Island Great Gull Island is a island separating the Long Island and Block Island sounds, located approximately southwest of Little Gull Island. Both islands are located in the town of Southold in Suffolk County, New York, and lie roughly midway be ...

for six months of each year since 1969 in her capacity as chair of the Great Gull Island committee at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. As of 2014, this work saw the island's

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

population increase tenfold compared to the level of 1969.

Early life

Helen Hays grew up in

Johnstown, New York Johnstown is a city in and the county seat of Fulton County in the U.S. state of New York. The city was named after its founder, Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Province of New York and a major general during the Seve ...

. She attended

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

, graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology in 1953. She next conducted graduate work in Manitoba at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

’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 The ruddy duck (''Oxyura jamaicensis'') is a duck from North America and one of the stiff-tailed ducks. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek ''oxus'', "sharp", and ''oura'', "tail", and ''jamaicensis'' is "from Jamaica". Taxonomy The ru ...

breeding biology; Wellesley said her study was "not relevant". Nevertheless, her research into ruddy ducks was eventually published in the leading peer-reviewed ornithological journal in North America, ''

The Auk ''Ornithology'', formerly ''The Auk'' and ''The Auk: Ornithological Advances'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official publication of the American Ornithological Society (AOS). It was established in 1884 and is published quarterly. ...

'', as well as the ''Handbook of North American Birds.''

Career

Without an advanced degree, Hays began her career in 1956 in low-level positions cataloguing specimens and performing secretarial work. In 1969 Hays made her first trip to

, which the

had recently purchased. At that time hunting had greatly reduced the numbers of breeding pairs of

common tern The common tern (''Sterna hirundo'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory ...

s and

roseate tern The roseate tern (''Sterna dougallii'') is a species of tern in the family Laridae. The genus name ''Sterna'' is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific ''dougallii'' refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDoug ...

s in North America. In 1969 Hays began spending six months of the year on the island working to restore the local population. Hays lives in Manhattan in the other portion of the year. During her stays on the island, she lives in former barracks and is assisted by other volunteer conservationists in her work. The researchers weigh the terns and help to monitor hatchlings and improve nesting conditions for them. As of 2014, over 26,000 terns have nested on the island, more than 10 times the number when Hays started her work.

Awards

Hays has received the Conservation Service Award from the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York chapter of the

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

, and an Alumnae Achievement Award from Wellesley. In 2015, she was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

of science from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hays, Helen American ornithologists Women ornithologists 1932 births Living people People from Johnstown, New York People associated with the American Museum of Natural History Wellesley College alumni Scientists from New York (state)