Author Archives: Hillary T.

About Hillary T.

Where: Mass Audubon Headquarters, Lincoln Who: Massachusetts transplant by way of Florida and New York. Raising two young girls, who she hopes will be budding naturalists Favorite part of the job: Learning something new every day from some of the smartest and most enthusiastic groups of people

Virtual Book Launch: Butterflies Are Pretty…Gross!

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Hillary T.

As part of Mass Audubon’s Earth Month festivities, you can celebrate what makes butterflies pretty and gross during the virtual book launch of the children’s book Butterflies Are Pretty…Gross with author Rosemary Mosco and illustrator Jacob Souva on Sunday, April 18 at 1 pm.

Listen to Rosemary read the story, watch Jacob give a drawing lesson, and learn from Mass Audubon Education Manager Martha Gach about how to attract butterflies to your neighborhood during this free, one-hour event.

Register for the event >

Butterflies Are Pretty…Gross! by Rosemary Mosco, illustrated by Jacob Souva

About the Book

Butterflies are beautiful and quiet and gentle and sparkly . . . but that’s not the whole truth. Butterflies can be GROSS. And one butterfly in particular is here to let everyone know!

Talking directly to the reader, a monarch butterfly reveals how its kind is so much more than what we think. Did you know some butterflies enjoy feasting on dead animals, rotten fruit, tears and even poop? Some butterflies are loud, like the Cracker butterfly. Some are stinky — the smell scares predators away. Butterflies can be sneaky, like the ones who pretend to be ants to get free babysitting.

This hilarious and refreshing book with silly and sweet illustrations explores the science of butterflies and shows that these insects are not the stereotypically cutesy critters we often think they are — they are fascinating, disgusting, complicated and amazing creatures.

Buy the book >

How Two Women Started a Movement

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Hillary T.

It really is an amazing story. In the late 1800s, it was fashionable for women to wear hats adorned with feathers and dead birds. When Boston-based Harriet Hemenway read an article that described in graphic detail how these beautiful birds were hunted and killed, or stripped of their feathers, she knew she had to do something.

Young Harriet Hemenway

She shared what she learned with her cousin, Minna Hall. “We had heard that Snowy Egrets in the Florida Everglades were being exterminated by plume hunters who shot the old birds, leaving the young to starve on the nests,” the two said, as noted in Massachusetts Audubon Society: The First Sixty Years by Richard K. Walton and William E. Davis, Jr.

Over tea on a cold January day in 1896, the two launched a campaign to convince other women to forgo the trend of wearing birds for fashion, and in doing so, take on the multinational millinery industry. They set out on a series of tea parties, convincing other women to join their cause.

Minna Hall courtesy of the Friends of Hall’s Pond

Then, they brought together some of these prominent women with renowned ornithologists to launch the Massachusetts Audubon Society to “further the protection of birds” and “to discourage the buying and wearing of the feathers of wild birds.” Through leaflets, lectures, and calendars, they attracted more and more members to get involved.

Hall served on the organization’s Board of Directors for more than 50 years, devoting much of her energy to producing the publications and a traveling library. Hemenway first served as a Vice President and provided critical funding for projects that helped the organization build its reputation, before joining its Board, where she served for 16 years. They both remained dedicated to the organization, birds, and nature until they passed, Hall at the age of 92 and Hemenway at 103.

Thanks to Hemenway and Hall, the longest independent running Audubon Society was formed, critical bird legislation was eventually passed (the very legislation under threat today), people across the Commonwealth became fascinated with birds, and Mass Audubon’s land protection program, which now has conserved almost 40,000 acres, was born. And for that, we are eternally grateful.