Here are some more pics of our visit to Avery Island, enjoy.
E. A. McIlhenny, or “Mr. Ned” as he was affectionately known, founded a bird colony in the 1890s — later called Bird City — after plume hunters slaughtered egrets by the thousands for feathers to make fashionable ladies’ hats. Mr. Ned gathered up eight young egrets, raised them in captivity on the Island, and released them in the fall to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico. The following spring, the birds returned to the Island with others of their species — a migration that continues to this day, as thousands of snowy white egrets and other water birds return to Bird City. This vast, protected rookery owes its existence to Mr. Ned.
Botanical Treasures
Mr. Ned also prized rare plants, and he enhanced the Island’s natural landscape with numerous varieties of azaleas, Japanese camellias, Egyptian papyrus and other botanical treasures. When oil was discovered on the Island in 1942, he made sure that production crews bypassed live oak trees, buried pipelines (or painted them green), and took additional steps to preserve the Island’s pristine beauty and ensure its continuing role as a wildlife refuge. (Tabasco.com)
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