‘Bird Lady’ Edith Munger of Hart, Michigan. Photo courtesy of Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society.
By P.G. Misty Sheehan
Edith Munger (1865-1945) loved birds. She was raised in Whitehall and lived in Hart, Michigan with her husband, son and eventual grandchildren. Her desk at home was situated so she could look over her bird feeders. As a member of the Michigan Audubon Society, she worked there and elsewhere to protect her feathered friends.
“The first duty of every person is to do the finest thing by his own soul,” she wrote. “Sometimes that comes through sacrifice and sometimes it comes through refusing to be sacrificed. In either case, the soul goes marching on!”
The Michigan Audubon Society, now known as Michigan Audubon, was founded in 1904. Nine years later, Munger became the organization’s first female president, a post she held for 21 years.
Dr. Horesday, of the New York State Museum, estimated that 60 percent of Michigan birds were destroyed from 1885 through 1900. Munger was shocked by the statistic and compelled to step up to protect her beloved birds. She condemned the practice of collecting bird eggs. She argued against hunting songbirds and game birds for food, fun and feathers. She called for a ban on the sale and purchase of feathers used to make fashionable hats of the day. She sought to protect the plumage of white egrets, bright-red scarlet tanagers, deep-blue indigo buntings, yellow goldfinches and orange Baltimore orioles.
During this time, Michigan’s forests were being logged to provide wood to Chicago and beyond for new buildings to support swelling numbers of immigrants. Munger and her fellow Michigan Audubon Society members had the foresight to realize that the destruction of the state’s forests could decimate Michigan’s bird species.
Munger felt it was particularly important to get her message to school-aged children. She wanted them to grow up learning to respect and enjoy songbirds, hawks and owls. Known as the Bird Lady, she traveled around the state, as far as Manistique and Marquette in the Upper Peninsula. By 1927 she had addressed 750 groups of school children and service clubs, reaching over 100,000. As MAS president, she penned a regular column in the Michigan Sportsman’s Association magazine.
In April 1928, she created a contest to choose a state bird for Michigan. Many birds we know were considered: chickadee, downy woodpecker, bobwhite, goldfinch, red-winged blackbird, cardinal and meadowlark. She preferred the chickadee, but the robin was chosen and remains our state bird.
Edith Munger’s avian advocacy
The Michigan Audubon Society, under her lead, presented several bills before the state legislature. Some sought to control sport shooting. At the time, it was legal to kill hawks and owls because they raided chicken coops. Hawks and owls provide a huge benefit to farmers, as they kill thousands of voles, mice, and other small animals which wreak havoc in farmers’ fields. MAS succeeded in repealing this law.
It’s also worth noting that the northern bobwhite quail remained protected in Michigan under the organization. (Editor’s note: Due to successful protection efforts, quail numbers have grown. There is now a three-week hunting period in counties in Southern Lower Michigan, per a MAS spokesperson.)
During Munger’s tenure, MAS also proposed a state bill that would eliminate spring shooting, to protect birds during the period when they searched for mates, built nests and raised their young. Hunters’ licenses were at stake and the legislature felt the bill didn’t recognize the Michigan rural farmer, who was also a hunter.
Cats were another of Munger’s concerns, as they killed thousands of songbirds a year. She wanted cats to be licensed and proposed the humane killing of feral cats. To her disappointment, her efforts in these areas did not succeed.
In the 1920s, corporations looked to the sandy shores of Lake Michigan to harvest sand for use in glassmaking. Munger fought against the practice, arguing that the shores should become state parks and, in turn, bird sanctuaries.
Birds were not her only concern. She was conservation chair of the Michigan Federation of Women’s Clubs, active in the women’s suffrage movement, a member of the League of Women Voters, president of the Hart School Board and active in the birth control movement.
“We all owe a substantial debt to people like Edith Munger,” commented Doug Cook, president of the Benzie Audubon Club. “She was very forward looking when it came to conservation issues, particularly with respect to birds.
“Her work helping to repeal the bounty that existed at the time on birds of prey laid a foundation upon which later environmentalists could build. As a teacher, she understood the need to educate people on the issues about which she was passionate. More importantly, in her position as long-time president of the Michigan Audubon Society, she helped to establish the organization as an important voice for birds for decades to come.”
Munger was recognized for her achievements and was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in October 2010.
P.G. Misty Sheehan is a retired professor of humanities and former executive director of the Benzie Area Historical Society Museum.
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