# Frances Hamerstrom

Frances “Fran” Hamerstrom (née Frances Carnes Flint; December 16, 1907 – August 29, 1998) was an American writer, naturalist and ornithologist known for her research and conservationist work dealing with the greater prairie chicken species in Wisconsin, and for her research on North American birds of prey. She published 12 books and over 150 scientific papers. She and her husband Frederick were married for 55 years, worked as a scientific team, and both of them received graduate degrees under Aldo Leopold.

## Quotes

* If you are aware of the actual nest location, it is best to approach it on a path which would lead past the nest. When you are adjacent to the nest, you should turn at right angles to your path of travel, walk directly to the nest and band the nestlings. Once you have banded the nestlings, retrace your steps to your original line of travel. On the return trip from the nest, sprinkle your trail with liberal quantities of naphthalene crystals. When you reach your original trail, you should again turn at right angles and continue in your original direction of travel ... Thus any predator who picks up and follows your original trail would be discouraged from turning off and following your side trail to the nest. He would be more likely to continue following your trail in your original direction of travel.
** (January 1970)"Think with a good nose near a nest". Journal of Raptor Research 4 (issue 3, article 4).
* The raptors mark where they have been and once one has learned to read sign, as woodsmen and professional ornithologists do, one can study food habits. Meat and fishing-eating birds pass conspicuous white urates, commonly called whitewash, and they regurgitate pellets. The splashes of whitewash under a perch suggest that a bird of prey may have used the perch. Herons, for example, also pass their urates in the form of whitewash, but if the perch is far from from a body of water or from a heron rookery, the whitewash was probably passed by a hawk, an owl or a crow. The whitewash of hawks is rather splashy and falls in spatters and streaks. That of owls is far more solid, chalky in texture and tends to form little heaps. Owls tend to gulp their food in big mouthfuls, swallowing many bones—large and small—along with meat. The bones, only slightly digested, persist in the pellets of adults. One can learn a great deal about what owls have eaten by examining the contents of pellets carefully.
** Birds of Prey of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 1972. p. 6. (64 pages; illustrated by Elva Hamerstrom Paulson|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED277593.pdf}}
* When I was a small child I longed one day to become so famous that I did not have to hide how odd I was—how unlike other people. Few people really held my attention. It was birds and mammals, reptiles and insects that filled my dreams and eternally whetted my curiosity.
** My Double Life: Memoirs of a Naturalist. University of Wisconsin Press. 1994. p. viii. 1st sentence next 2 sentences
* In those days, we did a good deal of camping in abandoned houses. Leopold spent the first night up in this part of the world in a house. We had him sleep in the living room, because the roof didn’t leak there. And we slept in the kitchen, and we had pans put on the end of the bed. And we could hear the water beating in all night, falling into the pans by our feet.
** (January 11, 2017)"Interview with Fran Hamerstrom". Charles Johannsen, YouTube. (quote ag 7:31 of 14:39; interview with Frances Hamerstrom on August 12, 1996 in Plainfield, Wisconsin)

## Quotes about Frances Hamerstrom

* A long time ago, thousands of prairie chickens lived in Wisconsin. But as cities grew, the prairie chickens lost their nesting grounds. By 1850, the prairie chicken population began to decrease. In the 1950s, only about 2,500 prairie chickens still lived in Wisconsin. But 2 scientists helped to save them. Those scientists were Frances "Fran" and Frederick Hamerstrom.
** Susan Tupper, Fran and Frederick Hamerstrom: Wildlife Conservation Pioneers. Badger Biographies Series. Wisconsin Historical Society. 2016. p. 2. ISBN 0870207334. (124 pages; juvenile nonfiction)
* Fran loved wild birds. She always had an owl flying in her house. She was always rehabilitating eagles and hawks in her barn.
** Susan Tupper, (December 14, 2017)"Fran and Frederick Hamerstrom | University Place". PBS Wisconsin, YouTube. (quote at 3:57 of 38:35)
* Fran was a very influential biologist in Wisconsin. She worked under Aldo Leopold and was very instrumental in prairie chicken research and habitat preservation. … she flew and hunted with eagles in the 1960s and 1970s, as a woman. … An Eagle to the Sky .. where she chronicled her adventures with several different eagles, was hugely inspiring to me in pursuing that niche of falconry.
** (October 13. 2021)"Visiting the Archives – Lauren McGough on Frances Hamerstrom". The Archives of Falconry, YouTube. (quote at 1:05 of 5:25)

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Frances Hamerstrom on Wikipedia