A guide to the bird notes of Grace McCormac French of Yamhill County, Oregon

Abstract

This monograph gives a brief biography of Grace McCormac French (1881- 1957), who was the "Bird Woman" of the Carlton and Dayton area in Yamhill County from about 1925 to her death. She wrote articles for newspapers, gave talks on radio stations, and spoke at many clubs about birds and conservation. Although it was not feasible to summarize her 45 volumes of bird notes in this monograph, the arrivals and/or departures of 43 bird species she noted in Yamhill County are included as are a partially annotated listing of the 116 bird species she reported. Records of the people she came into contact with are also incorporated, so this monograph gives details about some of the people involved in Oregon ornithology near Portland in her time. The purpose of this monograph was only to be a "Guide" to Grace's work. Hopefully, someone will use this guide to go through her notebooks and work up her bird notes, so that we can learn from what she saw and faithfully recorded.