Ken Lassman has been keeping this almanac for over a decade, He invites you to share your observations and photos in the comments section. You can find his book Wild Douglas County at The Raven Bookstore and The Community Mercantile in Lawrence.
Buffalo Pawing Moon: June
The Osage, like many of the eastern horticultural tribes who inhabited the woodland/prairie transition zone from Minnesota to Texas, planted extensive gardens in the spring, then left the children and grandparents to tend them while most of the tribe went west to hunt bison. This is reflected in the name of the summer moons, which chronicle the behavior of the primary protein source for these tribes.
The parade of prairie flowers that began in May continues in earnest in June, with each week unfolding a new flavor of colors as wave after wave of wildflowers compete for the sunlight with the growing warm season prairie grasses. June also sees berries ripening, ranging from mulberries and blackberries to wild raspberries, gooseberries and currants.
Mammals are busy raising young, and some birds are starting second litters as the wheat ripens in the fields. Corn grows noticeably on a daily basis this month, and soybeans go from green rows in dark fields to a carpet of green. The summer solstice arrives on June 21st and the entire landscape seems to be alive with life as a result of the energy-filled longest days of the year. Nights are shorter, but full in its own way with the sounds of night life and the beautiful summer constellations in the sky, this year made all the more beautiful with Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn gracing our morning sky.
Kaw Valley Almanac 
Thank you so much for doing this. I have learned so much from your almanac. I live in Overland Park, so not quite Kaw Valley, but I figured I could still get away with signing up and hopefully a lot of your information would be relevant to me, and it is! Just this weekend during a jog on the trails, we noticed “there are a lot of those purple flowers this year, I wonder what those are?” and then today you let us know they are woodland phlox! What a nice surprise, and your blog has been full of so many of them. Never realized turkey vultures aren’t here year round until you mentioned it, have really learned a lot from you and appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Really enjoy your blog, thanks again!
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Thanks, Debbie, and yes, the landscapes of OP are very much the same and share the natural goings-on of the lower reaches of the Kaw Valley because even tho where you are is not technically in the same watershed, it’s in the same ecoregion as the environs of Douglas County. Indeed, the Kaw Valley drains all the way out to around Limon Colorado, the entire northern half of Kansas and south of the Platte River valley in Nebraska, so the watershed isn’t exactly the best indicator of a common plant and animal association! I think of ecoregions and watersheds as being like the warp and weft of a fabric where the ecoregion may go one direction and the watershed may go another, binding this place into the fabric of life that covers our beloved planet. Feel free to share any observations you might have along the way, and keep walking the lands!
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