2 thoughts on “May 13 – 19, 2013 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!
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!
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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