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.
July: Buffalo Mating Moon
The Osages commemorate the keystone species of the prairie, the bison, for its mating season, which used to be one of the greatest spectacles found in North America. The book The Osages has descriptions of the titanic battles between competing bulls and how they would plow up large areas of prairie sod as they pushed each other aroound. Read that and you’ll understand why the Osage clled this the Bufffalo Mating Moon.
This month is a time when many songbirds molt, or lose their colorful feathers that helped attract a mate in the spring. It is a time when many gooseberries are ripe in the woods, when warm season grasses shoot up tall and wildflowers grow taller to compete for the sun. Cicadas sing during the day, with damelflies and dragonflies eating mosquitoes while dodging the watchful eye of the bullfrog. At night, katydids begin their song while lightning bugs stitch across yards, meadows and fields.
Thunderstorms seem to lose their way, appearing, moving and disappearing almost at random this time of year, causing flash flooding at one spot while leaving nearby areas dry. A wet road at night can host steamy fog and fast jumping frogs crossing the pavement, while moonlit nights can bring out many a nocturnal animal beating the heat of the day. If the moon isn’t bright, take a look at the milky way that the summer so nicely showcases, including the constellation Sagittarius in the south, which looks like a teapot outline in the sky but holds the center of our galaxy.
Within the past week, we have had the best sightings ever of three very large beavers in/along Overland Park streams. We look in earnest every single morning to see ‘something’ in the water, and have only caught glimpses of beavers a few times in the past two years, so it was amazing to see two on the banks (one cleaning itself, one climbing out to cut down a small leafy plant and swim off with it) as well as one one slowly swimming along. All were bigger than I would have ever imagined, seemed serene and didn’t appear to notice us?
A wood duck still had her six babies with her this morning, there have been six for almost a month. Four baby squirrels in my tree are starting to venture down to the ground more frequently. A baby snapping turtle (shell the size of a half dollar) was in the grass near a pond yesterday. A lot of bird activity at dawn on Saturday at Heritage Park; great egret, great blue herons, teals, indigo buntings, green herons, northern kingbirds.
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Sounds like great places to visit, Debbie. Hope they are recognized as great habitat by those folks who tend the areas! Feel free to upload pictures of on this website if you like, and thanks for sharing.
Ken
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