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.
Coon Breeding Moon – November
As you drive down roads this time of year, be aware of the raccoons who are crossing, especially at night. Look for their human-like footprints in the mud and it will clarify why they held such an important place in local storytelling lore.
This month is peak waterfowl migration and the eagles are returning to cottonwood trees along the river. Their white heads and black bodies with large flat wingspans can also be seen in the blue skies, and if you lay on the ground and watch the sky for a while, chances are that you’ll see some migratory bird flocks fly by, sometimes at very high altitudes.
Most leaves are migrating to the ground, with most trees becoming mostly bare in the first week of the month or so. It’s time too get your bird feeders going and this month is when some hunting seasons begin–check the Parks and Wildlife website for details.
It really is a great time to take walks, with insects gone and wildlife made more visible by the leaf drop. The longer nights can draw you into watching the winter constellations which are beginning to rise in the east, with some of the prettiest and dramatic stars of the year, whether you are looking through binoculars, a telescope or your eyes.
We skated on less than 6 inches. Lighter then. Some of the best times I can remember. Hardly felt cold until it came time to unlace the skates, then the fingers didn’t work properly.
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My folks would always have us cut a hole in the ice to make sure it was that thick before they turned us loose and I believe that there were times 6 inches were not measured with a ruler. When it snowed on the ice, we would shovel a spoked circle and play goose and fox, a kind of game of tag where the fox would tag the geese and send them to the middle space where they could be freed by other geese–unless the fox tagged them first. Great fun until you could no longer feel the toes on your feet!
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Hi Ken, I can hardly believe the healthy stand of bittersweet in your photo. Our stand (a well-guarded secret) was just a smidgeon of what it was last year. The entire vine that usually trails up into a tall tree was completely dead. We had to satisfy ourselves with a sparse gangly showing along the side of the road. Thanks for nourishing my connection to Kansas on a weekly basis with your observations for the Kaw Valley Almanac!
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Someone else said that their bittersweet was scragglier this year, too. I don’t know what to account for it being so healthy here, other than around here, almost all plants look so much better than they were doing the last couple of years. The drought might have knocked back some bittersweet and killed others outright, just as it did with some trees which survived the dry spells only to die this year. As an aside, my stands are American bittersweet; there is a chinese variety that has been introduced and is much more aggressive than the native version.
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