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 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 called 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.
Kaw Valley Almanac 
The window where I’m working looks out on a small fish pond. There’s a skin of ice on it, but birds find it, sit on the ice which flexes enough to seep water from the edges. My idle question is how do the birds find this pond: I assume 1) random, flying until they see something that looks like water; 2) follow the leader, seeing other birds at the water; I wonder about 3) location memory, from previous trips to this pond. I plug in a heater on occasion to allow fish ammonia to escape during long cold spells. This pond and heated bird baths would seem to be the only sources of free water, so where would the birds have gone without human assistance? (including Bowersock turbines) Do bird counts in particular locations vary significantly within a season according to the availability of water? And of course, what about when it’s all locked up in ice?
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Bert, I suspect that the local avian species know our backyards much better than we do, down to the drippy leaky gutter that is located on the south side of the house next door where the sun creates a little melted water before any other place on the block, or how the edge of your fish pond might shift slightly in the wind, creating a little open water access, etc. Water access definitely changes who is around and where birds hang out, just as does the food supply, but our feathered kin are incredibly astute in finding and accessing both things. Just think about how the nesting territories in coming weeks are going to be staked out: those birds know exactly which bush is included and which branch is contested. If we could see the landscape like a songbird, we’d be blown away.
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