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.
Deer Mating Moon – October
The Osage called this time Deer Mating Moon to commemoratee the very noticeable ree-appearance of the bucks, who are beginning to “rut,” which they literally do with their hooves. They find a prominent place and scrape the groundcover clear of vegetation as part of their mating ritual.
Hackberry, ash, box elder and elm trees are the first to turn yellow this month, providing nice contrast to the reds of sumac, poison ivy and Virginia creeper as their green chlorophyll plays out leaving either the yellow or red chlorophylls to collect the shorter day’s sunlight. Mid-late month spells the end of the growing cycle for annuals with the first killing frosts coming then most years. Mid-month is a great time to find native prairie patches, looking for the coppery colored grasses that distinguish them from the greens of cool season grasses such as brome, fescue and, of course, wheat.
Bird migration is building all month, with seagulls that breed in Canada passing through the area, along with pelicans, geese, and various ducks. A trip to Clinton or any other area reservoir, or the Wakarusa Wetlands is almost always a rewarding outing, whether it be for the migrating fowl around sunrise or sunset, or the changing colors of fall. This is the favorite time of year for many folks who like to be outdoors–what are you waiting for?
Deer Hiding Moon: September
The local Osage tribes called it “Deer Hiding Moon,” a time when bucks in this area are very reclusive while they finish growing antlers for the upcoming mating season. Even though they are hard to find, it is worth trying to spot a buck through binoculars this time of year to witness the softness of their antlers before they scrape off the felt to prepare for mating season.
September is the month of the autumnal equinox, mirroring March as the time of greatest daily change in the length of the day and the fastest movement of the point of sunset and sunrise on the horizon. Because of this, the word “equinox,” or equal day and night is somewhat of a misnomer because of the rapid daily changes that happen more quickly than any other time of year. Gardener/naturalist Sara Stein calls the fall the great planting time for nature. The seeds developed by the summer rains are themselves raining directly down on to the ground or coming into contact indirectly through the intestines of animals who have consumed their fruity coatings, giving them a ride and then depositing them along with some rich fertilizer for spring. Now is also the perfect time to visit some CRP native grass plantings or ungrazed native prairie to see how it is really taller than you are and how easy it would be to get lost in it.
Seeing the huge diamond of the square of Pegasus constellation rising in the east is a sure sign of fall and one of my favorite things about this time of year. The crisp, clear autumn weather is perfect for finding the northern corner of Pegasus where the constellation of Andromeda is located and seeing if you can see the Andromeda galaxy with your naked eye. The light from the Andromeda galaxy is the oldest light your eye can see without a telescope, having left the millions of stars in that galaxy over 2.2 million years ago.
Without carefully counting, there seem to be fewer eagles below the dam, even with the ice. Still, I see them. I sometimes wonder that we didn’t lose them all together and that the species is flourishing again. One flew almost directly over my head. I took it as a sign – of something : )
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There is a certain randomness to how many eagles can be spotted there, tho generally numbers are up when the ice is most widespread, concentrated by the shortage of findable open water. Squaw Creek National Refuge along the Missouri River keeps a semi-regular census and has the following numbers to share in the past month: 12/17:166 12/23:61 12/29:132 1/5:280. Eagle Nature Foundation has been doing a national midwinter census of eagles in the lower 48 and shows that the numbers are up considerably from their first census of 621 eagles in 1961 to over 3700 last year. There is concern that we are witnessing an 8 year decline in the number of immature eagles that make it to their first year, and experts are trying to poinpoint the possible contributors, including West Nile Virus, neonicitonid insecticides and other persistent environmental contaminants. Check out eaglenature.com for more details.
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Thanks for the added info. Of course the eagles make decisions on their own that we can only guess at.
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You’re welcome. And don’t forget that a week from this Saturday, Jan. 24, is Eagles Day at Free State High School which includes field trips to look for eagles. The Kaw Council walkabout-talkabout trips are being organized currently and my guess is that next month’s trip will be along the Kaw to look for eagles, too. Check out the schedule when it is posted at https://kawcouncil.wordpress.com/
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Hi Ken…I’m thinking about being up early in the morning, Friday, to photograph the crescent moon with Saturn to the right of the lower tip. In the chart above, you show Moonrise for Friday being 2:33am, but the time at this link shows 3:34am for January 16. Am I misinterpreting information? Thanks.
http://www.timeanddate.com/moon/usa/lawrence
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Hmmm….I double checked at the tie-breaking site I go to in all such cases, the US Naval Observatory website, and it agrees with the 3:34am moonrise time. I’ve been depending on what I thought was an excellent software program. Cartes du Ciel/SkyChart for my rising and setting times as it provided a very convenient way to download the information into a spreadsheet format, but it seems that the accuracy, once quite good, has drifted. I’ll have to dig deeper and let you know what I found out about that, but in the meantime, 3:34am is the correct time. Hope you get this in time!
Ken
UPDATE: Cartes du Ciel was correct–I just dumped the spreadsheet times one day off this week–the Friday morning date has slipped to Saturday! So sorry, folks; I’ll double check my times from here on out and hopefully won’t make the same mistake again. Thanks, Michael–hope the shot turned out great!
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You’re welcome, Ken…I opted to go with the times on the link I sent, got a shot (quite a few shots), but not the shot I hoped to get in part because I misjudged the point where the Moon would first appear. I need a compass that reads true north not magnetic north lol. For where the Moon is actually rising right now, I might have found another more suitable location on my way home. Maybe try again Saturday morning, since I’ll get an hour’s extra sleep lol, even though there will be more separation between the Moon and Saturn. Also, I definitely need to upgrade my lenses, which I knew before but realized how seriously this morning (which might be enough of an excuse to stay in bed! lol). Add a couple thousand to the camera budget this year…oh well lol…
Hey, glad you discovered what happened with the times and that the software is working fine. Thanks for this blog, Ken, very much…
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Reblogged this on University of Kansas Student Farm and commented:
What a great website, so informative! We are excited to have found it!
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Glad to share it–feel free to add a link to your web page and I’ll add yours to mine!
Ken Lassman
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