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.
Without encouraging them with string and stuff, mourning doves are nesting again on our front porch. We have seen hatchlings make it to fledglings and also failure. We try to use the back door for our coming and going, but the nest is nearly under your nose if you come onto the front porch. Out of cat reach, at least. I haven’t peeked lately, but there is at least one egg.
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So, we’re about two or three weeks early, no? Esp. with vegetation . . .
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Kinda depends anymore. For instance, looking at the first redbuds opening, this year it was around March 25, which is 2 weeks earlier than last year, 3 weeks earlier than 2013, but behind 2012, the year of the drought, when redbuds were blooming by the 21st of May. My sense in 2007 when I wrote Wild Douglas County was that the first week of April was the “normal” time for redbuds to open, so by that we are ahead a little more than a week, with plenty of room for “climate weirding” to mix it up a bit….
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I think this is useful information to keep track of. Glad you are doing some of it. Memory doesn’t serve as well as it might.
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