Kaw Valley Almanac

This Blue/Pitcher’s sage has just a few blossoms left, with most of the buds turning into seed. But the pale blue blossoms are enough to draw this hairstreak butterfly to gather some of its nectar.

The seasons continue to progress, shown in this photo by scattered showers in the sky and blooming perennial sunflowers. Shortening days trigger endocrine system changes in many species, including migratory patterns, growing winter coats and so on.

The seasons continue to progress, shown in this photo by scattered showers in the sky and blooming perennial sunflowers. Shortening days trigger endocrine system changes in many species, including migratory patterns, growing winter coats and so on.

Monarchs are seeking nectar from goldenrods and other blooming plants right now on their way south.

Cup plant is blooming right now. Its leaves envelop the stem creating a cup that can hold water from rain and dew, which is so important to birds and insects this time of year.

This milkweed seed pod has lost its cover, leaving the seeds inside exposed to a bunch of black and orange milkweed bugs.

This gray hairstreak butterfly, feeding at a showy partridge pea flower, has its head on top of the wing, with the orange patch at the bottom serving as a decoy so a predator might bite off its tail, not its head.

Sometimes summer bird feeders also feed young raccoons who like the high protein found in black sunflower seeds. The heat in coming days moves most mammals to become more nocturnal.

This widow skipper dragonfly, perched on a twig, seems to have had a close call with a predator, as is evidenced by the hole in the upper right wing.

This milkweed tussock moth caterpillar is protected from predators in the same way as monarch butterflies: the cardiac glycosides present in the milkweed sap makes the predator sick.

July 18 – 25 is National Moth Week, and this pawpaw webworm moth was found in all of its dotted-wing glory under a porch light over the weekend.

You might see Cope’s treefrog perched on the outside of your window after dark, waiting for a bug drawn by your house lights to become a meal. You might also hear its call, which will be fading in hotter, drier days.

This is a male Widow skimmer, so named because the black markings of both sexes of the dragonfly are suggestive of funeral garb. The males pick off insects in midair and the dragonfly nymphs eat mosquito larvae.

Daisy fleabane is a common wildflower found across the state and is not seen as a particularly nice one. But tell that to the bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets, moths and more who collect its nectar, eat its leaves, lay their eggs and otherwise call it home.

In area prairies, blackeyed susan, echinacea, coreopsis, prairie clovers, sensitivebrier, yarrow, daisy fleabane, lead plant dogbane, milkweeds, beebalm and others are blooming.