Kaw Valley Almanac
Note from the Times: The Kaw Valley Almanac is a contributed piece that runs each week. Find more information and older editions at kawvalleyalmanac.com, and follow @KVAlmanac on Twitter.
this week’s Almanac

Kaw Valley Almanac for Nov. 27 – Dec. 3, 2023
Winter flocks have come together. Concentrated further with each snow storm we get chickadees, cardinals, bluejays, juncos, nuthatches and titmouse; give yourself a ringside seat by putting out a birdfeeder this winter.
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Kaw Valley Almanac for Aug. 7-13, 2023
These sweet coneflowers, Rudbeckia subtomentosa, attest to the ongoing unfolding of yellow perennial flowers which will increase in numbers well into September.

Kaw Valley Almanac for July 31-Aug. 6, 2023
As July moves into August, many warm season grasses and wildflowers have shot up their seedheads, as captured in this sunset silhouette shot.

Kaw Valley Almanac for July 24-30, 2023
This colorful and dangerous looking wasp is the great gold digger wasp, Sphex ichneumoneus. It’s a rather harmless nectar eating wasp, as shown here on some rattlesnakemaster that is just beginning to bloom.

Kaw Valley Almanac for July 17-23, 2023
The compassplant shoots its stalks 6 or more feet into the air, and many insects, like this bumblebee, are loving it.

Kaw Valley Almanac for July 10-16, 2023
If you’re a gardener and see this caterpillar chomping down your dill, by all means let it eat as much as it wants because it will mature into a beautiful swallowtail butterfly.

Kaw Valley Almanac for July 3-9, 2023
This time of year it is not uncommon to have isolated storms that dump multiple inches of rain in isolated spots, but little to nothing elsewhere.

Kaw Valley Almanac for June 26-July 2, 2023
Sphinx moths are typically most active around dusk or even at night. This one was caught gathering nectar from the blossoms of the late-blooming Sullivant’s milkweed in broad daylight.

Kaw Valley Almanac for June 19-25, 2023
Butterfly milkweed is one of the most spectacular of the native milkweeds blooming now. There are nine butterfly species that eat the milkweed as caterpillars, then drink the nectar as adults, pollinating the flowers on the side.

Kaw Valley Almanac for June 12-18, 2023
Look closely and you’ll see a pair of great spangled fritillary butterflies and also a bumblebee. Milkweeds are pollinator magnets.

Kaw Valley Almanac for June 5-11, 2023
The hackberry butterfly can be found near many woodlands that contain hackberry trees right now. They are happy to sun themselves on your body!

Kaw Valley Almanac for May 29 – June 4, 2023
Here is the wonderful zebra swallowtail, found in the eastern tier of counties in Kansas, including Douglas County where this photo was taken.

Kaw Valley Almanac for May 22-28, 2023
The large milkweed beetle is colorful for the same reason monarch butterflies are: to warn potential predators that their milkweed diet makes them poisonous and not worth eating.

Kaw Valley Almanac for May 15-21, 2023
Spiderwort is a perennial native wildflower that has started blooming in area prairies.

Kaw Valley Almanac for May 8-14, 2023
The incredible fuchsia pink of the prairie phlox wildflower is showing up in area prairies, joined by prairie violets, lingering creamy wild indigo, puccoons, verbena and many others on the verge of joining them.

Ken Lassman: Lawrence Parks and Rec is downplaying herbicidal overkill of remnant prairie (Column)
”Parks and Rec is seriously downplaying the unlikelihood of the prairie (behind Prairie Park Nature Center) recovering after being so seriously damaged and depleted by this senseless act,” Ken Lassman writes in this column.