October 11, 2016

The weather in South West Ontario turned into the Fall pattern. Cold nights and fresh, sunny days. This will be a signal for Tricholomas to start and fruit in great numbers. Other cold weather mushrooms  (Late Fall Oyster, Blewit, Brick Cap) already started  shyly.


The Honey Mushroom had some spectacular growth this year. It was (and still is) present everywhere.

[caption id="attachment_3083" align="alignnone" width="663"]100_0780 Honey Mushroom prime for picking[/caption]

 

100_0782Consequently, Aborted Entoloma was also strongly present.

100_0764

Personally, I am not a big fan of Honey Mushroom. Some people compress the whole mushrooming season  in several days of harvesting great quantities of Honey Mushroom. I presume they are dried or pickled. At some spots traces of heavy harvesting are quite obvious.


My search for Maitakes this season was almost completely futile. I was only finding sad traces of harvested mushrooms at the base of oak trees.

dscn6574

It is unusual to see big fruiting of Amanitas this time of the year.  I did find some quite impressive ones.  I never noticed before, but lot of mushrooms bear visible marks of animal consumption.

[caption id="attachment_3090" align="alignnone" width="663"]Amanita muscaria Amanita muscaria[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3089" align="alignnone" width="663"]Amanita muscaria Amanita muscaria[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3088" align="alignnone" width="663"]Amanita muscaria Amanita muscaria[/caption]

Some of the finds were rare and exceptional. The Shelving Tooth (Climacordon septentrionale) was massive. I was not able to inspect in detail since mushroom was positioned on the trunk high above the ground.

100_0762 100_0763

I did encounter some interesting wild life, both high up and on the ground.

[caption id="attachment_3093" align="alignnone" width="663"]dscn6455 Probably Yellow-bellied Supsucker[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3094" align="alignnone" width="663"]dscn6551 Probably Wood Turtle[/caption]

Anyway, at this part of the season my main area of search will be coniferous woods. Apparently the air under conifers is more stable and even in temperature than in deciduous woods. I guess the reason is leafs falling and exposing grounds to elements.

 

 

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