Because of the Rain!

Dyer's Polypore - Phaeolus schweinitzii

Mushrooms are popping up all over the place, lichens and moss are springing back to life, ferns are sprouting, raptors are spreading out their feathers to dry, and ducks are on the pond again, all because it rained heavily a week ago!  It's amazing how quickly our local ecosystem has changed over this past week!

 

I came across this very unusual fungi in my neighborhood this week. They kind of looked like muffins with a lightly broiled, cheesy-cauliflower topping! They were only about 1.75" tall, and didn't have any pores, gills, or teeth! I carefully looked through my field guide, page by page, but couldn't find a match! Then I posted the photos on iNaturalist.org, but no one identified them! So I sent photos to two friends, who then sent them on to the same mycologist, an Assistant Professor at CSU East Bay University, and bingo he identified them as VERY YOUNG Dyer's Polypores - Phaeolus schweinitzii. Mystery Solved! How cool! Apparently they don't look at all like the mature polypores, that are large and round, like a fluted plate! No wonder I couldn't find them in the field guide!  I'm going to photograph their development and post it in a future blog!

Boletes - unknown mushroom - Puffballs

I spent several hours this week searching for mushrooms in the local woods.  I found hundreds of them!  However, I'm not good at identifying the majority of mushrooms I find.  There are SO many kinds of mushrooms (an estimated 3,000-4,000 species in California), and many of them also vary greatly in color and shape during their lifespan, that I usually find them difficult to identify. Unless of course it's a very common one that doesn't vary much and looks just like one of the photos in a field guide (in my dreams!). Therefore I haven't identified most of the ones pictured here. Every year I learn a few more, so in 20 years I'll be able to identify...

Questionable Stropharia - Puffballs - unknown mushroom

Even though I don't know the proper name of most mushrooms, I find it really fun to go out looking for them. I enjoy their unusual shapes, textures, sizes, and colors. The main part of a mushroom is a web of fine white threads called mycelium, usually found underground. The individual threads are called hyphae. This is the part of the mushroom that digests nutrients and can also create a mycorrhizal relationship with trees. Additionally, when a male hyphae and a female hyphae meet underground, they fuse together and produce a mushroom. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of the mycelium.

unknown mushroom -  emerging Amanita - older Amanita (species unknown)

If you want to eat mushrooms you really need to be able to identify them precisely.  Several deadly-poisonous mushrooms look just like non-poisonous mushrooms.  Before you eat any mushrooms, I highly recommend taking a mycology class, or taking a mycologist with you into the field!  There are also many excellent mycology websites online. My favorite is mykoweb.org, which has photos and text for 831 of the California mushroom species! 

Banana Slug feasting on a Bolete!

A variety of critters are fungivores (eaters of fungi), such as the Northern Flying Squirrel, deer, mice, voles, squirrels, beetles, and even banana slugs!  It appeared to me that the favorite mushroom for slugs and other critters with teeth were the Boletes!  I came across several areas of the forest, which I named Bolete Buffets, that were littered with dozens of chewed up boletes on the ground! Boletes have pores, that are actually tubes lined with spores, instead of gills.

Sharp-shinned Hawk - Accipiter striatus

I saw a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk perched in the big cedar at the cemetery one morning this week!  It had rained overnight, and it was spreading out its tail feathers and wing feathers to dry!  Just beautiful!  It's probably the same one I've been seeing lately.  There was also one perched outside an upstairs window of our house this week!  Didn't get that great of a look, or photo, to see if it's the same one.  It probably was, as there aren't usually several hawks of the same species in our neighborhood.  There's not enough food for more than one!

Hooded Mergansers (2 males - 1 female - 1 juvenile) 

Lophodytes cucullatus

Joubert's Diggins

We stopped at the local pond again this week and to my delight there were several different ducks present!  The water had clearly risen from the rain, and its clarity was way better.  You could even see the underwater green plants!

Hooded Mergansers are listed as visiting our area in the Winter, or non-breeding season! They primarily breed up north in Canada. Classified as diving ducks, Hooded Mergansers eat small fish, aquatic insects and crustaceans, particularly crayfish. They have serrated bills for grasping and handling slippery prey. Their eyes are specially adapted to see underwater.  I've seen Hooded Mergansers on this pond before!  So nice to see them back again, and with a small juvenile!

Mallard (male-females) - American Coot - Ring-necked Duck

Anas platyrhynchos - Fulica americana - Aythya collaris

I spotted the sleeping Mallards because of their reflection in the pond.  I've seen Mallards on this pond year-round, often with their ducklings in the summer.  

The American Coot has been here a few weeks!  It was fun to watch it cruise around with the Hooded Mergansers!

The Ring-necked Duck is probably another winter visitor to our area, as most of these ducks breed in northern Canada. However, some stay in our area year-round and raise their ducklings locally.  I've never seen a Ring-necked Duck on this pond before!

Fiberfill from a garden scarecrow in an Oriole nest!

Damp Earth Art

We got another .32" of rain this week, on Sunday and Thursday, and more is on the way.  Yahoo!!!  Thanks to all of you who contributed art, thoughts, and wishes to this "rain dance"! It's been fun! I'm going to keep posting rain inspired writings, art, etc. on my blog at dampearthart.blogspot.com. Check it out and pray for rain!

What kind of plant is this?

How are the mosses and lichens?

Are there any insects around?

What's happening in the Lakes Basin?

Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more.

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