Yesterday's treat

I've had problems transferring my photos from Flickr to ipernity this past week. They kept appearing in the wrong order, so I've just this minute caught up by uploading them from my computer - takes so much longer to do it this way, copying and pasting all the info. I fell behind and haven't been on ipernity - trying to cut back on computer use because of my painful shoulders, plus having to go to physiotherapy. Now the physio has changed to just one shoulder plus my back, as the intense pain in my back is stopping me going on my birding and botany walks. I guess all the pain is connected, which is really frustrating. My apologies especially to Art, as I have fallen behind with commenting on his beautiful images!

Yesterday afternoon, 12 June 2014, I drove westwards to the mountains, along Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66) as far as Maclean Pond. I did a very slow walk, and was happy when I noticed these tiny mushrooms growing on a fallen, rotting log. The tallest one may have been an inch tall, so you can imagine how small the smallest one was. When I come across fungi that look like these, I'm never completely sure whether they are mushrooms or if they belong to a lichen that grows something very similar. If it is, in fact, a lichen (Lichenomphallia ericetorum), then the following information would apply:

"Lichenomphallia is a genus of lichenized Basidomycetes or club fungi which has spores produced on club-shaped basidia. The lichen fungus resembles a mushroom and the algae are concentrated in special tissues or lobes at the base of the fruiting body. This plant is found in both books on Lichens and books on Mushrooms as Omphalina."

Many thanks, Ken, for the ID confirmation - Lichenomphallia ericetorum.

The previously posted image in a comment box below shows the lichen (Lichenomphallia ericetorum).

I had hoped to find lots of wildflowers in bloom, but the main plant was the Dandelion, so it was obviously too early after our late spring. Also a very few Shootingstars, one Blue-eyed Grass in bloom, several Valerian flowers, several clusters of Mouse-eared Chickweed, and not much else.

On the way home, I drove a few of the backroads SW of Calgary, where I photographed a pair of Mountain Bluebirds, a Snipe, a Tree Swallow, a Brewer's Blackbird, and a Black Tern that was perched on a fence post. Usually, when I see Terns, they are flying fast and my camera can't catch them.

The forecast was for rain last night (which did arrive) and rain today, which is why I went for a drive yesterday. So far this morning, the sky is overcast and dreary and it looks like more rain is coming. Yesterday, while I was photographing the Bluebirds, there was a cold wind blowing and the temperature was only around 10°C.