Magpie Inky Cap / Coprinus picaceus?

This is a long weekend here, thanks to a Civic Holiday on Monday.

"In 2018 Civic Holiday is on Monday, August 6. The Civic Holiday is celebrated on the first Monday of August and it's a public holiday in some provinces and territories. The civic holiday is not a statutory holiday although it's a day off for many employees across the country." www.statutoryholidays.com/civic-holiday.php

This morning, I checked the weather forecast for our city and I see that we have a very hot week ahead of us, with temps in the 30C's (up to 33C) for Tuesday to Friday inclusive! Much too hot without air-conditioning. This morning, it is only 15C so far. So thankful for some cool air coming in through my window.

Two mornings ago, on 3 August 2018, I left home around 7:45 am and drove SW of the city to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as Rod's forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful treasures. It is one of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, though I am sure there are many others that I have never visited and don't even know about.

Our last fungi foray at Rod's was one year ago, on 6 August 2017. That was such a dismal year for fungi everywhere - we saw maybe three very small mushrooms that I didn't even bother to photograph, plus a little cluster of Oyster mushrooms. Our latest visit was much better, as we have had a number of rainy days recently. Certain species were missing, though, including one of my favourite kinds - Fly agaric / Amanita muscaria. Two years ago, on 6 August 2016, we found a wonderful display of these mushrooms deep within the forest.

There was one small group of Magpie Inky Cap / Coprinus picaceus. So delicate and gorgeous. A photo I posted yesterday shows one of the participants holding up one of two beauties that were trodden on by our main Naturalist. I was taking photos of them when suddenly a boot appeared and came to within an inch of them. I told him not to move, but after stopping for a second, he then accidentally trod right on top of these and crushed them, to our 'horror'. I asked someone if she could hold one of them for me, so that I could take a shot or two, seeing as the stem had been broken in two. This morning, I am posting a photo of the two fungi just before they were stepped on. I have added a previously posted photo of a Magpie Inky Cap in better condition, taken on July 25, 2010, NW of the city, in a comment box below.

While I was taking photos during the morning, I suddenly noticed that the image seen in my FZ200's viewfinder was smaller than it should be and also that I could no longer take 48x zoom, just 24x. I had no idea why this was happening, until I got home and downloaded my photos to my computer. Somehow, no idea how, I must have caught the "burst" button, setting my camera to take multiple shots at a time - and when I say multiple, I mean MULTIPLE! I couldn't tell that the camera was taking more than one shot. I found that the default setting in my camera for burst was 60 images. So, every time I thought I was taking one photo, my camera was taking 60 basically identical shots. Sigh! Normally, I never use burst mode. Worst of all, the resolution of each shot is ridiculously tiny, so they are useless for anything other than displaying on a computer screen. The photo above is only 1920 x 1440 (1.57 MB after processing).

Many thanks, Karel, for leading this foray and for identifying some of the mushrooms that were seen. Others would need tests such as spore prints or microscopic study, etc. in order to be identified.

Our thanks to Rod, for once again inviting us to explore his amazing forest. He and his wife are such hospitable people, and we really appreciate their generosity in sharing their beautiful land that is so rich in diversity.