Gregarious

I won't say that this find made up for the almost complete lack of fungi this year - because it didn't! However, it was a real treat to come across the huge cluster of small mushrooms on 6 September 2014, at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park (SW of Calgary).

With a weather forecast of rain and mixed precipitation for a few days (8-10 September 2014), there were a couple of places that I thought I had better get to straight away. The first one was Brown-Lowery, to check if there were any mushrooms. I had been there recently, and only found a couple of things. My visit on 6 September was slightly more rewarding and I found several large clusters of tiny mushrooms growing on tree stumps or at the base of trees. Also found several patches of bright orange Coral Fungi. Quite a few people were in the park, so I felt safer going a very short way in. Far enough, as it turned out, to watch a rare adult and a juvenile Three-toed Woodpecker feeding together on a tree trunk. The young one was copying Mom or Dad, but its soft squeaking sound resulted in the adult feeding it, too.

This year has not been a good year for mushrooms for various reasons, so I more or less gave up. Maybe next year will be better. Our two devastating snow storms on 9 and 10 September 2014 closed many/most of our parks and natural areas. Because leaves were still on the trees, the early, heavy snow destroyed or damaged thousands of trees in the city.