Fungi, Lichens & Slime Molds 4

Every now and then, you can be lucky finding sunlight shining though the forest and lighting up the very fungus that you've found. This is an old photo from my archives, from a folder that I had forgotten about. Thought I'd post it and add to my Fungi, Lichens and Slime Molds 4 album - wow, that means I have 901 fungi, lichen or slime mold images on my photostream, lol. This one was photographed on 23 August 2010, SW of Calgary at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. Is this a species of Crepidotus? The famous, annual Calgary Stampede begins tomorrow, with the Stampede Parade taking place in the morning. William Shatner (from Star Trek) is our Parade Marshall. No worries about the weather, as it's a beautiful, sunny day today and tomorrow is supposed to be good, too. Too hot for my liking, though, as it's supposed to get up to 32°C (90°F) this afternoon. Lol, mid-evening, and the ice-cream van is driving up and down my street, playing Christmas songs! Hoping to make us all feel cooler??

I love seeing Rust Fungus on various plants. It's quite amazing what things look like when you take a careful, close look. If you happen to notice a small patch of vivid orange on a plant, take a closer look at it, and this is what you may see. This macro shot shows the orange spore pustules of Rust Fungus on Western White Clematis, growing wild at the Erlton/Roxboro Natural Area. After a volunteer shift on 23 July 2014, I wasn't too far away from the Erlton/Roxboro Natural Area, where I was finally going to go on a botany walk. Having been to this location several times before, I knew it was a short, easy, flat trail, and that I could go as far as I wanted and then turn back early, which is what I did. I've missed pretty well all the botany and birding walks the last few months, which is quite depressing. The main thing I wanted to see were the Nodding / Musk Thistles, as these are my favourite species of Thistle. They are called a "weed", but I love to see them. The sun was unfortunately in the wrong direction, so I was only able to get a handful of shots, but better than nothing. With a couple of hours to "kill", I spent them at the Reader Rock Garden, which was just a few minutes' drive away from the evening botany walk location.

Yesterday, 10 August 2014, I slept right through an hour of very loud music and then woke up nearly five hours later (around 11:30 a.m.)! As a result, I missed a trip with friends to a great place SW of the city, Brown-Lowery Provincial Park - one that I don't like going to on my own. Knowing that there would be other people in the area, I decided to still go, but not go very far into the forest on my own. Hopefully, the others would scare any Bears and Cougars out of the forest and not in my direction! To say that I could kick myself is to put it mildly! So much for hoping that other people would scare off any bears. When I arrived at the not particularly well-known natural forest, I signed the "guest book" as I often do. Before I turned the page to sign on a nice fresh page, I happened to read a comment that someone had written - a Black Bear had been seen that day, on the very trail I wanted to go on! I put the can of Bear Spray into my fanny-pack (can't use a backpack because of the rotator cuff inflammation in both my shoulders), but after a few steps, knew it felt just too heavy. Put it back in the car and instead, attached my bear bell to my camera strap and clutched a small air-horn in one hand. I only spent about an hour in the forest, but did not enjoy a single step of it, lol! I was determined to at least go a very tiny way in, having driven all the way there. Very thankfully, there was no sign of the bear - but also no sign of any mushrooms other than one tiny cluster of Pholiotas (in my photo above) at the base of a tree stump. Absolutely nothing, despite recent rain. Maybe it's still too early, especially after such a late spring? August is supposedly the peak of the fungi season here. Saw very little on the drive home - a couple of Hawks (one on a hay bale), a few Ravens and a few Crows, one Cedar Waxwing, and several very distant ducks. No sign of any Red-winged or Yellow-headed Blackbirds and no Wilson's Snipe.

Yesterday, 13 August 2014, I had a volunteer shift and afterwards, as I sometimes do, drove to the Reader Rock Garden. Thought I'd better see what flowers were in bloom, as summer is slipping away so fast and I haven't taken all that many colourful images of flowers, garden or wild. They come in so handy during the seven long months of winter that are not all that far away now, breaking the monotony of "white" photos. Some of the flowers were well past their prime, but still make an interesting shot. I was happy to find several of these mushrooms, especially as I, and others, have had practically no luck in seeing any fungi (yet). Some years are good fungi years and others are not. With a late spring and late summer, maybe it's still too early, though August is apparently the peak of the mushroom season here.

Two days ago, 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! The rock in my photo was a particularly nice one, standing out because it was bigger than the rocks immediately around it and it was covered in various Lichens. This little Pika made a quick, two-second stop on it several times, surveying the grasses and plants around it before dashing to gather a huge mouthful of "fresh greens" and then bounding up the rocky mountain slope to add its collection to a little cave among the rocks. They rely on existing spaces between the rocks for their homes - they don't dig a burrow, though they can dig to make their home bigger. Because the Pikas are a similar colour to the surrounding rocks, it is difficult to see them - unless you happen to catch sight of some movement or you see a mouthful of green moving at top speed over the rocks. As time passed, I managed to take quite a lot of photos, though many will need to eventually be deleted. Came home with too many photos to go through when I got home (at midnight!) and yesterday evening finally had a chance to take a better look. Hopefully today, I'll have a chance to add a bit more info about our great day out! Hope you don't get tired of seeing these little guys, but they are just so very cute. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small. And, no, I didn't put one in my pocket to bring home with me! "The American Pika is a generalist herbivore. It eats a large variety of green plants, including different kinds of grasses, sedges, thistles and fireweed. Although pikas can meet their water demands from the vegetation they eat, they do drink water if it is available in their environment. Pikas have two different ways of foraging: they directly consume food (feeding) or they cache food in haypiles to use for a food source in the winter (haying). The pika feeds throughout the year while haying is limited to the summer months. Since they do not hibernate, pikas have greater energy demands than other montane mammals. In addition, they also make 13 trips per hour to collect vegetation when haying, up to a little over 100 trips per day." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pika Link to a video that someone has posted on YouTube, to see and hear these little Rock Rabbits: youtu.be/W4U9IxhQSTc WHERE IS SUMMER??? Yesterday and today (21 August 2014) have been cold and wet! It is 11°C as I type (shortly before 1:00 p.m.), and it's raining. Looks like next week will be warmer. "Thermometers have been plummeting all week in Alberta, with below-seasonal temperatures making it feel more like fall than summer across the province ... The province can expect temperatures to remain below-seasonal for the remainder of the week, although slightly increasing on the weekend." From the WeatherNetwork. My youngest daughter's NEAR-ADVENTURE yesterday. Some of you may have seen on the News yesterday evening that a man climbed into a city bus that was idling while the driver took a break, and took it for a joy-ride! My daughter was the only person on the bus while it was idling, and the man told her to get off, before he drove off in the bus! I'm so thankful (so is she!) that she didn't have to stay on the bus till the Police managed to catch up with the bus and get the guy.

With a weather forecast of rain for tomorrow and mixed precipitation for Tuesday and Wednesday, there were a couple of places that I thought I had better get to yesterday, 6 September 204. The first one was Brown-Lowery, to check if there were any mushrooms. I was there recently, and only found a couple of things. Yesterday's visit was a little 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 short way in. Far enough, as it turned out, to watch an 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. On the way home, I decided to call in at Fish Creek Park, hoping to find a Beaver or a Mink that a friend had told me about (thanks, Phil!). Though I did see a couple of Beavers, I wasn't able to get a decent photo of them. One of them was a huge animal - this was the one that was recently found in a trap, biting off one of its front legs that was caught in the trap. Someone had been there when this was happening and she made several reports about it. Thanks, Linda, for doing this. Such a cruel way to deal with any Beaver problem! The now three-legged animal seems to be doing OK. I was luckier with this Mink, catching it in a couple of quick shots. There were various things blocking part of my view, which is why I got pale or discoloured patches in the lower half of the image (posted yesterday). On the walk back to my car, I was lucky enough to see a distant doe and her two fawns. Apparently, she had three, so we were wondering if something had happened to one of them. Maybe a Coyote? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mink

Not quite sure where this photo was taken, but it was taken way back on 17 September 2010. I seem to remember that that was the year that was so good for fungi. Not sure that I'll be getting out to find any this year, so I might just go through some archived files. Just checked on Flickr and discovered that these mushrooms were seen at a Birthplace Forest near the edge of Fish Creek Park.

With a weather forecast of rain and snow for the next two or three days, there were a couple of places that I thought I had better get to on Saturday, 6 September 2014. The first one was Brown-Lowery, to check if there were any mushrooms. I was there recently, and only found a couple of things. Yesterday's visit was a little more rewarding and I found several large clusters of tiny mushrooms growing on tree stumps or at the base of trees and various tiny mushrooms growing in the moss, including the small, white ones above. 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 an adult and 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 Woodpecker species seems to be reasonably tolerant of people. They are rare birds here, so I feel very lucky to have seen these two and any others in the past. On the way home, I decided to call in at Fish Creek Park, hoping to find a Beaver or a Mink that a friend had told me about (thanks, Phil!). Though I did see a couple of Beavers, I wasn't able to get a decent photo of them. One of them was a huge animal - this was the one that was very recently found in a trap, biting off one of its front legs that was caught in the trap. Someone had been there when this was happening and she made several reports about it. Thanks, Linda, for doing this. Such a cruel way to deal with any Beaver problem! The now three-legged animal seems to be doing OK. I was luckier with the Mink, catching it in a couple of quick shots. There were various things blocking part of my view, which is why I got pale or discoloured patches in the lower half of the image (posted yesterday). On the walk back to my car, I was lucky enough to see a distant doe and two fawns. Apparently, she had three young ones, so we were wondering if something had happened to one of them. Maybe a Coyote? This morning, 8 September 2014, the temperature is 3°C (37°F) and apparently feels like -1°C (28°F). Mixed precipitation today and the next two days, and then things are supposed to improve! I got up very early to go on a bird walk, but when I saw the overcast sky and large puddles outside, I changed my mind. Will go later in the week, when the sun should be shining.

With a weather forecast of rain and snow for the following two or three days, there were a couple of places that I thought I had better get to on Saturday, 6 September 2014. (Little did we all know that we were in for two days of heavy snowfall that has caused a huge amount of damage to thousands of trees and shrubs throughout the city.) The first place I wanted to get to was Brown-Lowery, to check if there were any mushrooms. I was there recently, and only found a couple of things. On 6 September, it was a little more rewarding and I found several large clusters of tiny mushrooms growing on tree stumps or at the base of trees and various tiny mushrooms growing in the moss, including the small, white one in the macro shot above. 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 an 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 Woodpecker species seems to be reasonably tolerant of people. They are rare birds here, so I feel very lucky to have seen these two and any others in the past. On the way home, I decided to call in at Fish Creek Park, hoping to find a Beaver or a Mink that a friend had told me about (thanks, Phil!). Though I did see a couple of Beavers, I wasn't able to get a decent photo of them. One of them was a huge animal - this was the one that was very recently found in a trap, biting off one of its front legs that was caught in the trap. Someone had been there when this was happening and she made several reports about it. Thanks, Linda, for doing this. Such a cruel way to deal with any Beaver problem! The now three-legged animal seems to be doing OK. I was luckier with the Mink, catching it in a couple of quick shots. On the walk back to my car, I was lucky enough to see a distant doe and two fawns. Apparently, she had three young ones, so we were wondering if something had happened to one of them. Maybe a Coyote?