Fall is here

As summer turns into fall I have been seeing a lot more snakes.  Here's a King Snake.  The King Snake gets very big and preys upon the venomous snakes, like the Copperhead and the Rattlesnake.

The mushrooms are getting more scarce but I have found some huge ones lately.  Here's the biggest Bolete mushroom I have seen to date.  A Tylopilus.

Had to pose Copper next to it to show scale.

Some Boletes develop a cap that looks just like leather.

Here's a side view of this mushroom.

Another Bolete that can get huge. Boletus Ornatipes.

Here's one that was quite large.

A view from the front.

And I spotted this Amanita a couple days ago.

Today it was huge.

That's my camera case next to it.

Here's a smaller one.

The large pointed warts are characteristic of this Amanita mushroom.

I found my first hen of the woods mushroom.

In Japan they grow as large as 50 pounds. They are called Maitake Mushrooms.  They are considered gourmet mushrooms.

There is also research under way to determine if these mushrooms are beneficial in treating cancer; they have been shown to stimulate the immune system.

Here's a side view.

I found this unique parasol shaped mushroom.  I believe it is an Amanita not quite sure. Maybe Amanita Brunescens.

I see a lot of these turkey tail polypores. They feature concentric zones of different colors.

My first purple mushroom, Laccaria Ochropurpurea

A toad on a toadstool, I think this is a honey mushroom.

Found some puffball mushrooms recently.

Although it doesn't look like it, these are attached to the ground.

When the mushroom is mature, the surface cracks and spores are released.  When the spores are released a new mushroom can form.  Picking mushrooms or in this case, breaking open the mushroom, means tons of spores are released with the potential of having even more mushrooms develop.

Sweet Picture of Copper

He's only looking at the camera because I have food!

Favorite WildFlower Photos

Some of my favorite flower photos from this year.

Angularfruit Milkvine

Azelea

Blackeyed Susan

Trumpet Creeper

Cherry Blossoms

Hairy Leaf Cup

Passion Flower

Morning Glory

Ironweed

Purple Flox

Tickseed Sunflower

Virginia Spiderwort

Crested Dwarf Iris

More from yesterday

Not sure why my picture isn't showing up in the previous blog post.

A picture of the Mill from the Yellow Trail (across the Bridge).

Blackeyed Susan's are everywhere.

A bright orange and black bug on a Flat Topped Aster.

That's all for now. Looking forward to shooting Fall Foilage.

September 13, 2013-All about mushrooms

It was a very pretty day today, lower humidity, blue skies and a nice breeze.  Perfect for mushroom hunting.  I was so excited today!  Found lots of nice specimens and some unusual, unique mushrooms I have never seen before.

Starting with the Hemlock Polypore Mushroom.  It took lots of googling to finally identify this one.  Polypores have a woody, tough texture.  But normally don't grow on the ground with a stalk.  I was quite excited to have finally identified it.  I have yet to buy a field guide because of all the wonderful resources on the web. I stumbled across an image of the baby one below on someone's blog.

Ganoderma Curtisii or Tsugae

They start out looking like this one.  This is the image that helped me identify the one above.  At first I didn't realize they were the same mushroom.  But you can see the white stalk emerges and pancakes out.

In this same area I found a purple stalked polypore. Also Ganoderma. (an old one) Very pretty color tones.

The underside of the cap looks like this

Most polypores are not stalked.  Mostly they are brackets growing shelf-like on a tree.  So it was quite exciting to find two stalked polypores in the same area.

Next I spotted a very pretty Rubescens Amanita. Known for its pinkish color.

Commonly known as The Blusher

I found another kind of Lactarius.  The only other I had identified before was the Lactarius Indigo.   They often have a donut shaped appearance with a depressed middle section.  The exude a milky substance when cut.

Lactarius  or Milkcap Mushroom

You can see the gills here

Next some Boletes.  Boletes always have a spongy cap instead of gills.  Here is a Bolete. Boletes are hard to nail down as to species. This may be Boletus pallidoroseus.

Next A Boletus Bicolor trio

You can see by the photo below the underside of the cap is yellow.

More Boletes,  these pancaked shaped.

A side view.  You can see Copper and my blue handkerchief in the background.

Back in the woods.  A baby white Coprinellus or Leucoagaricarus just emerging from the soil.

A picture of Copper waiting patiently for me to finish a photo shoot.