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· 25TH OF FEBRUARY, THE YEAR 2007WINTER NATURALIST
One of the best and worst parts about living in the Bay Area is the absence of proper winter, a winter that is cold and grey, when every sane creature is dead or sleeping. Bad for those of us with a love of snow and ice, but great for keen observers of the natural world. I’m going to break my “no Flickr” rule for a bit and show some photos from this winter so far. Just like one of those boring vacation slideshows! Actually, I used to love it when my dad would get out his old projector and show us slides of adventures past. Pictures taken off the wall, dark room, light leaking out of the projector in dusty rays. Ah the past.
The winter started out fairly dry, but lately we’ve been getting some rain, and the mushrooms have been popping up. Waxy caps, like the Scarlet Waxy Cap (Hygrocybe punicea, above and right) and the Righteous Red Waxy Cap (Hygrocybe coccinea, right) are splashing shady forest floors with color. I went on the Pt. Reyes Mycoblitz specimen collecting foray with a few iSchool friends in January, and despite contracting a rather nasty case of poison oak (basically by being stupid), had a great time finding all sorts of cool stuff, like the orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia) to the right. No substantial amounts of edibles, but still, tons of fun, esp. when we got back and saw the table full of ridiculous things others had found (thanks, k7). Clearly Pt. Reyes has many fungal secrets to reveal to me.
Another fun things about the Mycoblitz was that the woods were filled with mushroom folks. Usually I’m out there poking around alone, or at least getting funny looks, but there were a bunch of people out that day. I think I’ve been getting outside with others more in general these days. I even made a birding friend that’s under 60! Remarkable. We were down in Coyote Hills this weekend and saw all kinds of cool ducks, but I didn’t bring my camera (inadequate zoom for birding, really).
Last week I went on a really fun trip with some other friends up to Salt Point State Park, a somewhat legendary mushrooming venue in norhtern Sonoma County. There had been substantial rain the week before so I figured the woods would be primed, and indeed, cool stuff in abundance! The ones above are Horns of Plenty (Craterellus cornicopiodes, aka the Black Trumpet, aka La Trompette des Morts). Despite the French name, it’s quite edible, and pretty tasty! Reminiscent of the funnels Wesley Crusher so nobly resisted in that episode of ST:TNG. Well, the appearance. Not the flavor. Trek cred FTW.
I learned a ton from my more knowledgeable companions, including a few good spots, and about Yellow Foot (Cantharellus tubaeformis, right) and Hedgehog Mushrooms (Hydnum repandum). Flowers were even starting to come out up there, including trillium, coralroot, and the absolutely ravishing Calypso Orchid (right). My appetite was thoroughly whetted for the flower season down here around the Bay. There’s even a nice stretch of rocky coast up at Salt Point, and although the tide wasn’t exactly low, we spotted a bunch of cool anemones, sea stars, and some massive abalone.
When I got back I saw both Yellow Feet and Hedgehog Mushrooms at the Bowl for about $15 / lb, so, score. A bit.
It hasn’t all been about fungus, though. I saw the little Coast Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans) above on an especially warm day. There’s also plenty to be found under rocks and logs (some of my favorite places), like the Velvet Ant (Dasymutilla sp.), Black Widow (Latrodectus herperus), and millipede below, all found on a hike in Briones with Jessie.
And I guess there’s some warm-blooded stuff out there too, but who really cares about those guys anyway.
2 COMMENTS
orchid, furry wasp, cranium…i like
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