Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: textured

Another photo from my archives. I'm always happy to come across a Puffball or a group of them in the forest. I love the texture on the caps. Found this one and a few other species in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, SW of Calgary, on 17 August 2013. Apparently, 2013 was not a particularly good year for fungi, but I also only got out maybe four or so times to look for them. So many places were closed due to devastation caused by Alberta's Flood of the Century in June. It was a strange and quite depressing summer for everyone, especially, of course, for all the many thousands of people who suffered damage to their homes or lost them completely.

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.

I'm always happy to come across a group of these beautiful mushrooms - Pholiotas? Love the texture on the caps. Found these and a few other species in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, SW of Calgary, on 17 August 2013. Apparently, 2013 was not a particularly good year for fungi, but I only got out maybe four or so times to look for them. So many places were closed due to devastation caused by Alberta's Flood of the Century in June. It was a strange and quite depressing summer for everyone, especially, of course, for all the many thousands who suffered damage to their homes or lost them completely..

I'm always happy to come across a group of these beautiful mushrooms - Pholiotas? Love the texture on the caps. Found this and a few others in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, SW of Calgary, on 17 August 2013. Apparently, 2013 was not a particularly good year for fungi, but I only got out maybe four or so times to look for them. So many places were closed due to devastation caused by Alberta's Flood of the Century in June. It was a strange and quite depressing summer for everyone, especially, of course, for all the many thousands who suffered damage to their homes or lost them completely..

This is a supermacro of this interesting slime mold! The small, pink, textured "balls" can be somewhere around a quarter of an inch across, though some are a bit larger and some smaller. Found a scattering of these on a log yesterday, 17 August 2013, at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. It rained when I was driving to the park, cleared up by the time I got there, but the light was not good within the forest. Luckily, a bit of sun was shining on these two. Also saw a pair of Ruffed Grouse and a group of three rare Three-toed Woodpeckers, which was so lucky! "Lycogala epidendrum, commonly known as wolf's milk, groening's slime is a cosmopolitan species of plasmodial slime mould which is often mistaken for a fungus. The aethalia, or fruiting bodies, occur either scattered or in groups on damp rotten wood, especially on large logs, from June to November. These aethalia are small, pink to brown cushion-like globs. They may excrete a pink paste if the outer wall is broken before maturity. When mature, the colour tends to become more brownish. When not fruiting, single celled individuals move about as very small, red amoeba-like organisms called plasmodia, masses of protoplasm that engulf bacteria, fungal and plant spores, protozoa, and particles of non-living organic matter through phagocytosis." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycogala_epidendrum

A whole area of Jim Coutts' wonderful homestead gardens, just north east of Nanton, south of Calgary, was covered in these mushrooms. Though each one looked slightly different from the others, this was basically how many of them looked. Quite fascinating to see them all growing amongst a patch of trees. Taken on 27th August 2010, when a group of us was fortunate enough to visit Jim and his home again.

Every once in a while, you can be lucky enough to find a tiny ray of sunlight piercing the forest and falling in just the right place, lol. The rest of the time, you are trying to take photos that are even remotely worth keeping, in dark, dark places. I checked to see if I had used flash for this one, but no, I didn't. Very occasionally, I find that flash can work in the forest, but most of the time, the flash on my little camera is too harsh. This one was growing at Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park, on September 2nd.

August 20th of this year was an amazing day for finding fungi! This is just one of the many species we found. I love the shape and texture of its cap.