Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: The Sickener

Our bitterly cold weather continues. Yesterday, 6 February 2017, the forecast for this morning was -28C (windchill -35C!). Forecast for tomorrow morning is -27C (windchill -36C). After that, things are supposed to warm up, thank goodness. I haven't been out anywhere the last few days - too much new snow and such cold, cold weather. Almost unheard of, birding walks for yesterday and today were cancelled. Normally, many people will go, no matter how bad the weather. I tend to be a fair-weather photographer : ) On 8 August 2015, I decided to drive SW of the city for a while. It was a Saturday, so I thought I would go and check if there were other people parked at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. I had more or less stopped going into the forest there by myself, especially the last couple of years, knowing that Cougar and Bears can be seen there. All I have seen - so far! - is a large Moose on a couple of occasions. The place gives me the creeps, so I usually just walk through the trees closest to the parking lot. Just a minute or two after entering the forest near the parking lot, I flushed a Grouse, which scared the life out of me. They tend to wait, hidden, and then when you are almost by them, they suddenly "explode" out of the bushes, making ones heart beat fast. The opposite side of the trail, where I usually find a few mushrooms, had pools of water after the two devastating rain and hail storms that we had had recently. With several cars in the small parking lot, I decided to go just a short way into the park, trying to forget that animals can "smell fear". I did come across a few quite nice mushrooms, but with such a dry, hot summer, this season has not been good for fungi. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is "The Sickener" / Russula emetica fungus, as it has a red cap and a white stalk. "Russula emetica, commonly known as the sickener, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the genus Russula, one of many species with a predominantly red-coloured cap and white gills and stalk. It gets its common name from its inedibility, as it causes vomiting and diarrhea when consumed. It has an extremely peppery taste, which is said partly to disappear on cooking, along with its toxicity, though eating it is not recommended. Mixing one emetica with otherwise edible red Russula will ruin the whole meal, and it is a common reason some do not pick any red Russula-species." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula_emetica The second time my heart started beating really fast was when I was trying to focus on a mushroom and I was aware of a deep, huffing kind of sound coming from right behind me. Turning around, dreading what I might see, I discovered it was just a small Red Squirrel, low down on his/her tree, just a couple of feet away from me. I've never ever heard a Squirrel make this kind of sound before! Sounded rather like what I imagine a bear might sound like, ha. Almost back at the edge of the forest, I was happy as can be to hear quite a commotion that I recognized as being American Three-toed Woodpeckers. There were three of them high up in a tree, with at least one of them being a noisy, hungry juvenile that was feeding itself but every now and then would want the adult to feed it. This species is uncommon in Alberta, year round, so it's always a treat to see one - and especially three.

This photograph was taken yesterday, while exploring Rod Handfield's wonderful forest. This was the only Russula emetica that I saw. Not the most perfect specimen, but I wanted a photo for my records. "Russula emetica, commonly known as the sickener, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the genus Russula, one of many species with a predominantly red-coloured cap and white gills and stalk. It gets its common name from its inedibility, as it causes vomiting and diarrhea when consumed. It has an extremely peppery taste, which is said partly to disappear on cooking, along with its toxicity, though eating it is not recommended. Mixing one emetica with otherwise edible red Russula will ruin the whole meal, and it is a common reason some do not pick any red Russula-species." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula_emetica It was a late start to my day this morning. Yesterday, 6 August 2016, was a physically and mentally exhausting day, and I'm still feeling the effects. A great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as his forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful finds. It is one of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. This year has turned out to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we have been getting the last few weeks, apart from the scattering of sunny days. This year has so far had such weird weather - a very mild, dry winter, a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and now a wet, thundery summer. We met a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there, maybe four years ago, we had seen a beautiful Amanita Muscaria mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the walk. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this poisonous species. The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us! Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. In the last year and a half, I have had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. The muffler and a few other things died several days ago and instead of spending a fortune on repair, I decided I would rather put that money towards a new vehicle. I had been thinking about replacing it the last few years, but now, enough is enough! I'm down to deciding between two models and will have to make up my mind today. All being well, within the coming week, I will once again have a set of wheels, which will feel wonderful. Thanks so much, Sandy, for making it possible for me to go on the great morning at Rod's place and then, for giving up your whole afternoon, helping me look at cars and for also test-driving both. Appreciated beyond words! You are making this whole ordeal of replacing my car so much less traumatizing than it would have otherwise been!!

We came across several of these fairly large Russula emetica mushrooms when we were botanizing Rod Handfield's forested land on 17 August 2010. The Handfields live SW of Calgary and W of Millarville. Ha, I gave up trying to get a clear shot of this fungus - just too much growing around it - but posting it as a record of what we found. "Russula emetica, commonly known as the sickener, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the genus Russula, one of many species with a predominantly red-coloured cap and white gills and stalk. It gets its common name from its inedibility, as it causes vomiting and diarrhea when consumed. It has an extremely peppery taste, which is said partly to disappear on cooking, along with its toxicity, though eating it is not recommended. Mixing one emetica with otherwise edible red Russula will ruin the whole meal, and it is a common reason some do not pick any red Russula-species." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula_emetica

I LOVE it when someone has "picked" a mushroom - then I can photograph it without any guilt : ) Went with a handful of friends to Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on 14th August and we came across a wonderful display of these gorgeous, vibrant fungi. As the name implies, this fungus is poisonous.

This small mushroom was maybe an inch across, if that, from what I remember. Thank you, Susan, for pointing out this colourful find of yours : ) It was pushing through the soil at the Mountainview Handicapped and Sports Society Centre, north west of Calgary (near cremona), when we stopped to botanize the area on 30th July. We did this after spending a good part of the day botanizing a wonderful bog near Cremona. (FInding it difficult to remember where I've been and on what days - all my outings tend to blur into one, long outing in my mind, LOL!). Not a lot of fungi (yet!), but we are starting to see the occasional one on our outings. Not sure if this is Russula emetica (also called "The Sickener", as it is poisonous).

Another shot of this beautiful red mushroom, taken on 6th August at the Bentz Lake Natural Area. This glorious mushroom came as a total surprise - and made my day! "Russula emetica, commonly known as The Sickener, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the genus Russula, one of many species with a predominantly red-coloured cap and white gills and stalk. It gets its common name from its inedibility, as it causes vomiting and diarrhea when consumed. It has an extremely peppery taste, which is said partly to disappear on cooking, along with its toxicity, though eating it is not recommended. Mixing one emetica with otherwise edible red Russula will ruin the whole meal, and it is a common reason some do not pick any Russula-species." From Wikipedia. Not sure what happened to Flickr a bit earlier this evening - nothing but blank, white pages! I know I'm not the only one who had that.

Very occasionally, I will come across a mushroom that has been pulled, presumably by someone who is studying fungi. This was the case the other week, when I came across a display of several of these large, amazingly beautiful Russula emetica (also called "The Sickener", as it is poisonous) in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. Only this one had been pulled, and I made the most of it : ) Though I have now pulled a handful of mushrooms, I would still find it impossible to make myself pull most of the beautiful ones I see, especially if there is only one glorious individual. I always feel that someone else might come along the trail after me and might notice it and thoroughly enjoy seeing it. Sigh ... I guess most of the fungi I see will go unidentified, without a photo of the underside. Or maybe I will eventually change - Ron W, you surely did everything you could to convince me that pulling mushrooms is OK and in fact essential to possibly getting an ID : ) By the way, this is the forest that has bears, cougars, and moose (have only seen a moose so far, and I hope it stays that way!). Actually, two cougars were seen in there just recently, along with their kill. Just looking at this photo creeps me out - I find it extremely uncomfortable and freaky in there.

I've just e-mailed this mosaic to someone, and thought I might as well add it to my Flickr photostream. Can you tell that I love photographing mushrooms, LOL? (Apologies, Doug, if this ends up arriving in your Inbox! A quick click and it will be deleted : ))

I was thrilled to bits yesterday when friends called me over to see this beautiful, red mushroom! We don't usually see a sight like this, so it was an extra special surprise when we were exploring and botanizing the forest at the Bentz Lake Natural Area, north of Calgary and west of Sundre. And, yes, in case you are wondering, this really IS its colour : )

In true fashion, one of my talents came into play yesterday when I went to Brown-Lowery Provincial Park yesterday. There is just the very occasional wooden map sign and I always triple (at least!) check that I am going in the right direction. Well, don't ask me how I managed it, but I ended up going deeper into the forest in the opposite direction to where I thought I was going. I really do have such a dreadful sense of direction! However, if I hadn't taken a wrong turn, I would never have seen a patch of several of these gorgeous red mushrooms! They were very approximately 4" or 5" diameter. Russula emetica, also called "The Sickener", as it is poisonous.