Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: fingers

This morning, the first day of September, is cloudy, cool (9C with a windchill of 6C), with very light rain briefly. It feels like summer is over - a summer that has passed in a flash. Some of the trees are already getting yellow leaves. I'm really hoping that fall this year will be long, sunny and beautiful. It is the Labour Day long weekend. "Labour Day is a statutory holiday in Alberta, which is a paid general holiday for employees who are eligible. Labour Day is on the 1st Monday in September every year." Yesterday, 31 August 2018, I went on a fungi foray with a group of friends, out west of the city at West Bragg Creek. The trail we followed was the same as the one I took friend, Pam, along on 15 August. On the way home, a handful of us called in at a second spot, but the mushrooms seen that day were all in bad shape yesterday. This last short walk started with four of us and then it was just our leader and myself towards the end. Near the beginning of this second walk, we discovered that there must have been heavy rain that had caused a small stream flowing down the hill. This had turned to wet, very slippery mud, which made walking somewhat treacherous - as I soon found out! What a sight I was, covered in mud from shoulder to shoes : ) A lot of mess to clear up when I eventually got home. A good job I had driven myself out there, not car-pooled. Once again, it shows how dangerous it can be to look for fungi, lol. We didn't see a lot of fungi, but enough to make the trip worthwhile. Our leader sent an email of photos and IDs of some of the ones we found, but there are others for which I don't have the ID. As always, any ID given for any fungus is tentative, as mushrooms are extremely difficult to identify. As far as eating wild mushrooms goes, unless you are a real expert, never take the risk of being poisoned or made very ill. Several species have deadly look-alikes. There are even some species that make you very ill if you eat them and drink alcohol, As our main Naturalist in the city always says: "All mushrooms can be eaten, sometimes only once!" An interesting little book is "Wild Edible Mushrooms of Alberta: a Field Guide" by Tom Cervenka, published by Northern Bushcraft. northernbushcraft.com/wild-edible-mushrooms-of-alberta.php People tend to have different opinions about mushrooms. Some go searching just for ones that are edible and can be collected, while others go to look for what species they can find. My reason is to simply take photos, leaving each one in place so that others can see the beauty that I was lucky enough to see. By the way, the mushroom in this photo was picked by our leader in order to show us the underside. Usually, we see Pholiotas growing around the base of a tree, but this little cluster was growing away from trees, in the grass at the edge of the trail. I love the texture of Pholiotas. It is important to note that it is illegal to pick mushrooms in national or provincial parks, protected areas such as ecological or special reserves, and recreation areas.

Happy Father's Day, everyone! Back to posting after missing yesterday. I was so absolutely tired the previous evening, that I just didn't manage to find and edit photos to post early yesterday morning. I know part of the reason is lack of sleep, but I have felt overwhelmingly tired since getting back from Trinidad & Tobago. I need to get more sleep and then see if that helps. If not, I guess it is always possible that I picked up something during our trip. This was such a tiny beetle, seen yesterday, 17 June 2017, when five of us went east of the city for the day, to visit our friend, Shirley, at her seasonal trailer. I'm pretty sure I have the correct ID. I just loved how tiny it was and its beautiful colour. Thanks, Pam, for literally lending a hand! "Polydrusus impressifrons, also known as the the leaf weevil or pale green weevil, is sometimes found in large numbers in nurseries in the late spring/early summer. This weevil is European in origin and first found in New York in 1906. They are reported to feed on leaves of trees such as apple, birch, black locust, blueberry, elm, linden, oak, peach, pear, plum, poplar, rose, strawberry and willow (Beers et al, 2003; Rosetta, personal observation). They are rarely considered a pest but shade tree growers might want to inspect for terminal feeding and loss. Their feeding can be more of a problem on smaller, liner-sized plant material. Their larvae feed on roots." From Oregon State University. oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/Polydrusus_weevil.htm Most of our birding was done at and near Shirley's trailer site, including seeing a wonderful owl family, two Killdeer and their nests, a Baltimore Oriole, and (finally!) a Brown Thrasher. I had hoped for several years to see one of these birds, so it was a real treat to see a 'lifer'. It was far away and so high up, but I managed to get a couple of shots just for the record. We were so happy to be able to see the Great Horned Owl family - three owlets and both adults. There had been a fourth owlet, but it died recently. When I was posting a photo of two of the owlets this morning, I realized that one youngster was clutching a small bird in its talons! As we were walking around the grounds, two ladies stopped us and showed us some baby birds that they had had to remove from the engine of their vehicle, as they needed to drive. They wondered if we knew what kind of birds they were, but we were unable to help. I posted a photo of them this morning, just in case someone can ID them. The ladies had a bird house that they were going to put the babies into, hoping that the parents would hear them calling and be able to continue feeding them. Thank you so much, Shirley, for inviting us all out to visit you while you were there for the weekend! It was such a pleasure to see some of "your" birds that you enjoy so much. Such a great variety of species! Wow, what a lunch we had, sitting at a table under the Tree Swallow tree, with a very vocal American Robin just a few feet away and a pair of busy Tree Swallows flying back and forth with food for their babies. How DO birds manage to sing non-stop like this Robin?! Hot chili made by Shirley, and a whole array of delicious salads and desserts left me feeling full till the early evening. Many thanks, Anne B, for picking up three of us and for driving us east across the prairies. Hugely appreciated!

Macro shot of what I seem to remember was a Ball Cactus fruit. Two friends and I joined a group of people from Medicine Hat College on 21 September 2013, to go and monitor some Yucca plants in SE Alberta. On the walk into the area at Pinhorn Grazing Lease, someone showed us this very small Ball Cactus fruit and told us it was edible. I got the chance to eat it - and it was delicious.

I picked up one of the very small Bird's-nest Fungi to give an idea of its size, seen here against two of my fingertips. As you can see, two (or more?) of the spore-bearing "eggs" have not been dispersed (yet) by falling raindrops. Seen at Burnsmead a couple of days ago. Sorry, I'm behind with commenting - have been out so much, taking photos before the snow returns and stays. Should be safe from that happening for the next few days, thank goodness. Dashed over to Brown-Lowery Provincial Park this afternoon. Very muddy in the places I went and leaves are covering the ground now, making it almost impossible to see any small mushrooms that might still be around. It was a bit windy and the forest was full of creakings, scraping sounds, knocking sounds and rustlings. Sometimes, I later discover that it is a little squirrel making the noises, but it really creeped me out this afternoon, so I didn't go very far into the forest at all. Any day now, our extremely short fungi season will come to a complete end and I will suffer mushroom withdrawal symptoms for the next 10 MONTHS, LOL! Was out this evening at a talk on Butterflies. Will be out of the city all day tomorrow Friday), botanizing with a couple of friends, and then will be out all Saturday, too, with separate "events" in morning and afternoon.

Oops, I was hoping that this photo might look a bit sharper on Fickr, but I guess I just missed focussing on the Lacewing. Steve, a Professor down in the States, who is working at the University of Calgary's Barrier Lake Centre for the summer, took us on a butterfly walk on Sunday. This was one of the tiny insects we saw during this walk at the Open House.

Not the greatest photo of the Chickadee itself, but I loved the splash of colour of this lady's jacket and the way the little bird was clinging to her finger tips : ) Taken down in Fish Creek Park four days ago.

Towards the end of our botanizing walk at the Bearberry Prairie Natural Area/Sundre Natural Area four days ago, friend Doug handed me this broken mushroom to photograph. Definitely past its prime, but I don't remember seeing a fungi like this one before : ) It had been growing in moss and grass. ID provided by Doug Waylett - thanks! Wooly Inky Cap, Coprinus lagopus.