fungus sightings – Page 3 – The Hermits' Rest

I Could Turn Left Rather Than Right

What could you do differently?

I think I already answered a version of this question so I’m going in a different direction with it. Ha ha. Direction. I mean, there’s a sh** ton I could do differently, and I’ve written about that enough.

Instead, let’s take a walk, but differently. Today I turned left rather than right when I left our driveway on my daily nature walk. Whoa.

I’d been wanting to walk the other way down our road past our property line for a while, because there are some empty fields and mottes of trees where I’ve heard interesting birds while I was busy doing horse control at Sara’s place.

So, off I went. First I had to enjoy the horses, who were lounging around after playing in the burs (mostly Drew). They’re so cute when they lie down. I do wish they then wouldn’t grind mud into their coats, but they ARE horses.

As for birds, I was glad I brought my binoculars, because I got to get a good look at our resident American Kestrel and see it fly with the sun shining through its feathers.

The sun was so bright today that things were hard to see, but I was rewarded by seeing sun dogs in the clouds on either side of it for a while. Perfect cloud placement.

I saw a lot of woodpeckers, vultures, hawks, and caracaras. I also noticed that all the doves I saw were Eurasian Collared Doves, not the Mourning Doves I see at my house right down the road. Binoculars helped with that.

I heard both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, which is cool, but I didn’t see anything new other than a White-breasted Nuthatch. I thought I’d see. One before, but I guess not.

I’m glad I took the walk in this direction, because I got to visit with Sara and look at her permaculture garden progress. Of course, for me the highlight was getting to visit with Jhayati, who is 8 months old now. She’s a beautiful filly and has such a striking face. I sure look forward to watching her grow.

After I saw her, I saw one more mockingbird then no more birds at all. Do they have clocks? They shut up at 11am.

Luckily there was still something interesting to see. I saw what looked like eggs on the ground where hay bales recently were. It was the eruption of the most cool mushroom we have here, the Lizard’s Claw Stinkhorn Lysurus cruciatus.

Interesting note: I posted photos of this on The Hermits’ Rest Facebook page, which is public, and suddenly weird replies from so-called people trying to promote psychedelic mushrooms popped up, repeatedly. Sigh. Lots to block. This mushroom just stinks. I didn’t see anything about it being psychedelic, but I’m now glad I didn’t lick it.

Penney says she’d lick it for me.

Better Days Do Come

Sometimes when you have a long string of anxious and worried days, it’s nice to have one that builds you up. I hate it when I’m dealing with annoying physical symptoms and I’ve done all I can to get my equilibrium back, but the truth is sometimes I just have to wait it out. Today helped!

I got to enjoy what passes for fall color in College Station Today.

Penney woke me up by wigging and licking like crazy for about an hour, so I got up, looked at the damp day, and did my nails with a set I’d looked forward to using, which looked like a brocade cloth with big flowers on it. It didn’t go on really great, but it perked right up when I added some gaudy jewels I had hanging around. Now the whole thing looks over the top, but it cheers me up.

After talking to the chickens, I headed over to the place I got them, Bird and Bee Farm, where our Master Naturalist wildscape project is located. I rarely have time on their special days to get out there, so I was glad I had a while to drop by.

I’d intended to take photos of all the butterflies, but it was still too damp in late morning for them to be out. Even the bees were still napping.

My friend Debi and I looked at all the flowers and found lots of caterpillars and a cat.

All these black ones came up as salt marsh moths

It was so pleasant just wandering around and seeing what is still hanging around this time of year. The dew was so heavy that it made for fine photo ops. It’s nice to photograph non-wildflowers like roses and zinnias occasionally

I hung out with birds a bit, and heard a new wren on Merlin, a sedge wren. I wish I’d seen it because it sure looks cute in its photo online. Instead, here are turkeys.

After talking a while with other Master Naturalists, I had to leave. I hope Patsy notices I put my nails in the blog for her.

The reason I had to leave was that I had my second watercolor class at Brazos Watercolor Retreats in College Station. We learned to paint trees with sunlight pouring through them. There were lots of new techniques to learn, like making white space by putting some rubbery stuff on the paper before painting. I also learned to make the sun rays.

I didn’t do a great job on the tree part, but I know what I’d do differently if I tried again. For a first try, I’m fine with my finished product. Maybe I should get some paints, brushes, and paper. It’s fun to see how the colors come out.

I even made it home in time to feed the horses before it was too dark, which makes it a lot easier to give Apache his medicine. They have a new bale of hay, and judging from the holes in the wet ground, they had a good time running around after they escaped while the tractor was going in. Those little dickenses.

So, yay, today has been fine enough that I’m handling learning about a few deaths in my circle pretty well. I have plenty of energy to send out love to all the families and friends, which feels really good.

Hug a loved one.

Eye Witness to the Circle of Life

Today was a great camping day here at Buescher State Park. I’d like to start the highlights with some coolness that happened right at my campsite.

This is a Gulf fritillary butterfly in the straggler daisies behind our motorhome. I was knitting and enjoying the afternoon as various butterflies flitted by. This one seemed to have an agenda.

It flew over to a vine just beyond the edge of the woods. The butterfly spent a lot of time going from leaf to leaf. I actually hadn’t noticed the vine before, but looking at it I realized it resembled a passion vine. I hadn’t seen any here yet, and there it was, right in front of me.

As I was taking the photo above I noticed something. There were two caterpillars on the vine. I took pictures of them, too. Then I went to look up the plant and the insect.

Well. The plant was a yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea). The caterpillars were Gulf fritillary babies. The butterfly had been laying eggs. Right there, the whole circle of life! Now I know the host flower for these guys.

As for the rest of the day, it started with chatting by the breakfasts of various fellow camping friends. Then I sort of led an interpretive hike down a wooded trail with seven other people. It was fun teaching the two kids some stuff as well as learning from all the campers.

We found some pretty flowers among the trees, including exuberant liatris, pink ruellia, and these darling tiny blue curls.

I enjoyed walking with folks who were as excited about little flowers as me, and a couple of the fellow campers were great observers. We even geeked out over fungi and molds.

It was a great time, but we ended up tired!

I did my nails a dark yet sparkly celestial color for the end of my beloved Daylight Savings Time, then hung out with various friends in the afternoon. It’s so good talking to people who know and accept you.

I made egg salad for the traditional Live Oak potluck meal. The eggs weren’t cooperative so it took a while, but it ended up tasty. Especially with homemade salsa on it.

For a small group we ended up with a perfect variety of foods. We just fit in the tent pad on one of our campsites. It was great to all be able to talk to each other. There was only one couple I hadn’t met yet, who were lots of fun and very interesting. What a good time.

The gang, minus Joanna and Tom, cause she has to preach tomorrow.

On our way back to our site, Lee and I tried to take star pictures. Mine are only okay because I moved and messed up Jupiter. We also tried to get some of the lake.

What a great day!

Things to Wonder About

Still I’m a little surprised that I managed to get in so many interesting observations when camping under an official “heat dome” phenomenon. I think what helped was that some of the interesting things showed up right next to me.

This little feller was conveniently on my hand this morning. It’s a bronze jumping spider.

It also helps to be around people who are as excited about nature as you are. Our camping neighbors were very excited that one of them had found a live cicada. Then, when he went to show us, it had just emerged from its old exoskeleton. He kept saying, “THAT WAS IN THERE??” It did appear much larger.

Resting up before starting to screech endlessly.

And here’s another beautiful sight to wonder over. This guy, a skink, was two feet from the RV steps. I really appreciate all that nature coming over to show itself to me.

And finally, I didn’t have to go far to see woodpeckers, either. A downy showed up. I like these little birds almost as much as the incredibly entertaining yellow-bellied sapsuckers (they are the smallest woodpecker). My photos weren’t great but I got to see it well through binoculars. The red-bellied male came over so often that I got the feeling he was used to us.

I had to go a little further to get butterfly photos, but there were lots at the campsite, too. I just got all lost enjoying the giant swallowtails meandering around. Here are a few others I saw.

I can’t help it. Buckeyes are too pretty to omit.

I am excited enough just to see new or unusual plants, but some of the other things I ran into filled me with awe. There’s just a lot of STUFF to see if you look around, and you don’t have to be at a park or zoo to see things that bring wonder.

There are wonders right at home, too. This evening, we were watching fledgling barn swallows trying out their swooping and diving techniques. They were small but agile. At some point, we couldn’t believe our eyes. One of those little birds was a large butterfly! It flew with the birds, swirling around like it was one of them. I think Kathleen and I were both dazzled. Did we really see that?

No photos of the flying display, so enjoy this rainbow scarab beetle.

Yep, it pays to be observant, even when you’re just relaxing behind the house. It pays to look around in the water trough, too. That’s where I found the beetle.

Stay safe, Texas friends. It’s HOT.

Tur-Duck-Hen?

Birds and more birds. That’s the past few days. First, the turkey we saw recently has continued to be spotted by neighbors up and down our road. First, Mandi’s dad sent a photo of his sighting.

Then, this evening, the woman across the road sent in her own photo.

All the photos so far have one thing in common. They’re in the side of the road. I guess that’s where the best turkey food is? Now that everyone from the creek to the end of the road has seen it, we’re hoping to see more!

Well, while there aren’t many here at the ranch, Cameron town has continued to host lots and lots of them. The black-bellied whistling ducks are lurking in trees (yes, they roost in trees), flapping across roads, and vocalizing from rooftops.

I was amazed yesterday when I tried to see what kinds of birds were in town. The whistling ducks were able to drown out even boat tailed grackles. They were acting like they were competing in an annoying bird sound competition. (Other birds included white wing doves, a robin, cedar waxwings, and the omnipresent cardinals.)

Just for fun, enjoy the wonders of the Red House yard.

Hmm, the title of this post was about turducken. Where are the hens?

I thought it was really funny that when I went into the henhouse this morning Snacky Jacky (yeah, I broke down and named it) was comfortable and cozy in its own nesting box, like one of the hens. Buttercup was in another box, completely ignoring Jacky. The snake looked well fed, but I think it ate a big rodent, not an egg. I got ten eggs from seven hens in the past two days, so the detente continues.

Hey, it was a good day today, though, because I scheduled better Internet provider. That hotspot ain’t cutting it. I’m very proud of my patience, since I went through three providers before finding something that would work here. The one all my friends love can’t be used because there is a hill between us and the tower. The really, really close tower. Ugh. So, I will have non-ideal satellite until we can get StarLink. But I persevered!!

If I could only attach a dish to this guy, I could get to the tower.

Ooh, and a got a horchata frappe to celebrate cinco de mayo. Yep. An Americanized beverage for an Americanized holiday. We’re becoming quite accustomed to our weekly coffee breaks.

Excellent Birds! Unusual Plants! Nature Fun!

Today we stayed at Lake Somerville State Park, which was a lovely place to work. I enjoyed my lake view from the mobile office and had no problems with internet or anything like that. I got lots of work done AND saw so many wonderful things on my breaks and after work. I could get used to this.

It’s so great to see NO ONE when camping

I went out early in the morning and was thrilled to see two different bald eagles in trees. It turns out the local high school mascot is the eagles, since there are lots at this lake. It’s always great to see them. And as I went on the walk, I was greeted by additional raptors. I first saw a peregrine falcon, who came out even blurrier than the eagles did, then another merlin showed up. I got to see it really well with the binoculars, even though my photos aren’t great.

But whoa, I did NOT expect the next thing I saw. I was looking at a pretty group of ring-neck gulls through my binoculars when I realized one of those gulls was awfully big. It was a beautiful white pelican! I watched it swimming around and diving for fish for a long time. Then, as I was sitting outside doing a call, I saw a bunch of big, white birds. The pelican had friends. They were a LONG way away, so forgive the blurriness of the photos.

By the way, the sandy outcropping where the gulls and pelicans were also had other cool birds. I saw greater yellowlegs, killdeer, grebes, and two beautiful white birds with black and white wings. They had a black bill and long legs. I swear they are American avocets, though they aren’t supposed to be here right now. I did check, and they have been seen here, so I’m not imagining things.

This is what the birds look like. Borrowed from mombliss on iNaturalist.

As I mentioned yesterday, there are lots of woodpeckers around here. I saw two more types today, a flicker and a big ole pileated woodpecker, which I managed to photograph as it flew off. It’s SO loud. Since I saw the yellow-bellied sapsucker yesterday, it means I saw the smallest and largest woodpeckers in the US!

I also saw lots and lots of chickadees and cardinals. Of the sparrows I saw, I could ID a chipping sparrow and a white-crowned sparrow. There were also phoebes, a yellow warbler, and some very entertaining vultures, both turkey vultures and black vultures. I enjoyed watching them flying, roosting, and preening.

I also saw some butterflies and moths, which surprised me. There were sulphur butterflies, buckeyes, a black or pipevine swallowtail (hard to tell), and lots of little moths. Most of my photos were just blurs. The best insect I saw, though, was a leafcutter ant carrying a leaf it had cut. I’d never seen one of those!

The only mammal I saw was a big, fat squirrel. But I saw evidence of deer and coyotes (plus coyotes woke me up at 5am).

I enjoyed looking at lots of beautiful trees as I hiked and saw excellent mosses as well. Many trees are dead, but lots of them were from when they made the lake and it was higher. I think it will be higher once it rains some more again. The dead trees sure look like they host many types of life. I passed one tree that was literally abuzz with bees and others with holes in them for animals to live in.

And the silence was glorious, at least until a whiny child hiked by. Literally ONE child is in the area, and it’s loud enough to be heard all over. Wow!

I saw one spider, this gray jumping spider

Lee and I are heading home tomorrow in between meetings, but this stay has been so enjoyable and restorative. I’m glad for the chance to travel more.

Hopefully I can see more stuff like beard lichen.

Welcome to the Hermits’ Rest Aviary

This week, I’ve truly felt like I live in some kind of private bird sanctuary or something. There are so many beautiful birds to enjoy. This morning I went out to feed the hens, and the ground was heavy with dew, which must have made all the birds in the world happy. Once again, we were heavy on the heron family, with the usual great blue heron and green heron (the tricolored heron did not make an appearance) joined by an entire flock of great egrets (usually we just have one or two). There were also a couple of cattle egrets (distinguished by their yellow legs as opposed to the black legs on the larger birds).

Plus, there were ten or twelve black vultures, hopping and bopping along the edge of the pond or tank. They were drawn by the dead armadillo, who’s contributing to the Circle of Life by feeding both these guys and turkey vultures, who were out in force yesterday. Turkey vultures have red heads, while black vultures’ heads are black. That makes for easy identification.

There were also the twittering English sparrows flitting around, along with all the grackles that sit on the electrical wires then fly around in a huge murmuration, descending on the fields, then departing again. Cardinals are constantly coming and going, as well. Plus there was something that makes a big screech sound, which I haven’t managed to catch on the Picture Bird software to see what it is.

That’s a lot of birds. Plus the storks are still around, which warms my heart.

When I tire of the pond, I go over to the black willow trees beside the front tank, which now has a little water in it, thanks to a bit more rain (hooray for the rainy season).

There I’ve been seeing one, and just one, scissortail flycatcher. I wonder if it somehow didn’t migrate. By the way, did you know they’re related to the Western kingbird? We have those here, too!

The trees are just chock full of tiny birds, including chickadees, orchard orioles, and warblers I can only hear but not see. Oh yeah, and the mockingbird whose territory is the telephone pole across the street, who mimics the woodpecker who also hangs out there. Since I don’t have photos of those guys, here are some sparkly dew-encrusted tiny mushrooms.

What a symphony! That’s what I’ve been enjoying lately. I’ll spare you the cuckoo, owls, and many sparrows in the woods. It’s too muddy to try to get photos of them, so I just listen.

I can’t wait to watch the geese and cranes migrating.

I Try to Cheer Up

I feel sorta silly for being sad about a rooster. But it’s sort of on top of three people I know losing beloved horses recently, too. Livestock? Friends? Fellow beings who enrich our lives? Sure.

Portraits of Carlton make me feel better.

I went out to remind myself of how we are all part of something bigger. Tiny mushrooms said, “Look at us!” I spent about ten minutes just looking at the first one there. So detailed.

I went in and tried to work. I’m glad I’m doing something that requires concentrating. It makes time pass quickly. But it’s not terribly cheerful. So, I decided to do something that would please Lee and make the house look better, too. I put actual china in the old china cabinet that one day I’m gonna spiff up. It looks better with Lee’s family china and my green and purple stuff in it. Some day I’ll find the rest of the china.

That made me feel a little better. It still needs some color. I sure was fond of tan and wood when I built this house.

There’s new life, though. A baby snake said hi.

And now it’s raining again so that feels better. I just needed to remind myself of what is good. Life is good, even when it’s hard and we lose our companions. That’s just how it goes.

Hi There

Not much is going on other than the dizzy thing and working hard. Work is good, of course. I could do without queasy and dizzy.

The liquor is a prop, as is the hat. We were celebrating a coworker’s birthday today, so we wore party hats, made signs, and brought celebratory beverages to our 8:30 am meeting. Party on Zoom! It made Lenna cry. That’s a good way to start sprint planning (if you don’t know what that is, consider yourself lucky).

Why didn’t you invite ME? Well, Apache, you don’t like hats.

Declan put a set of blinds that didn’t fit on another project in the tack room. This is the only one that worked, but it’s okay, because that’s the one that gets lots of morning sun and heats things up.

Ok. Later I will hang up the little art I’ve had since I lived in my first house in Illinois.

And since I was too woozy to exercise, I did a fun thing at lunch. Kathleen gave me one of those kid sun-catcher crafts to cheer me up. It was a paint horse, and I made it look like Apache. It’s got his mane and tail plus a white nose. I had fun, and it’s cheerful in a window.

I didn’t get a good picture. But I had fun cooking little plastic pellets.

And one more thing, I found yet another mushroom variety today. The puffballs are back! And yesterday’s ink caps are already fading. Maybe my mold issue will, too.

Slime Mold, Mystery Mold, Shimmering Fungi

Well, shoot, no wonder my head is full of mush, there is so much mold, fungus, and who knows what other damp-loving organisms right now after the rain. I was feeling better after taking the Mucinex, but then I went outside and did stuff with the horses and BOOM I’m a dizzy, queasy mess again. I think I need to stay in, but when you have these precious beings wandering around, you want to go out!

As for things that might attack my head, I’ve seen some old and some new. The first thing I saw I have no clue what it is. It looks like strands of fungus growing on the ground. There were a bunch of large masses of them in the grass yesterday.

It could be the web of a spider, but I don’t think that’s it. Any ideas?

The weirdest thing I’ve seen, and one that has probably helped make me sick, is the aptly named dog vomit slime mold. At least I think that’s what it is. It weirdly covers all the plants. Yesterday I thought it was bird poop. Today, ewww. That is one fascinating thing.

Well, that’s an interesting thing.

There’s more “normal” stuff out there that I’ve enjoyed. I posted photos of some mushrooms yesterday that I call poop shrooms. I do not think they are “magic mushrooms,” but just normal Panaeolus antellarum. This is a mushroom that’s actually edible, but since it grows on dung, not a lot of us would really want to eat them. Certainly, there are enough to feed many people right now! Every pile of horse poop has its own little colony.

There are other mushrooms that have popped up, and I’ve always enjoyed them. The inkcaps are so delicate that they wave in the wind. Watch the video; it’s so pretty.

Prettiest poop ever.

I wrote about this because I know it won’t last. The mold and fungi will be gone in a few days once it dries out (though I hope it rains some more).

The horses like damp hay so they dig little holes to get to where it’s still wet.

It was dry enough today to get more work done on the front pond. These silt up quickly, so it’s always good to get in there and clean them out when a dry spell comes up. We now have a mountain of beautiful dirt to spread across the pasture, and maybe make the horses a little hill to run up and down. It’s a great opportunity to make the slopes on the side a little less steep, especially where we need to mow.

You can see how big the dirt pile is by comparing it to the tree.

I’m not complaining about all these weather changes! You see so many interesting natural phenomena if you just look carefully.