The heavy rains of a few days ago produced the first mushrooms of the season. There were two or three species -- not including, alas, the fabled Morel which I have never found out here. The star fruiting was a good-sized and handsome chicken mushroom, that orange coral beauty which used to be called Polyporus sulphureus and is now, presumably more correctly, known as Laetiporus sulphureus. This is the easiest of wild mushrooms to identify and, if fresh and tender, it is one of the best. This was indeed a fresh, tender specimen so I took it back to the house and cut it up for cooking. We have family and guests coming tomorrow so it will be part of the Sunday menu.
Yesterday afternoon, I went out with Rebecca Perl and Virginia Carter, two birders from the city on their way to East Hampton, and we made stops at the Pike's Beach Overlook and the grasslands at EPCAL (we didn't get into Cupsogue because of bureaucracy: my Green Key had expired and I didn't have my tax bill with me so they wouldn't renew it and/or grant a few minutes of birdwatching courtesy on a lousy beach day). We did see a Saltmarsh Sparrow at Pike's, a Glossy Ibis flyby and a few shorebirds on the island including two or three Piping Plovers. EPCAL was positively brimming with Grasshopper Sparrows holding food in their beaks and posing prettily as they hesitated to dive down into the nest and thus give away its location in the grass (they eventually had to take the dive). Also quite a few Eastern Meadowlarks and a somewhat surprising Savannah Sparrow. Field Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, Tree Swallow, Prairie Warbler, Blue-wing Warbler, Eastern Kingbird and Great Crested Flycatcher were seen or (mostly) heard around the wooded edges of the grassland.
Eric Salzman
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