rain=mushrooms!

With the lack of rain, this was a bad summer for mushrooms: a few Yellow Chanterelles early in the summer, one tiny bolete, a single Chicken Mushroom and no Black Chanterellee at all (first year I didn't find them in many years). Now that the weather has changed, fall mushrooms are starting to appear. Yesterday I found a new mushroom with the delightful name of Angel Wings (Pleurotis or Pleurocybella porrigens; a distant relative of the Oyster Mushroom) and two favorites, both lepiotas: Lepiota americana and Lepiota procera, also known as the Parasol Mushroom. The lepiotas were sauteed in a little olive oil in a hot iron skillet but we ate only a tiny piece of the Angel Wings (always a good precaution with a new mushroom). Should I add that the lepiotas were excellent; the Parasol was a collection of a dozen medium and large caps, the most I have ever found in a single place. They were superb; as a local gustatory delight, the Parasol is only equalled around here by the chanterelles (the only other possible competitors, King Bolete or Cep and the Morel are very rare or non-existant hereabouts).

I should add that Lepiota americana is now usually called Leucoagaricus americanus and the Parasol has been turned into Macrolepiota procera. In case you thought that one of the best reasons to use the scientific names is that they neveer or very rarely change, guess again! Mushrooms are particularly liable to reclassification and name changes.

I also found a mushroom that I have ID'd as a Gymnopilus but as none of these mushrooms seem to rate as a good edible (and some may be poisonous), we gave it a pass.

Mushroom ID is difficult at best and the only safe way to know what you're eating is to know what you're eating. Most of the current crop of mushrooms are small in size (many on wood) or otherwise not worth tussling with. I found a few Earth Stars, a strange kind of puffball that emerges from an almost sandy base and then splits open to reveal its treasure: a pile of black spores to be scattered by the wind. There are lots of Russulas (also hard to ID although there are a couple of recognizable species that are very tasty) and one gorgeous big Fly Agaric; this latter is the famous Amanita muscaria which looks like it should have elves scampering underneath (but in fact it is a dangerous hallucinogen). Not many boletes (the kind with a spongy rather than gilled underside to the cap) but I did collect a few medium-size handsome orange caps with yellowish shaggy stems which I have tentatively identified as Boletus longicurvipes; it's in a safe area so we may try a taste.

The bad weather seems to have caused most of the smaller birds to hunker down or pull back from the shore. I did see Brown Creeper again and all four woodpeckers -- including Hairy but not the awaited Sapsucker. Once again most of the activity was near the head of the marsh, an area that is rather protected from the northeast winds. Also there are still Wild Turkeys padding about and a couple of warblers (Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat) showed up.

For birding, you have to look up; for mushrooming you have to look down which makes it challenging to do both simultaneously!

Eric Salzman