yellow rumps and honey caps

A small group of 'confusing fall warblers' (as a page in the old Petersen used to be labelled) turned up with the morning feeding flock. There were perhaps only two or three birds but they were at eye level and kept on popping up from the dense vegetation at the edge of the marsh. They all had yellow rumps so I immediately yelled out -- to no one in particular -- Yellow-rumped Warbler! Fortunately no one was listening; they were all warblers with yellow rumps all right but definitely not Yellow-rumped Warblers (which are typically the latest of the migratory warblers to arrive). There are only a few species with yellow rumps; this one had a yellow wash around the face and under the chin from which there were thin black streaks running down the breast. The back was an even olive-gray, the rump pale yellow and there were two thin wing bars. It took me a while to realize that I was looking at juvenile CAPE MAY WARBLERS in a plumage that I cannot remember ever having seen before. I saw a breeding plumage male this spring and it was the first one that I had seen out here in a couple of decades! This is a species that was known to be in decline for many years; maybe its reappearance in both spring and fall migration indicates some kind of recovery! The rest of the birds along the edge from the pond area all the way up to the head of the marsh were familiar local nesters although some of them may have been migrants as well. The list of edible mushrooms continues to grow with Leucoagaricus americanus (formerly Lepiota americana -- a relative of the edible Parasol Mushroom) and the Honey Mushroom or Armillaria mellea among them. Also more chanterelles and a few early boletes. The Honey Mushroom grows in clumps on dead wood, has honey-yellow colored caps (but the color is variable) and it is relatively easy to identify as it has white gills, white spores and a thin ring on its (non-edible) stem. The Lepiota or Leucoagaricus is an equally delicious mushroom but I don't recommend it unless you know your mushrooms well as it somewhat resembles a highly poisonous Amanita. Even so it's a handsome white fungus -- some brownish flecks on the caps -- that has two striking characteristics: it bruises yellow and turns red when cooked; the oder and flavor are almost perfume-y. Eric Salzman