My Birthday Week: Day One. I was in the car for the majority of the day and took Esteban with me. He did better on this trip; only whined a couple of times and tried to get into the front seat three times. But for most of the time, he was sitting politely in the middle of the back seat where he could see out of all of the windows, or sleeping on my old sweatshirt.
Start Time: 6:00 am Start Temperature: 36º F End Time: 11:30 pm End Temperature: 46º F Weather: Foggy in part, then mostly cloudy with intermittent sunshine Total Hours in the field (includes travel time): 6.5 hours
I got up around 5:30 am and was out the door before 6 o’clock and heading out to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. It was super driving-through-a-tunnel foggy in Sacramento and into Woodland, but once I got past Woodland, it was clear and sunny. So weird! It was nice to see snow on Snow Mountain and parts of Goat Mountain.
I was hoping to see some Bald Eagles and wasn’t disappointed. The first thing I saw, though, was a pair of Ravens poking at a couple of roadkills, an opossum and a raccoon on the road.
Raccoon, Procyon lotor
Later, I saw two live raccoons on the road of the auto tour. They were lumbering across the road behind a phalanx of cars. I think I’m the only person who saw them at the time. And in another location, I saw an otter sitting alongside one of the march ponds, and then saw him “glassing” through the water a few seconds later. I didn’t get good photos of either the raccoons or the otter, but I was happy to see them.
At one point, I also saw a little dark brown mouse or vole jump-running across the grass on one of the levies. It ducked down into a hole before I could get my camera focused on it.
I was surprised by the number of Ring-Necked Ducks I saw along the auto-tour route, and I even got to see a few Ruddy Ducks. Those guys make me smile whenever I see them. They’re so little; they look like toys. The males aren’t in their breeding plumage yet, but when they get to that stage they’ll have neon-blue bills and ruddy-red feathers.
There were lots of Ring-Necked Pheasants out, too; mostly males. I think they’d come into the preserve because there was hunting going on all around it and they make for big targets.
The first Bald Eagle I saw was sitting in what I call the “eagle tree” along the auto route. It was in a position, though, where I couldn’t get a clear photo through any of the car windows, so I opened the driver’s side door and raised my camera up over the car. Before I could focus on the bird, though, it took off across the marsh. Dang it! I was so upset that I almost cried. Nature made up for that near miss, though, by showing me about seven other eagles along the route, including an obliging juvenile who landed in a tree right by the car.
Adult Bald Eagle
Juvenile Bald Eagle
I was also able to track one with my camera as it flew from a marsh, across the road in front of me, and into another area where it landed on the ground. And as I was driving out of the preserve there two eagles sitting in one of the eucalyptus trees. While I took photos, a third eagle flew in and they all started doing that fast screel-talk of their. So cool! So I was happy about that, too.
The other nice surprise was seeing a flock of American White Pelicans on one of the “islands” in the wetlands. They were pretty far away, but because they’re such big birds, I was still able to get a few photos of them. All in all, I saw over 40 different species, so that was a good day of birding.
American White Pelicans, Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
I got back to the house around 1:00 pm. Driving back to Sacramento from the refuge, it was sunny until I got to Woodland – then it was light fog and overcast. Microclimates. So weird.
Roger Jones from the Bufferlands Regional San suggested I get a light box to help with some of my photo-taking. The box isolates the subject in a small space and illuminates it to bring out some of the detail.
I purchased one from Amazon.com by Puluz: a small,portable box that I can take out into the field if I want to, and ignite the LED strip with the same power pack I carry with me to augment my cellphone battery.
Today, I tried it out for the first time with some Honey Fungus I got from the backyard. I like the way the images turned out!
I think using a single subject, instead of a group, may set details out even more.
I was up around 7:30 am and out the door around 8:00 to go to the American River Bend Park. It was a chilly and foggy 39° when I got there, and the temperature went up to 46° when I left. By then, the fog had lifted to a high overcast with moments of sunshine. When the sun came out, the forest floor “steamed”; so cool looking.
Start Time: 8:30 am Start Temperature: 39º F End Time: 11:30 pm End Temperature: 46º F Weather: Very foggy, clearing to a high overcast Total Hours in the field (includes travel time): 4 hours Kilometers Walked: 2.5
When I first drove in, two young Black-Tailed deer bucks cross the road in front of me. One was a spike and the other one had 2-points. They jumped the line fence and went off into the woods, though, before I could get any decent photos of them.
I had gone to the park looking again for coral fungus and cauliflower fungus, but found neither one. I did find several species of jelly fungus and some Bleeding Mycena mushrooms. I’d never intentionally made that species of mushroom “bleed” before, but I did that today and took some photos of the “blood”. It’s a red exudate that comes out of the stipe(stem of the mushroom) when the stipe is broken.
Bleeding Mycena, Mycena haematopus
And I came across a little pile of stuff in a hole in a downed log that had Hair Mold, Phycomyces sp., growing on it. That mold is recognizable by the yellow heads on some of the fruiting stalks. But I couldn’t tell what it was growing on. It was a collection of reddish-brown masses that felt cold and rubbery to the touch. I think it might have been something’s organs, but I’m not sure.
I also found some kind of mold growing on the old husk of a Buckeye chestnut. I think it was a slime mold but it had already gone to spore, so I couldn’t tell what kind it was. There were also a lot of the windfall chestnuts are sending out their taproots into the ground. They’re bright pink, so they’re had to miss.
There was a bachelor group of Wild Turkeys who were sort of doing their hierarchy battles, but they weren’t really into it. Some would mock-chase others, and one grabbed his fellow by the neck and they wrestled for a few seconds – nothing like the protracted battles I’ve seen them do before. Maybe it was too cold for them to do much of anything this morning…
Later, I came across a lone female turkey who was limping through the woods. It looked like she was having trouble bearing any weight on her right leg. I considered for a short second chasing after her and grabbing her and taking her to a wildlife refuge, but, seriously, can you see me running around the uneven ground of the forest? And if I got a hold of her, it was almost a mile back to the car… with her pecking at me and trying to get down. Not a good idea. So, I sent an email to the rangers with photos of her after I got back home.
When I was walking along the riverside part of the trail, I noticed several male Common Mergansers in the water swimming in circles and posturing for a female… but the female was trying to rest. She ignored the males for a while, but when they got closer to her, she opened her mouth and “yelled” at them with a loud squawk.
I tried looking closer at more of the lichens and differentiating between them, but it’s still proving to be a little difficult for me because I’m learning piecemeal. I’ve been reading up on them through books, but now I think I’ve confused myself even more. Hah! I need to find a good lichen class close by, I think, in order to get a better hand on things.
Today, I think I’ve found specimens of American Starburst Lichen, Imshaugia placorodia, Common Button Lichen, Buellia stillingiana, Green Starburst Lichen Parmeliopsis ambigua, Starry Rosette Lichen, Physcia stellaris, and Whitewash Lichen, Phlyctis argena, but I’m not entirely sure. It’s confusing, but it’s also kind of fun. I like the effort of learning new stuff.
Here are some of the lichen I found today.
I walked for about 3 hours and then headed back home.
Species List:
Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus
American Starburst Lichen, Imshaugia placorodia [darker green, green apothecia]
I got to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve right around 7:30 am, and as I was walking in, I met Rich Howard, the gentleman who was going to lead a birding walk for us. He’s a very personable man with tons of birding knowledge, and is able to share what he knows in a very giving way. (He’s not a “know it all” snob kind of guy.)
Start Time: 7:30 am Start Temperature: 40º F End Time: 12:30 pm End Temperature: 46º F Weather: Mostly cloudy, occasional sunshine Total Hours in the field (includes travel time): 6 hours Kilometers Walked: 3
While I was walking over to where Rich was setting up his birding scope, another gentleman named Eric came up to me and asked if I was Mary Hanson. I told him, yes, and he said he wanted to do a macro photography thing for the preserve’s blog on lichen but he didn’t know much about them, and he wondered if I’d be willing to join him and help him with identification. I told him sure, and gave him my calling card so he could contact me later.
My fellow naturalist and friend, Roxanne Moger, joined us and the rest of the small group, which also included Rachael Cowan the volunteer coordinator at the preserve, and we started walking. Within the first few steps we saw almost 15 bird species, including a pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks, some Yellow-Billed Magpies, Mourning Doves, White-Breasted Nuthatches and Turkey Vultures.
I tried getting some photos through the birding scope, but found it difficult to do because everything was “backwards”. And it seemed like my camera had the same reach as the scope did, so, after a few tries at different locations, I decided it wasn’t worth the extra effort.
View through camera
View through Birding Scope
At one point, we could see two hawks circling over a tree where there was a known hawk nest that had been used for several season. One of the hawks was a Red-Tailed Hawk, but the other hawk was more difficult to ID because it kept moving and was so far away. Rachel thought it might have been a Rough-Legged Hawk, Buteo lagopus, that migrate through this area in the winter, but she wasn’t certain. If it WAS a Rough-Legged Hawk, that would have been a first for me.
The walk took us down the main path and then out toward river (where it’s very hard for me to walk because the rocky surface is so uneven). As knowledgeable and interesting as Rich was, I kept get distracted by the deer and lichen and fungi around us, and once we got to the river side, I bowed out (along with Rachael, her new volunteer and Roxanne).
Roxanne and I then spent another 4 hours walking through the preserve looking at and photographing stuff. I’ve been reading up a bit on lichen and wanted to see if I could locate and get pictures of some of the features I’d read about. Not much luck in that regard, but we did find some interesting fungi and slime molds.
While I was photographing some Red Thread Marasmius mushrooms, a group of 2nd graders and their docent came up and the docent asked me what I was doing. I told her that Roxanne and I were doing the preliminary pass-through walk in anticipation of a fungus walk I’ll be doing with the docents next week. The woman said, “Oh, the one with Mary Hanson?” And I said, “That’s me!” Hah!
She then asked if I would talk a little bit about fungi to the second graders. (Eeew, gum-chewing ferrets!) So I plucked up one of the little red mushrooms I was photographing and walked it over to the kids. It’s hard for me to “dumb things down” for children, so I tried using analogies along with the “big words” to help them along.
Me with the 2nd graders. This photo is by Roxanne Moger.
I told them about the big tree-like structure of mycelium under the ground to which all fungi were connected, and told them that mushrooms, like the one I was holding, were like the apples on that tree. They were the fruit that held the “seeds”, the spores. Then I showed them some of the identifying features of the Marasmius: the red cap, the red stipe, the pale cream-colored gills where the spores were. Some of the kids listened, some were distracted by shiny things, some were totally disengaged, and one said, “We saw bigger mushrooms over there.” And I guess that’s pretty much par for 2nd graders… which is why I prefer teaching adults.
When the group had moved on, Roxanne and I continued to look for stuff, and we came across the first Pure Core Bluet, Clitocybe nuda (Lepista nuda), I’d seen so far this year. They’re a medium-size mushroom that is all lavender in color, including the cap, gills and stipe. Roxanne had never seen one before, so that was a cool first for her.
We also found what I think was a Bishop’s Cap, Coprinellus micaceus. I’ll need to do more research to be sure, though. It had a bell-shaped cap like an Ink Cap mushroom, but the surface was dry and kind of tan in color, and the stipe was heavier and more solid.
Roxanne had brought along a metal ruler, so we used that in some of the pix to get a better sense of scale in them. We also found a medium-sized mushroom with a bright yellow cap, thick stipe and sort of yellow-tan colored gills which Roxanne inadvertently unearthed when she stepped on part of it. Her step brought some of the rest of the mushroom to the surface; otherwise, we would have completely missed it. It was “dry” and kind of heavy so I was thinking maybe it was a gilled bolete (Phylloporus), but I couldn’t find anything that really matched it in my field guides. Then I thought maybe it was a kind of Cortinarius, but it wasn’t at all slimy like those mushrooms are, so for the moment, I wasn’t sure what it was. A little more research and I think I found it: Yellow Knight, Man on Horseback, Tricholoma equestre.
Yellow Knight, Man on Horseback, Tricholoma equestre
As we were leaving the preserve, we came across another birder with his camera on a monopod, and we started talking about what we’d seen today. He asked if we’d seen the Vermilion Flycatcher in Natomas, and we told him we hadn’t. So, he told us it was in Tanzanite Community Park and he even got out his cellphone and showed us on Google Maps about where in the park it would probably be. We thought that was so nice of him! Neither of us had been to that park yet, so we’re looking forward to going there soon.
He also suggested we go to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery to see the waterfowl going after the scraps of salmon and steelhead in the water. So, we’ll probably check those out over the next few weeks.
After lunch, I finally got back to the house around 2:00 pm.
Species List:
Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus
Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna
Bewick’s Wren, Thryomanes bewickii
Bishop’s Cap, Coprinellus micaceus
Black Jelly Roll fungus, Exidia glandulosa
Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans
Brown Jelly Fungus, Jelly Leaf, Tremella foliacea
Bushtit, American Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus
California Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma californica
California Sycamore, Platanus racemose
California Towhee, Melozone crissalis
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
Coffeeberry, California Buckthorn, Frangula californica
I got up a little after 5:00 am today and got myself ready to head out with my friend and fellow naturalist, Roxanne a little after 6:00. Roxanne and I were going to the Mushroom Mosey in Grass Valley (about an hour east of Sacramento).
The Mushroom Mosey was taking place at Kenny Ranch which is adjacent to the Twin Cities Church at 11726 Rough and Ready Hwy, Grass Valley, California 95945 (at an elevation of about 2000 feet) and was being hosted by the California Native Plant Society and the Bear Yuba Land Trust. The trails are open t the public for free, so they’re available year round.
We got to the location about 8:30 but then had to wait for everyone else to show up and get two different waivers signed. There were maybe 20 people in the group including our guides Daniel Nicholsen and Shane Hanofee.
Start Time: 9:00 am Start Temperature: 43º F End Time: 12:00 pm End Temperature: 48º F Weather: Foggy and mostly cloudy Total Hours in the field (includes travel time): 8 hours Miles Walked: 2
It was a chilly 43° when we arrived, and the foothill fog was dragging its belly across the hills, so it was very wet and felt colder than it really was. As the mosey went on, though, the fog lifted and it got up to about 48°.
The place presents a mix of habitats in a small space including mixed conifer and oak forests, some chaparral, and riparian areas. Lots of heritage Incense Cedars, Gray Pine and Black Oak trees there, along with manzanita, alders, invasive French Broom, and wild plum. This time of year is supposed to good for mushroom hunting, and in the spring, it’s supposed to be a great wildflower spot.
Overview of the “Mosey”, the Positives: Some of us were given loupes (tiny powerful magnifying glasses that you have to hold up to your eye to use) but I was satisfied with the macro attachment on my cell phone.
One of the hikers using a loupe to get a closer look at the Garlic Mushroom.
Shane and Daniel said the cellphones couldn’t see enough detail to do any real scientific identification work, but mine works well for my own purposes. Several people saw me using it and were so impressed by how easily and well it worked that they asked me about it and took photos of the attachment so they could buy their own.
One of my favorite things from the walk is that it showed me new places to look for things. It never occurred to me to look at the plum trees or French broom for galls; or to look at the tiny tips of a cedar tree for mushrooms. Those were called “Earth Tongues”.
“…Saprobic fungus with small, brightly colored fruit bodies produced on Incense Cedar and Yellow Cedar needles. Easily recognizable by the habitat, in combination with the gelatinous texture, and convex to round ‘heads’ and short to nearly indistinct stipe…”
Earth Tongues, Gelatinodiscus flavidus [photo taken with my cellphone]
I learned that fungi can have about 36,000 sexes. Split Gill, for example, has more than 23,000 different sexes or “sex types”. “More combinations of genes help protect against potential threats like droughts or parasites.”
“…The “sexes” don’t really involve physical differences either, as we might think of when the word “sex” comes to mind. The variations are all in the genome, at two separate loci, or locations, each of which has two alleles, or alternate forms. The loci are called A and B and the alleles are termed “alpha” and “beta.” That makes four possible sexes, but there’s another twist. Every A-alpha/beta and B-alpha/beta can have many different variants, called specificities. It amounts to more than 339 specificities for A and 64 for B. Putting those two together yields thousands of possible unique sexes.
The fungus can mate with any specificity as long as it’s different somewhere on both A and B. So, two prospective mates could both have the same A-beta and B-alpha, but have different A-alphas and B-betas and they’d be fine to hook up. If they shared A-alpha and A-beta, though, their pheromones wouldn’t be compatible, meaning that they couldn’t carry out the reproductive process. That leaves a ton of options for mating, though, and essentially means that anyone a fungus meets is fair game for sexy time…”
We also learned that the whole taxonomy system for mushrooms and other fungi has been turned on its head over the last decade, so a lot of the field guide are now out of date. They’ll give you a good starting point for an ID, but aren’t the end all and be all. Some of the smaller mushrooms, too, can only be sorted out on the microscopic level, which is why mycology is a difficult discipline. Shane and Daniel said they’ve logged about 1200 species between them in the region, but there were several small specimens they saw today that they felt hadn’t been added to their database yet, so they collected those.
We were shown how to catch the scent of some of the mushrooms (by crushing the cap or stipe) and how to differentiate some by how they stain. We got to see the Bleach-Scented Mycina, Mycena leptocephali, and the Garlic Mushroom, Mycetinis scorodoniu. Both of them looked very similar to me, but the smells were very distinct. That will be something I’ll be checking more from now on.
And I also got to see several species we don’t see in Sacramento because the habitats and elevations are different here. I saw my first Apricot Jelly Fungus which looked like a horn-shaped gummy bear, Rock Tripe which kind of looked like sheets of brown slime covered with black warts, Lung Lichen which looked like sheets of lung tissue from a smoker’s lung, and Bladder Plum Galls.
Those galls were weird. I’d never seen one before, and would have passed it by completely if our guides hadn’t pointed it out. It’s a Bladder Plum Gall caused by a fungus called Taphrina pruni, on a wild plum tree. The fungus causes the tree to “abort” the fruit (plum) and replace it with this sac-like gall which the fungus then fills with its spores. The galls feel kind of flexible and rubbery at this stage. There were several on the tree we saw.
What’s doubly cool is: this is we were seeing these galls in the winter; shriveled and about an inch long. In the spring/summer, when the galls are new, they’re bright green and about 3 inches long. ((So, now I need to get back out there in the galls season!))
We also found a few very nice specimens of Bird’s Nest Fungus, Crucibulum laeve. The nests in this species have a cap over them at first, hiding the little “eggs” inside. Once they pop their lids, though, the eggs — which carry the spores — are visible. Each egg is attached to a tether.
“…[This] cord, which is called a funiculus in Mycologese, is the egg’s mechanism for attaching itself to sticks, leaves, and other plant debris. When a raindrop falls into the nest, the eggs are projected out of the cup. As this happens, the cord is stretched to its limit–then breaks away from the nest, remaining attached to the egg. Where the cord was attached to the nest, it becomes frayed, since it was torn away. The little frayed ends are adhesive, and when they come into contact with, for example, a leaf, they attach themselves. This stops the flight of the egg, which then swings back and attaches itself to the leaf as well…”
Overview of the “Mosey”, the Negatives: The group was a large one, as I noted, but none of the guides paid attention to how the group expanded and contracted along the trail. Rather than having someone at the front and someone at the rear of the group, making sure everyone was accounted for and everyone was able to see and hear with the guide in the front was talking about, all of the guides stayed at the front of the group. That meant that if you stopped to get a photo of the first species you were shown, you then had to rush to rejoin the group and missed what was being said about the second specimen. It was VERY frustrating.
The guides were so far ahead of this tail end of the group, that we slow-walkers were cheated out of the interpretive talks and the ability to photograph and learn about what specimens were found. Not good.
At one point, one of the guides threw away the specimen before the rest of the group even got a chance to see it. He was done talking about it, and that was that. Ridiculous. I felt like I was cheated out of half of the information I should have been getting.
The pace was also waaaaay too fast for me. It wasn’t a “mosey”, it was a “power walk”. The ground was slippery with wet clay mud, slippery leaves and rocks that rolled under your feet, and I really struggled to keep up — which meant I wasn’t able to really appreciate the landscape around me. I had to keep watching where I was stepping.
By the end of the walk, I was about a half mile behind the guides – and not one of them came back to make sure everyone was safe and accounted for. I also don’t think the guides ever did head-counts at ANY point of the walk, so there would be no way for them to tell if they lost people. To me, that’s inexcusable – and dangerous for the participants. Yes, you sign the waivers when you come it, but that doesn’t the excuse the trip leaders to IGNORE basic safety principles in the field.
That last stretch was a slippery uphill road, and by the time I got to it I was so sore and exhausted I just couldn’t make it any further. Roxanne was with me, but it’s not like she could carry me up the hill. Luckily, a woman named Rae Anne was near us. She’s a teacher at a school near the church and went on the trails often, so she knew where everything was and how to get there. She could see that I was struggling and even though she didn’t know me from Eve, she offered to (literally) run up the hill, get her car, and drive it down to where I was. She then taxied Roxanne and I up to the parking lot where we started. I was sooooooooooo grateful. I think I said Thank You about six times. Hah!
We’d “only” walked for about 3 hours, but the pace was too fast and the terrain was a little too rugged for me (at that speed). It wore me out.
This is me waiting along the ditch trail for a ride to the top of a steep hill that was the last leg of the hike. By the end of the walk, I was about a half mile behind the guides – and not one of them came back to make sure everyone was safe and accounted for. I thank Good Samaritan, Rae Anne, for coming to my rescue. Roxanne and I could have figured out something, I’m sure, but we shouldn’t have been put into that position in the first place.
All in all, although I liked seeing a new place and finding some new-to-species, I was very disappointed by how the outing was handled. Once we were back at the parking lot, Roxanne and I didn’t stay for the trash pick-up detail and instead headed back to Sacramento.
The location is easy to get to and the trail is relatively easy to walk (I’d actually call it “moderate” for me, really, not “easy”but it’s probably easy for most people), and the place holds a lot of promise. I’d very much like to go back there…but if I do, it won’t be with a group and it will be at my own pace.
I got up a little before 7 o’clock this morning and was out the door by 7:30 am to go to the American River Bend Parkwith friend and fellow naturalist, Roxanne.
Start Time: 8:00 am Start Temperature: 43º F End Time: 1:30 pm End Temperature: 48º F Weather: Partly cloudy Total Hours in the field (includes travel time): 6 hours Kilometers Walked: 3
When we arrived at the park and were driving in, Roxanne spotted a very healthy looking coyote on the side of the road. There was a woman walking along that same area, and rather than standing still so we could get photos of the coyote, she tried keeping pace with the car… and kept scaring the coyote. It ran up ahead of us and tried to hide behind a knoll, but once more the woman scared him out. Eventually, he crossed the road in front of the car and then trotted off into the hills. I was able to get a few photos of him then, but by that time he was fairly distant from us. I got a few shots, but could have gotten more, I think if that woman hadn’t (albeit unintentionally) interfered.
Coyote, Canis latrans
Past the biking intersection, we pulled off into the first turnout on the left and got out of the car to start scouting for fungi. We didn’t have to go far. Within a few feet of the car was a large stand of Honey Fungus at the base of a tree. Around other trees we also found stands of Sulphur Tuft (a kind of poisonous mushroom)with a sulfur yellow tinge to it. [The crowded adnate gills of the Sulphur Tuft are initially sulfur yellow, becoming olive-green and progressively blackening as the spores ripen.]
Around here, we also came a fairly nice grouping of Bleeding Mycena, Mycena haematopus. I didn’t think to pull up and squeeze any of these guys, but there’s supposed to be a purple juice that comes out when the mushroom’s flesh is squeezed–especially in the base of the stem.
Bleeding Mycena, Mycena haematopus
We followed a bachelor group of Wild Turkeys into a field on the opposite side of the road, and as we were getting photos of them, we noticed there were also several Turkey Vultures in the tree above them (and some other turkeys in the tree next to the vultures’ tree). One of the vultures lifted its wings into the “heraldic pose” and another one did a wing-stretch for us that showed off its white underwing. The turkeys were “strutting” and chasing one another, all a part of settling their hierarchy.
Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura
We then started look diligently for more fungi, and while we were doing that we could hear Red-Shouldered Hawks yelling at each other from the trees. I was able to get a few shots of one of them before he flew away.
One of the first things that caught my eye were little pinks dots covering several leafless twigs and branches (which might have been Buckeye, but I was so enamored with the spots that I wasn’t paying attention to the substrate. Naughty bad.) I took some establishing shots with my camera, then attached the macro lens to my cellphone to get a closer look at them. I was surprised by what I saw: little pale pink tufts amid brighter pink (almost red) forms that looked like raspberries. They were gorgeous!
I thought, at first, that they were some form of slime mold, but after I got home, I did more research and reached out some of the folks in the Slime Mold Identification group on Facebook, and they directed me to a fungal plant pathogen called “Coral Spot”, Nectria cinnabarina. It usually attacks broadleaf trees (including Buckeyes in California) and is made up of a complex of four distinct species. The pale pink blobs are the asexual condial stage of the fungal complex (borne externally to the cells that produce them), and the raspberry blobs are the fertile ‘perfect’ stage. (So, they go from the pale blobs to the rapsberries.) Sooooo interesting. I’d never seen or heard of anything like them, so, this was a fun find.
We also found some green mold that we hadn’t seen before. I researched it when I got home and asked some of my naturalist graduates for help with an ID, and settled on Green Trichoderma Mold, Trichoderma viride, a fungus and a biofungicide. It reproduces asexually through mitosis and is the anamorph of Hypocrea rufa, its teleomorph, which is the sexual reproductive stage of the fungus and produces a typical fungal fruiting body. The taxonomy of this mold has changed a LOT, so I’m not sure if this is the most currently accepted name. A closely related species, Trichoderma reesei, is used in the creation of “stonewashed jeans”.
Green Trichoderma Mold, Trichoderma viride
In that same area we found several different species of crust fungi, some nice polypores. Hair Mold, and some pretty, colorful lichens. The Hair Mold, Phycomyces nitens , looks white when it’s fresh but if you look closer you can see its tiny yellow asexual sporangia that turn black when they go to spore. This mold is interesting because it’s also highly phototropic (its heads follow the direction of the sun as it moves across the sky. )
“…Phycomyces was the second organism, after us, known to require a vitamin. …There are two main kinds of fruiting bodies, called macrophores and microphores, which differ in size, development and behavior. The spores disperse efficiently when they adhere to passing animals or are eaten by them…”
When we were done in that field, we crossed back toward where the car was park and found more Honey Fungus and polypores.
Then we drove further into the park toward the camping area, and I had Roxanne stop the car in the road when I spotted a huge Common Ink Cap Mushroom, Coprinopsis atramentaria, and some of its “children”. It was the biggest specimen of that mushroom I’d ever seen. Very photo worthy.
Common Ink Cap Mushroom, Coprinopsis atramentaria
In that same field, I was also surprised to see lots and lots of Palomino Cup Fungus, Peziza repanda. I’d never seen them in that particular field before, so it was fun to see them there. Each one is a different shape depending on how it grows up through the grass, so I got dozens of photos of them.
Palomino Cup Fungus, Peziza repanda
Then we continued on to the camping area, and found some nice-looking Barometer Earthstars, Astraeus hygrometricus. We also got views of the American River and could see a few bird species in and around the water including some Common Mergansers and Goldeneye ducks, a Double-Crested Cormorant, and a little Spotted Sandpiper(without its breeding spots).
We walked for almost five hours (!) and then headed home.
Species List:
Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus [heard and saw lots]
Rio Grande Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia
Shrubby Sunburst Lichen, Polycauliona candelaria
Splitgill Fungus, Schizophyllum sp.
Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis macularius
Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus [heard]
Star Moss, Syntrichia ruralis
Sulphur Tuft Fungus, Hypholoma fasciculare [The crowded adnate gills of the Sulphur Tuft are initially sulphur yellow, becoming olive-green and progressively blackening as the spores ripen.]
