Tag Archives: mushrooms

Exploring, mushrooms, Troy's Blog

Late Summer Mushrooms

As late August arrived, we planned a family camping weekend. It was a cloudy and wet weekend at times making it more challenging to get out and photograph nature. While hanging around the campsite preparing breakfast, I started wondering around and came across these small mushrooms popping out of a mossed covered log laying across the forest floor. Looking through the camera lens, the lighting was very nice creating a soft image perfect for these delicate little fungi.

The next weekend brought a trip to the North Shore to help my daughter move in to her new place for the winter as school gets back underway. While in the area, I got up to watch the sunrise which ended up being a bit dismal. After the light began to spread across the landscape I headed for a nearby trail to explore the north woods. Walking all alone into these beautiful trees, I came across a large rotting stump. Examining closer I could see coral mushrooms. And then red capped mushrooms. Continuing to walk around I found brown mushrooms. So much to capture all in one piece of wood.

Little red capped mushroom

This little red capped fungi stood out against the more natural tones of the forest floor bringing fantastic color on such a small scale. It was such a picture perfect mushroom to enjoy. Walking to the other side of this stump, coral mushrooms were coming out of the ground. These are definitely one the most unique mushrooms I’ve seen. I remember reading about them in one of my magazines but had never seen one to know a mushroom like this existed. A few years later I finally saw one and now I find them from time to time enjoying it each time with their interesting branching structure. I had a saltwater tank with coral in it and these always bring back positive memories of that aquarium.

Coral Mushroom surrounded by fallen birch logs

The first coral mushroom I saw was fairly large but in a difficult spot to get a nice photo of it. Searching the area I saw this one surrounded by birch branches bringing a little more interesting background to the photo. When I look over this picture, I always think it should have water droplets hanging off of it to soften up the image and make it more inviting. There was no rain that morning so it wasn’t an option. Moving on to one more of the fungus growing out of this decomposing tree stump, I wanted to show a different moss surrounding these mushrooms. These were fun to capture because there are several stages of opening present from the rounded to top to becoming flattened to having a cup forming in the top of the most open stem. This brown was a nice contrast to the brilliant green moss growing around them completing the earthy tones often associated with a forest in late summer.

Growing among the mosses

It was getting to be time to rejoin my family for breakfast and one more day of exploring together before needing to return home. My little adventure had been a successful one with some great mushrooms along a beautiful north woods trail near Lake Superior and I was ready to get back to my car. Almost…. While walking back towards my car I kept stopping just to take in these surroundings and the plants making up the woods. At one point I bent over to examine some plant leaves and berries growing from them when I looked closer towards the ground and noticed a bright yellow mushroom. I had seen one of these earlier but it was not in great shape. A little too old to capture. As I continue to get closer to this one, there was a snail climbing around it. Watching it for awhile, I moved around with the camera to get an interesting picture as it worked its way over the top of this next meal. That was really fun to witness and a great send off from the trail as I returned to my vehicle to meet my family.

A snail grabbing a mushroom breakfast

spring, Troy's Blog

First Signs of Spring

I’ve heard, from people who make Maple Syrup, that as the season for collecting sap from Maple trees comes to an end the colorful mushrooms begin to emerge. I decided to go hunting for them to see what they look like. And hopefully come across a few other interesting pieces of nature. After walking a few miles and watching a couple of migrating ducks I spotted some red mushrooms hiding in the forest floor. Actually, wild Turkey’s uncovered one for me. Walking through the woods a flock of Turkey’s surprised me. As turkey’s do, they quickly ran over a hill and out of site. Once I reached the area they were scratching at when I first saw them, there was one of these red mushrooms attached to a stick which had recently been uncovered. Once the first one was spotted, it became easier to find others. As long as I was wondering around Maple trees I could usually find at least a couple of these Scarlet Cup mushrooms hiding amongst the fallen leaves.

At one point, there were an abundance of them so I began to collect some of the nicer looking ones and set them on a white shelf mushroom as you can see above. It seemed like a more interesting picture than attempting to capture their orange-red color clinging to the ground like in the photo below. Once I was done taking pictures of the Scarlet Cups, I returned them to their places among the forest floor. A nice success and sign of spring as many of the other signs seemed to be still hibernating.

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Adventure, Troy's Blog

Mushrooms Abound

While camping at Lost Lake in the Chequamegon – Nicollet National Forest Labor Day Weekend I kept finding different and unique mushrooms. There are nine different ones pictured alone in this post but I counted at least 13 different types. I’m not a mushroom person so I don’t know what most of them are nor do I eat them so if you’re looking for what kind each is I’m sorry but I can’t answer that. Maybe at some point I’ll research these and figure out what more of them are but there are just too many at one time. It would take a good part of a day to identify all of them which is more time than I am willing to commit at this moment.

Growing in pine needles

There were several things I wanted to do while enjoying an extended weekend in the quiet north woods of Wisconsin. Some of these included fishing, sitting by the campfire, exploring area trails and waterfalls, and photographing stuff like animals and stars. Upon moving my stuff from the car to a cabin I kept seeing different mushrooms. Some in or on trees and others on the ground. I thought it was pretty cool to see these especially since I had recently read an article about some of the area mushrooms and was learning a better appreciation for them and their structures. Eventually I planned to take a few pictures of them but fishing was more on my mind so the camera stayed in its bag and down to the lake I went.

Coral Mushrooms

The next day,after throwing a line in the water for a bit, I decided to snap a few quick photos of those mushrooms just around the cabin I was staying in and retreat to a chair for some R and R before continuing on with a day of exploring. Looking at these photos a little later on I was not happy with how they were turning out so figured I should find a bit more time at some point to get some better ones. Also I was spotting more types of mushrooms to take pictures of.

Orange mushrooms growing in decomposing wood

By the third day I decided to try again photographing the mushrooms in the area but only half hardily. Handholding the camera in relatively low light of the forest I attempted some more pictures of the same mushrooms as the day before in hopes of better results. Well, the results really weren’t much better but I wasn’t sure I cared enough to spend more time doing that.

Mushrooms popping up with moss spores

After spending about as much time as I wanted photographing mushrooms I returned to the cabin ready to take it easy for a little bit when the friend I was camping with brought out his camera and started getting more serious about capturing these little forest gems. Begrudgingly I joined in and realized if I wanted some decent shots I needed to commit to setting things up correctly with the camera which required a tripod, remote shutter, and additional lighting. At first I struggled a little bit because it was taking longer to set up a shot or series of shots than I really wanted but the urge to capture these amazing mushrooms motivated me to continue on.

Another form of coral mushrooms

Getting good, close shots of some of these tiny mushrooms requires figuring out how to get low to the ground while keeping the camera steady for a second or two and triggering the shutter while holding a light at just the right distance and angle became a bit of a circus act. Eventually I enlisted some help and began to see some nice photos encouraging more time on the forest floor. By the way, it had rained the night before so the ground was wet and muddy adding to my lack of motivation to crawl around to get some interesting shots.

A trio of brown mushrooms

Once I finally got past the lack of desire to spend the time capturing these little fungi and started to get better results from the camera setup, time started to fly and the day with it. Every time I thought this is the last different on that I see I would photograph it, stand up and see another one or be informed of one I need to take a look at a little further in the forest. After several hours of just taking pictures of mushrooms I finally decided I needed to be done. I was on fungus overload and needed to go fishing. Especially since I wanted to eat fish for the next meal.

Being eaten by insects

While meandering back to the cabin so I could put the camera gear away and grab a fishing pole I couldn’t believe how many different mushrooms existed in such a relatively small area. I’ve never seen so many. Or at least I’ve not noticed them like this. The other thing that really caught my attention was the coral fungus. Having just read about them a few months prior I wanted to find some and here they were.  Since that time I’ve been paying more attention to decomposing logs and trees looking for more of these interesting little fungus. Sometimes I find a couple of different mushrooms but nothing like what was at Lost Lake. Hopefully I can return to those cabins again and continue this hunt for even more mushrooms.

Orange and yellow mushroom

Photos, Troy's Blog

Minnesota’s Forest Coral

I wanted to photograph the frosty plants on a foggy November morning. By the time I got all of my gear and began hiking the temperature warmed enough to melt much of the frost and with it, my goals for this day. Kicking myself for not moving earlier I begrudgingly continued on my desired hiking route just to enjoy the day and see if there was anything interesting along the way.

Great color combinations and textures of some mushrooms

My hope was to hike to a more secluded lake and photograph migrating ducks if nothing else caught my attention before hand. As I moved along the trail I happened to see this mushroom covered log. For some reason I’m drawn to mushrooms on a log. All of these rounded little plates sticking out from a disintegrating portion of wood. Yet through a number of attempts there haven’t been any interesting photos from any of my attempts. Although I’ve not had some of the equipment I brought this time either since my original plan was to photograph frosty crystals as intimately as I could. Maybe that same idea would bring out what attracts me to these mushrooms.

The amazing texture and color of lichens contrast nicely against orange mushrooms

As I neared the log I was amazed at the incredible display being put on by these mushrooms which happed to also be surrounded by lichens putting on their own colorful display on this cool, wet late fall day. The seemingly random textures of the lichens made them very intriguing along with their beautiful variations of colors, from bright greens to light blues made them stand out among the multicolored mushrooms. When I returned home later and looked on the computer they looked just like a coral reef to me.

Stepping along some mushrooms full of great texture

Throw in a little dark green moss and it became a world all it’s own. What else lives among all these vibrant formations? Eating mushrooms or lichens, seeking shelter in the many crevices? A dew covered web confirmed this little world most of us never even know of. I loved all of the fuzzy rings stacked on top of one another creating each mushroom for the spider to climb searching for its’ next meal before succumbing to winter.

Dew covered web connecting mushrooms

As I continued to explore around the fallen branches I came across some vibrant orange mushrooms which contrasted beautifully with the dark lichen covered bark. Patterns within these mushrooms amazed me along with their shapes and waves. Add to that the green, yellow, and blue lichens and this scene is just exploding with color.

An orange mushroom showing bright in late November

Eventually the daylight was getting dimmer making it more challenging to photograph these mushroom filled branches so I packed up and headed back for the car. On my return hike rain began to fall so it was a good time to leave and pack away the camera. A great substitute for missing most of the frost covered landscape. In the picture below you can see the fallen tree that first caught my attention. Very easy to continue on walking as this is a pretty common scene in a forest. Glad I stopped to examine it closer.

Mushrooms covering an old downed tree