Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Fall Hike

Another thing that marks fall for me is that all the Bruce Trail properties get inspected.  Once a year the volunteer Land Stewards fill out a report, to ensure that any problems get noted and dealt with.  I'm a volunteer for two properties, so each year I get out there and not only walk the trail, but wander elsewhere.

This property is partly White Pine plantation, about 30 years old.  We had it thinned 5 years ago, and some of the remaining pine are now looking like fairly large trees.

And the plantation area is looking a lot more like a mixed forest than just pines, which was in fact the purpose of the thinning.

In the deciduous part of the forest there is as yet very little fall colour, just a few branches here and there.

Sadly, most of the enormous old American Beech are now succumbing to another invasive blight, and dying off.  This one is nearly 3 feet in diameter.

It was the fungi that were the highlight of this walk, with lots of mushrooms, bracket fungi and other interesting species to see.  I've tried to use the 'Field Guide to Mushroom' to identify them, but with 700 pictures to compare, it seems hopeless to me unless there's a really clear distinguishing feature.

But this one was easy to identify; there's only one like it, the Bear's Head Tooth fungus.  First time I've ever see one.


I stepped across the road when I finished to say hello to a herd of grazing cattle.  This one was curious.
So were a few others.

But I guess they didn't like what they saw, 'cause the whole bunch of them turned and high-tailed it out of there!

****

Our first excursion with the new van, though short and simple, was a success.  We drove north 4 hours to a cottage west of Algonquin Park, and enjoyed a visit - but we slept in the new van.  The driving was comfortable, the electric systems, including the fridge, all worked well, and the sleeping was fine too.  We're slowly sorting out what will work best for longer trips.  Pix of the north woods in a few days.




18 comments:

  1. HA---those cattle just wanted to show you their backsides..... They knew you had a camera --so as my hubby says when I get a picture of him from the back, " You've got my best side"....

    Great pictures along the Bruce Trail. Love seeing fungus --especially that Bear's Head Tooth Fungus... What a name!!!!!

    We are finally cooler here this week --for the first time this month... Maybe we'll finally get some Autumn here.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  2. More awesome photos, not many fall colours here yet either.

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  3. Such a beautiful forest! The fungi were gorgeous!

    It sounds like you will have wonderful adventures in your new RV.

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  4. Hubby said he thought the top mushrooms, the one that sort of looks like an inverted cone or cup is a Milky. Sometimes they get infested with another fungus and turned a bright red.....then they are called Lobsters.

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  5. Fall is always a great time for mushrooms. You found some unusual looking ones.

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  6. I am reading this close to midnight with the heavy rains in our area keeping me awake. Lightning and thunder and I am sure we also will begin to have all those interesting mushrooms.

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  7. oh the mushrooms and the cows - love them! I miss seeing those, use to see them both everywhere up north, now in the city you don't see that much

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  8. No sign of Autumn here just yet but it won't be long.

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  9. Lovely photos . I do like all the different fungi the last one is very unusual and one I have never seen here either . Glad you new camper was a success and comfy . Our trees are slowly changing here as well , pouring rain today and for most of the weekend for us , we could of used all this rain in the summer instead of now though lol ! Thanks for sharing , Have a good weekend !

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  10. Fungus is hard isn't it?
    I know orange peel fungus - looks like orange peel growing on the tree. Also Jew's ear fungus although probably the name has been changed since I learned it. You can eat that one - it gets added to pates and things. And then there's Ganoderma which is a bracket fungus on lots of our local trees. When the fruiting bodies are fresh they look like cream cheese scattered with coco powder.

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  11. Those are some interesting mushrooms. And the cows made me smile as they hightailed it to parts unknown. :-)

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  12. You have my sympathy with fungus identification. With two different apparently excellent field guides and a course in mycology I still can't be sure of any but the most distinctive species. The darn things are just too variable and identification often depends on rather obscure features.

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  13. Always count on cows to be curious! The bear's head tooth fungus really is distinctive.

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  14. I so enjoyed this post! It has been too long since I've been reading blogs. Let's just say it has been a long summer...

    What a wonderful walk yours must have been. The mushrooms and fungus photos are very cool. I enjoyed seeing the cows also, even if they ignored you, your readers found them fun to see. Have fun in your new van!

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  15. I've never seen anything like that bear head tooth fungus. Kind of neat looking!!
    Love the cow pictures and the last one made me smile. : )

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  16. Lovely photo's, I especially like the colours of the leaves in your third picture.

    All the best Jan

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  17. What an interesting assortment of Fungi!

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