7 October

 OH DAMN!  I aimed my camera at the remains of the hornet nest, only to  read "No memory card" in the viewfinder.   I'd obviously left it in my laptop at home.  And that's why the photos on this blog will all be low-res, taken by my smartphone.  Not only is there no memory card in my camera, there seems to be precious little memory in my brain, these days.  

The cat-tail moss on the cedars has grown to be very long, and gleams in the morning light.

 I was sure that there was going to be a spectacular rarity flying over and me with no functional camera.  The good news was that we didn't see any birds over the marsh, and that the most interesting sightings were of mushrooms.  Unlike birds, they sit still and are relatively easy to photograph.  There were a lot of them, mostly rather small, but often clustered and numerous.

I'm sending photos to our fungus expert in preparation for the annual Arrowsmith Naturalists Mushroom Festival, and should get some identifications. 

The woodpecker target tree had shrunk some more, and sprouted a new mushroom

This cluster emerged from a broken off stump, nestled in a stand of moss.  .  

There were tiny mushrooms growing in fir cones.

This red-belted conk emerges from a downed alder.  Bracket fungi such as these can occupy live trees initially, but they will kill the tree with time.  

I've no idea what these small brownish mushrooms, emerging from moss, are.

Another cluster, possibly inky caps(?), growing on a thoroughly decomposed log.

The trees nearest the marsh seem to show the most stress from drought and heat.  

This seems curious, in view of their relative proximity to water.

The water level in the marsh has risen slightly.  Although it's muddy,  there is more standing water visible.