Hamilton Wetlands and Forest

 Two days after the Winter Solstice.  A fine morning to visit the Wetlands and Forest and watch changes in midwinter sunlight.   I set out on a clear morning, with the special quality of light that only a winter morning can bring. I think it's due to the low angle of the sun, illumining foliage and moss. The heavy rains of the past week have suppressed the fungus growth, although a few remain present.   This growth is puzzling.  I hope someone can explain it to me.  I think there are three different species present: a variety of polypore, a small, glossy something, and an orange fungus. I'm wondering if the polypore and the orange whatever are somehow related to the "poached egg fungus" we spotted the past weeks. The "poached egg fungus" has now subsided to a leathery growth on the log, still with an orange "yolk. "  Suggestions re identification will be gratefully received and incorporated into this blog. The light changed as I approached th...

  A sunny morning with early frost.  By the time we reached the Forest and Wetlands, the frost had cleared.   Moss glowed in the sunlight. On the forest floor, ferns and moss gleamed. The fungus population remains abundant, although it is beginning to diminish. LBMs continue to appear. The odd, and still unidentified "poached egg fungus" is shrinking, leaving the stem evident that attaches it to a fur log.  Although it could be taken for a bit of debris discarded by a walker, the now apparent stem reduces that likelihood. Tiny orange fruiting bodies of a slime mold share the log with the mystery fungus.   The weather allowed a clear view of Mount Arrowsmith with its growing snow pack. The Marsh had a mist rising from its south side.  It was comfortably warm, sitting on the dock and admiring the view.  There still are few waterfowl--we heard mallards, and saw them in the distance, but that was the extent of the population. The shrubs and trees...

  Early morning drizzle gave way to fine sunlight this morning. It seems that this is the season for shows of fungi and of light. Mosses glowing in the sunlight is not unusual in the Forest, but today's  seemed exceptionally radiant. The remaining foliage joined the display. The fungi continue to present with biodiversity.  The single fairy finger appeared with what I'm taking as winter oysters.  Although fairy fingers emerge from fallen wood, this is the first time I've seen it emerge from a live tree, along with moss and little white growth that could be fruiting bodies of a slime mold.  A very strange fungus has appeared, which looks almost like a poached egg.  I've yet to find an identification for it. It could be an orange jelly fungus with some kind of white mold forming on it...Fungi do grow on other fungi at times, it seems. Another oddity is these pinkish fungi--possibly starting to decompose.   There seems to be no limit to the oddities ...

25 November  Two weeks in November saw such wild winds that we didn't think it wise to visit the forest.  I've already written of blowdowns at the beginning of the month, and feared more such events.  As it happened, the forest--or at least the north side of it, where we walk-- remained unaffected.  On returning on the 25th of November, we found that the mythical Forest Gnomes appear to have braved the elements, and replaced battered old signs with elegant new ones. Further seasonal change was evident.  It was a day of changing light, with stretches of the path illumined. Ephemeral ponds, not uncommon in the Forest, have increased in number and in size. I had hoped to track change in the fruiting bodies of the "salmon egg" slime mold (trichia decipiens) but two weeks absence has not shown change.  In fact the "salmon eggs," seem to have shrunk. They are now accompanied by small fungi and possibly an additional white slime mold.  Apparently the biodiver...