Last year's Wild Hunt chronicles came to a screeching halt with the sudden & most disturbing coma-like sleep of the laptop. Let it not happen again this year.
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Wee Ones snacking on an Emetic Russula (Russula emetica).
Obviously less troubling to their systems. |
Last year I wrote in the never completed, never published entry:
"When we hunt, we hunt for food,
& non-food supplies,
but even more fervently, we hunt for Beauty. It is so easy to find.
It's the experience of being present that drives us, the excitement of discovery, sharing, learning, knowing. The familiarity & the unknown. The piecing together of connections, relationships..."
And this is all still true, but I discovered something else this year.
Sometimes, when I am out there in the forest, either alone or accompanied by my people, I get high. That is to say, the hunting (or something) gives me a high & unsophisiticated as it sounds, there is no more straightforward was of describing it.
The Hunt makes me high.
Or something.
And when this happens, my head swims & everything smells in technicolour & I can 'hear' (intuit?) whisperings (or is it that I sense presences, like radar?) & I get a little frenetic & breathe fast & perhaps I get a bit sloppy because this is when I stumble over logs & nearly step on moose & ptarmigans & anyone else who isn't a fungi...
And just to be completely clear (a laughable aim, I admit) it isn't the acquisition that feels good -- it is the discovery, the sensing & the knowing.
With that, some fungi porn from our wanderings during this Wild Hunt 2014.
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This year seems to have an abundance of brown. For the humans who like nomenclature, everything below we will just call an "LBM" unless otherwise indicated, partly because I don't know everything & partly because I really would rather be back outside than labeling photographs.
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| Fried Chicken Mushroom (Lyophyllum decastes). |
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| Brownie Cup (Peziza repanda)? |
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| Grisette hatchling. (Amanita pachycolea) |
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| Also brown, but not a fungi. What? |
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| Pear-shaped Puffballs. Lycoperdon pyriforme. |
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| Lepiota spp. |
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| Gypsy Mushroom. (Rozites caperata) |
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| Polypores, so pretty. |
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| Gemmed Puffballs. (Lycoperdon perlatum) |
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Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), immature.
Also brown. Also not a fungi. |
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| A Funny-Guy. Probably. |
But there are other shades of colour too...
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| Green Russula. (Russula aeruginea) |
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| Belly Button Hedgehog. (Hydnum umbilicatum) |
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| Probably Clavaria pyxidata. |
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Probably Fluted Black Elfin Saddle,
(Helvella lacunosa) but a bit moldy to be sure. |
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| Yellow Earth Tongues. (Spathularia flavida) |
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My Love. Pom Pom du Blanc.
(Hericium coralloides formerly H. ramosum.) |
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| Sleeping? |
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| Some of us look better with age. |
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| Witch's Hats. (Hygrocybe conica) |
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| Bleeding Hydnellum. (Hydnellum peckii) |
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| Pholiota spp. |
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Bearded Milk Cap. (Lactarius torminosus)
A new friend. |
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| Russula spp. |
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| Golden Coral. (Ramaria flava) |
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| Russula spp. |
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Saffron Milk Cap. (Lactarius deliciosus)
Also a new friend. |
And finally, something truly suggestive (to the human sensibility anyway). Because that is how some fungi roll...
End fungi porn transmission.
Off to seek more.
8 comments:
On the unnamed hawk ... Shape of head and barred tail plus the black under-eye markings make me think something in the Buteo genus, most likely a broad-winged hawk
Thank You! I am so poor with the birds, or perhaps it has something to do with hating keys, or something. This particular bird & his/her mate are long term denizens of one of our favourite hunting grounds. I have several years of photos of them -- eating prey, shrieking at us, sitting together, nest-tending, etc. But since I am bird-lazy, or fungi-crazy, I forever neglect to figure out their identity, as given by humans anyway.
Maybe this lead will get me somewhere...
No problem! Well I know nothing about fungi names, though love seeing them.
Here in the UK buteo colouration varies a lot which makes identification tricky too. Comms box was playing up before but had added great picture!
That is the way with comment boxes. *sigh*
Prompted by your note, I took a stroll through the Forest Service publications for Alaskan birds. Good grief! They all have such variation, so how does anyone ever identify them with all that moving about they do? (I confess, I really struggled in my ornithology practicals.)
Fungi stay put. So much more cooperative. Could have labeled more of them, but I grew so weary of the typing & how I would rather go a-hunting!
Lovely! Looks like a Dryad's Saddle (Polyporus squamosus) or some other similar Polyporus spp. I have read about them & for a time sought them out up here, but haven't had any luck. I know they occur in far Southeast Alaska, but have yet to see one in our area. If they're young, willing & you've confirmed their identity, you can eat those pretty things. Or, if you're like me, more often than not you'll just gush over them & leave them be. ;)
I think that trance-y disorientation works as a kind of behavioural reinforcement in my case (& sometimes the eldest child's). We find ourselves chomping at the bit all day long. Household duties become neglected, calls & emails unanswered, food supplies dwindling in the pantry (who wants to shop when there's fungi in the forest?)...
I started really abandoning to it this year, full on, but I tend to hunt in more familiar territory b/c I usually take the children. This allows more freedom to blunder about & say to myself from time to time, "I know this copse of trees, I know this hill or rock, etc." It doesn't take me too far out of the trance. But, it does land me squarely 18 inches face-to-face with a ptarmigan under a black spruce. Look up girl, someone is looking at you! Just glad it wasn't someone larger.
So, yes. If I had no responsibility other than myself, I might earn some sneers from search & rescue too.
Makes me wonder about our early ancestors. What kept them alive when they were foraging?
Good question. You wouldn't want to bump into the maneless lion while mushroom hunting. Maybe dogs were part of the picture.
But as a member of the County Emergency Services Board, I will be double-dog-damned if I have to call Search and Rescue. ;)
Ah, yes. That would be most embarrassing. >.<
And dogs? That makes a great deal of sense to me.
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