Myco hunting

A little while back, A and I got out for a morning to see if the late summer rains had done much for the mushrooms up in the nearest-by mountains. A reliable spot yielded no edibles; however, on the way out A spotted a nice flush of oyster mushrooms up on a poplar stump:

There was one drawback to their location:

wrong side of the creek! (click on the photo above to see the 'shrooms in the left side of the frame)

Fortunately, there was a relatively easy way across that didn't involve wet feet, leaving only head-high stinging nettles to contend with. Stinging nettles: one of the many reasons to wear long sleeves and canvas pants in summer time in the woods. There were thistles, too.

The mushrooms proved to be large,  fresh, and largely bug-free:

They were just a little high up there:

Requiring us to resort to Rescue Tape (tm) from the truck box.

I'm looking to patent the "Mora-on-stick" mushroom collection device:

 Failing to field the falling 'shroom meant hunting it out of the nettles, a real incentive not to miss your catch:

In the end, leaving a bit of the cluster to spread spores around, we had a couple of pounds of oysters, enough to provide a very generous pizza topping to a couple of large 'za.

That bridge would have been a lot better if the bark wasn't slipping. Mycophagy is way more exciting that bird watching.

Trophy Shot

We were very much meat hunting this year, looking for the first buck (or first two bucks) we could get to. An obliging fork horn is now in the freezer, all except for the bits and bobs that were ground into sausage, of which I'll write a bit more in the future.

fungus on the brain

Just for fun, here are some other mushrooms we've found recently and were able to identify. These were not for eating but interesting to look at and included Amanita muscaria (fly agaric):



Gomphus floccosus ("Scaly vase chanterelle" which, despite it's name and appealing appearance, isn't recommended for eating):





and Pholiota squarrosa ("scaly pholiota"):





One thing about keying-out species that you're pretty sure aren't edible or that you aren't interested in eating is that the process of going through identifying characteristics and figuring out exactly what you're looking at makes identifying the edibles a lot easier and more certain. That said, we still run into lots of fungi that we can't figure out.

birds on a wire

Courtesy of my Dad over in SE Texas, photos of the whistling ducks that have been hanging out on the powerline by their house every morning. Something just wrong about seeing that waterfowl silhouette from this angle and in such a location.








Ah, the melodious chirp of the duck, greeting the dawn!

daffodil

First daffodil this year.


Update- and just 24 hours later:



Down in the Southwest we should never complain about moisture, and I'm not, but spring is a hard season to love.

starting the week with cute

My folks were in South Texas visiting my aunt and uncle recently and went out on a ranch looking to put a nilgai in the freezer. The nilgai didn't cooperate, but Dad did walk up on this baby scimitar horned oryx, which also range on and off of this particular ranch.




A bit too young to successfully run from predators, he laid very, very still and concentrated on being invisible while his mom hovered nearby and Dad got a few telephotos. Check out the bitty little horn buds!

Various river scenes

We've been down on the Rio a few times recently. We still don't have that many ducks down here and the hunting has been a bit slow. Good fun, though.

A and her Ruger Red Label, sunrise:



Long time friend, good cook, and occasional commenter Matt on his inaugural duck hunt:



We had a good hunt, even if not too many birds were around and our shooting wasn't quite up to par. A few birds in the bag and nice weather- nothing to complain about. Unlike the next.

Fortunately, there's no video to go with this one- me, working on my balky autoloader. Can't imagine why it was acting up. Getting set up early doesn't do much good when you have to work on your gun in the dark. Having a single shot makes you really concentrate on the bird for your one try, too.



Booker, posing with bad grace next to a banded bird. That bird traveled all of seven miles from the banding site, not many northern birds down yet. Books was busy watching the sky and wanted to go find more, not fool around with cameras and a bird in the hand:




Last, a bittern in a riverside drain (may have to click on the photo to see anything). He had the good grace to act exactly as reputed, putting his beak in the sky and mimicking a reed or stump, rather than flying off.

What is this?

So, a couple of weeks ago we came across this odd plant up in the spruce/fir-aspen zone, around 8500 feet, in northern NM. It looks a bit like a a fleshy plant, a bit like a fungus. Still emerging from the duff, the stalks are about an inch and a half in diameter and perhaps seven inches tall. What is it?





Field guides having been of no help, I turn to the wealth of the 'net.

Edited to add- identified by Chas Clifton in the comments!

Predator encounter

While up in Alaska I was fortunate enough to get a pretty good look at one of the local predators- a short-tailed weasel. I was even able to get video. If you watch, ignore the silly squeaky lip noises and clicking. I saw the little dude zipping around in the brush and, after he darted right up to me once, I was trying to lure him into camera range. Since it worked, the silly noises qualify as "woodcraft" rather than "embarrassing".



Blogger's video quality isn't great, but I'm not YouTube savvy so there it is.

@#$%&**!!! Snake!!

Hope you all had a good weekend. Ours was good, just interrupted a couple of times. Kind of a southwestern version of unwanted encounters. Saturday was devoted to chores- getting the swamp cooler hooked up and ready to go, pulling a mort of weeds, watering, mowing, and all those little things.
Sunday, A, the dog and I took the morning and headed up the mountain behind town.


Our exercise was cut a bit short by running into this fine fellow:


At least he had the grace to start buzzing right away. It's been a while since I've run into a rattler and I'd nearly forgotten the full body adrenaline rush that sound can inspire. Cue bad words and me skipping backwards yanking 95 pounds of confused Chessie behind me. The weather is nice enough for snakes, but I was a bit surprised to see him at what must be at least 6000 feet in elevation. Wonder what particular type? Not diamondback. (Edited to add- I think he's a Northern Black-Tailed Rattlesnake).


Since I was seeing snakes under every rock, and there were lots of rocks, we headed back down the hill. Booker is training for the summer backpacking season:



That evening, we blew up to one of my very favorite venues and caught Blue Rodeo. I'm happy to report that they are every bit as good, if not better, live as they are on album. The whole scene was definitely something white people might like, with lots of folks up by the stage, bobbing their heads and tapping their feet. No judgment, I was happily bobbing & tapping along, noting Los Alamos Barbie & Ken in the audience. All in all a very good time, great weather, lovely patio, good music, very good beer and a superior type of bar food. Get the Asian slaw as a side. That place is one of the things that makes me happy I live where I do.

Today we headed up into the mountains, looking to dodge holiday crowds and find some water. The dog was not impressed with the plan-


We had just bailed off the trail to head down to the water when we ran across three and a half feet of bull snake, an unwelcome surprise at 8000 feet.


I didn't think any snakes hung around up there, but he was big around as a ball bat in his middle.


I used the encounter to engage in a little snake training with the dog, as I saw the reptile first. Once Booker noticed him, I yanked to dog downhill, shouting and doing my best to instill a little aversion. Still, my equanimity had been lost. Soon, though, we got down to the creek.

Runoff swollen, but fishable. Swimable for sure.


Cold water? No problem:


That stuff was snow 10 hours ago.

I'm going to need to work with the dog a bit on the concept of fishing, though. He takes my interest in a stretch of water as a reason to check it out first hand:


Little mountain trout don't rise to the fly under these circumstances:


In the end, a beautiful outdoors day and a tired dog:




Hope everyone else fared as well.

thinking about the weather

We've had an odd and chilly spring this year- when I went to buy tomato seedlings a few weekends ago the nursery informed me that their stock had been nipped and advised me to check back in a week. I did, and the low the Friday before the plants went in was a chilly 33F. Even so, it turned hot and we seemed back on track. This last week started sunny and reaching for the 90s. The weather had the feel of the hot spell we frequently fall into in the beginning of June or late May and 100 degree temps seem right around the corner. Day before yesterday, though, a cool breeze came through in the late evening and both yesterday and today have been drizzly, cool and cloudy. It feels like fall, one of those best elk hunting days in mid-October when the clouds hang on the ridgetops and the woods are damp, curtains of mist and drizzle hiding the other side of the canyon. It also feels a bit like Alaska, at least where I've fished down off the Prince William Sound and drizzly, rainy, breezy and cool are the most frequent conditions. So, in reflection of the weather and anticipation of a trip only a few months away, here are some of my favorite Alaska shots, most from a few years back when we went out late enough for the colors to be well on their way to changing.

My father fishing- this is my screensaver:


My uncle on the same trip:


Scenery everywhere:










And then, a tangible prompt to memory: