LBM

Little brown mushroom
Lemoine Point, Kingston
7 January 2007

The mild rainy weather was just what was needed to encourage the appearance of this fungal fruit. Little brown mushrooms are notoriously difficult to identify but it was nice to be able to do a little mushroom hunting in January.

Beetle

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
7 January 2007

This beetle was overwintering in the roots of a clump of moss, just a little poking around unearthed him and he was quick to start looking for more peaceful quarters.

Spider

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
7 January 2007

I don't have a good field guide for spiders so this one is unidentified. I found him under a rock and as it was a cold day he was not interested in running away.

Striate Bird's Nest Fungus

Cyathus striatus
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
7 January 2007

Lithobiomorph Centipede

Lithobiomorph Centipede
Lemoine Point
Kingston, Ontario
7 January 2007

It may be January but the lack of snow, mild temperatures, and a little turning over of rocks and logs can unearth a few interesting species such as this common Centipede.

Honey I Shrunk the Giant Squid

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
27 September, 2005

I've often found the strangest looking little invertebrates associated with mushrooms. I have no idea what this one is. I need a decent camera with a macro lens to do justice to these little things.

Unidentified Mushroom

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
27 September, 2005

The cap is slimy and about 2.5cm across. The stalk is about 3.5 cm tall.

Unidentified Mushroom

November 03, 2005
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

(Somewhat late in the season but under the right conditions it doesn't take much for mushrooms to appear)

Red-tailed Hawk at the Point

Found this Red-tailed Hawk at Lemoine Point near the boardwalk in the swamp. At first he was perched at the top of one of the dead trees but when he spotted me he moved to this higher perch in the big tree nearby. When he left the lower perch he swooped on a duck that was sitting in the swamp. The duck put up a racket but the hawk just flew off. The chickadees of course are always glad to pose for a picture.

Lemoine Point

Beautiful, warm, sunshine at the Point today. The rest of the weekend and next week calls for rain. Sun and moon shared the sky this morning and provided a backdrop for the gathering of flocks of birds preparing to head south for the winter.

The trees were full of flocks of birds. This one contained a gathering of House Finch, a few trees down was a large flock of Red-winged Blackbirds who were finished with their work in the swamp but not quite ready to leave town.

Spring Migration Continues

Winter Wren
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

Jumping Spider of some kind
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

I took the two pictures above at Lemoine Point yesterday. The Winter Wren is secretive and very small. I spent about an hour getting close enough to take this distant shot. I first saw it on the edge of a swampy area near a limestone ledge. It always kept low and was very furtive in its movements. It wasn't until another Wren came along that the two became more comfortable with me being there. By the time I was finished I was covered in burrs and had lost my cell phone. An hour's work removed the burrs from my fleece and a kind stranger found my cell phone and turned it in to the police. Does birding kill brain cells???

The small spider above was found in the dragonfly field. There were quite a few of this species and they were always on the move. Many spiders are predatory and don't build webs. This one could move quickly as well as jump when it wanted an extra burst of getaway power.

I went to the Amherstview sewage lagoons this morning to check on the waterfowl. As you can see there are no pictures. I had the scope but forgot the camera (although I had extra batteries for it in my pocket) - what was I saying about brain cells? I was able to add a new species to my list, the Redhead. I also saw numerous pairs of Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, and an American Wigeon.

Spring Begins

The dragonfly field stands ready for another season: just add water and heat!

I spent about a half an hour with this Cardinal before he would come in close enough for a shot.

The White-breasted Nuthatch and his usual companion.

Although it was just around the freezing mark, the sun made it feel much warmer and hinted at the coming of the spring migration and the return of dragonflies, mushrooms, flowers, and a whole array of interesting invertebrates. Yesterday I saw a Hooded Merganser in the creek beside the Ambassador Hotel. Things should soon begin to get interesting. For now I content myself with Classical Guitar and Chess but this weekend I'll crack out the field guides and start honing the identification skills.

Spring-like day at The Point

Yesterday it poured rain. This morning it was plus 5C and partly sunny. All of the snow is gone from the woods and the rocks and trees are covered in fresh green moss. Many fungi that fruit on dead wood are abundant. I found three new species, posted below, and lots of Trametes versicolor (Turkey Tail). One Hairy Woodpecker tried to get my attention but today I am a mycologist and must ignore such distractions.

Polyporus elegans

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

4 February, 2006

This is a Stalked Polypore. The cap is 3 cm and was quite slimy (it was a very wet day).

Oligoporus fragilis

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

4 February, 2006

Commonly known as Staining Cheese Polypore this is a member of the Fleshy to Fibrous-tough, Shelf-like Polypore group.

Hymomyces aurantiacus

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

4 February, 2006

This belongs to the Carbon and Cushion Fungi group.

Leccinum griseum

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

18 September, 2005

I've tried many times to identify this Bolete, without success. The cap is 80 mm in diameter. The stalk is thick and seemed to be hollow. I didn't get a spore print. You can see from the picture of the pore surface that it seems to stain a yellow/green. I've come across a very interesting book for identifying Boletes: "North American Boletes". Unfortunately it costs $111.95! The purchase of this book would allow me to upgrade my status from hobbyist to amateur Naturalist. While this is appealing there are certain countervailing forces...

(Update 3 February, 2006)
In looking at David Arora's book, Mushrooms Demystified, I believe that this Bolete falls into the Leccinum family. These are rough-stemmed Boletes. You can see in the bottom picture that the stalk is scabrous. Now looking at Bessette, Bessette, and Fischer, Mushrooms of Northeastern North America, and using the key for Leccinum this mushroom seems to key out reasonably to L. griseum: "pores surface white, typically staining greenish then slowly dingy yellow when bruised; cap yellow brown to brown when young, becoming olive-brown to grayish brown at maturity."

The camera is fixed!

Downy Woodpecker
Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

It was a pretty sad day for birding over at the Point today. Long stretches of nothing punctuated by aggressive Chickadee attacks. We're going to need a stategy to get through this winter. Going to have to spend some quality time over at the Firefly Forest Blog. It's eternal summer over there.

Russula unidentified

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario
September 18, 2005

The genus was as far as I could get with this mushroom. One website suggested that there are as many as 84 different species of Russula with red caps and white stems!

Pholiota squarrosa

Lemoine Point, Kingston, Ontario

21 September, 2005

I have many good pictures of mushrooms that I have not yet been able to identify. This identification took about two hours to make. There are so many different kinds of mushrooms and each species can appear very different from instance to instance and each guide only covers a certain cross section of the species. At least I can be thankful that I'm not studying beetles... yet.