Big hunt - part 2

Oops!... I did it again, I'm writing the post for the last moment.

So here I am talking again about Saturday two weeks ago, although it is the Saturday next to the one I was talking about last time :o) The trend is likely to continue for at least one more post.

Also last time I totally forgot that

it is my contribution to #FungiFriday by @ewkaw.

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That time I started earlier, although still very late for typical mushroom hunting walk, because it was around 3 PM when I reached the forest. It was... not really raining, but constantly piddling down, which you will see on the photos - all mushrooms are wet. Because of that, the lighting conditions were also not great for taking pictures, therefore I made sure to take my "wafer LED" - almost all photos were taken with that extra light source. I really wanted to make more photos than previously, and picking mushrooms does not make it easy - fingers get dirty and phone refuses to unlock with papillary scan, too dark for face recognition, using PIN is cumbersome. The best way to make sure there will be no or very little mushrooms to pick, is to be prepared for big haul, so on top of normal shopping bag (with bowl on the bottom for stiffness, like before) I also took big shopping bag as well. Oh boy, it didn't work out...

Since previously I did not manage to make a proper circle while walking through forest and therefore plenty of places were omitted, that time I decided to start from the end and go the other way around. I was greeted with typical mix of mushrooms that I don't pick (maybe some of them are even edible, but since there are proven edible mushrooms that I know, I don't even look at other mushrooms as candidates for picking). To be honest I don't even care to try to learn their names, especially that it can be hard at times - I'll get to that later.

Less common species, gelatinous blob, probably some tremella:

I expected some saffron milk caps at that point, but for the time being I found nothing, so I continued through place that tends to have fly agarics. Looks like their time just started.

There were some slippery jacks, but slugs have home field advantage and they seem to be very fond of those mushrooms.

Oh what is that, a porcini? Fat leg, proper color, slightly slippery on top but it is wet, so ok... no, nope, gills :o(

A fungi "flower", but this time something else is the star of the show. Little blueish buggers.

So far I thought these are kind of wood lice - a type of crustaceans. However it turns out they are something completely different - springtails. Similar to insects, they have three pairs of legs, as opposed to 7 pairs for wood lice, which is probably the easiest way to differentiate them. That is most likely Tetrodontophora Bielanensis. Not really an insect, but close enough, so #FascinatingInsects I guess. Here is another one:

Even if not ready to be picked and eaten, mushrooms can still be photogenic.

Another "flower".

Very nice mazegill.

Some mushrooms look like they want to be found. The photo does not show it properly, but those appeared to be glowing spooky acid yellow:

Speaking about mushrooms that grow in colonies on tree stubs, they were particularly abundant.

I used to pick honey fungus. We had a place where they always grew when I was still going mushroom hunting with my late grandfather. Later when I was to continue alone I found out how many lookalikes are there and I decided it is not worth the risk. The thing about that type of mushrooms is that they tent to look completely different based on age and even the kind of tree they grew on. Sometimes even experts classify them differently only to later check that two "separate species" actually have the same DNA.

One more tree eating fungus.

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Oh, yeah, I was to tell you about mushroom identification. So here is an example.

When I tried to look for that one I was pretty sure it is Amanita Mairei - edible - but it turned out to be rare in Poland. Next best guess was Amanita Vaginata - still edible after cooking and much more abundant. However it could also be very poisonous Amanita Virosa (that one is also rare). So when I know, I know, but if I have to use google for identification I'd rather not potentially spread misinformation.

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Ok, ok, but what about edible mushrooms? Isn't the title of the post "big hunt" suggesting I've actually gathered something? Yes, yes. But like I said before, once I started picking edible ones, making photos was getting harder and harder. Here are some saffron milk caps - can you spot them?

The same two exposed for photo after picking:

And another one:

Couple porcinis:

They were many. Along with mostly red caps and some slippery jacks that managed to hide from slugs. But I also found two relatively small parasol mushrooms (plus many more old ones that were already fertilizing the soil) and also some chanterelles (I didn't even know they grow in that forest).

_{Of course I had to put other mushrooms on top of delicate parasols, so they arrived in bad shape.}

Here is the result:

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In third post next week I'll continue with a hunt from last Saturday and since the weather is promising for tomorrow, I'll be going to completely different forest - who knows what awaits me there, so maybe I'll have more material for fourth part. On the other hand I'm pretty puffed right now - I've spent last two days in the mountains and my legs tell me I should have a break :o)