Growing at the base of a Red maple on some well decayed / brown rotted wood. A few mushrooms clustered together. Pleasant apricot like smell. Taste slightly acrid / peppery, but not very distinctive. Caps very light tawny, tomentose. Gills decurrent part way down the stem. Gills have sawtoothed edges and brown spots. Stem curved, white, fibrous. Spore print pink. Spores almond / sunflower seed shaped, with one end pointed (apical pore) .
Growing in grass, near a large Pin oak. Cap thick, light brown (younger mushroom had a grayish brown cap), about 4 inches in diameter, matte, finely cracked. The cap had several pits. Pore surface grayish brown, initially staining dark blue quickly when handled. After a few minutes, the blue turns to a beautiful vinaceous / burgundy color. The flesh of the cap is very pale and stains bluish purple very quickly when exposed to air. After a few minutes, the blue staining turns pink. The stem is smooth, covered with fine brown dots, peeling in some places near the top of the stem. I noticed some pinkish / reddish staining near the base of the stem. Basal mycelium appears white at the very base of the stem. No noticeable smell. Taste a bit peppery/acrid on the tongue. KOH reaction not obvious (I applied it to the mushroom when I got home, so it wasn't super fresh).
KOH is supposed to be red according to this website, but I don't know how reliable that characteristic is:
https://boletes.wpamushroomclub.org/product/tylopilus-sordidus/#lightbox/5/
At the roots of a planted Pin oak. The last two photos show the mushrooms the following morning.
In a recently flooded sweetgum and pine stand
A very fresh, small cap, only about 1 inch in diameter, on a hardwood stick, probably oak
Fungi on Viburnum setigerum. The leaf tips have already turned black. Pretty soon the entire leaf will turn black, like carbon paper.
Several of these insects on a fungus, Trametes hirsuta
A diminutive Amanita . By a trail in deciduous woods.
Hypomyces growing on Crepidotus (H. tremellicola is known to parasitize Crepidotus mollis, but I think these are C. applanatus).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepidotus_mollis)
Tiny white mushrooms, the largest ones with caps about 3 mm in diameter and thin stems up to 1.5 cm long. Growing at the base of a mossy American beech tree. The stems appear frosted.
On Buttonbush. A beautiful stilt legged fly with ruby eyes . They wave their white-tipped front legs around making them look like an ichneumon wasp - that's who I thought it was when I saw her.
Growing on a decaying hardwood branch
White spore print. Spores elliptical, inamyloid. KOH on cap olive
Spores
7.2-10 x 3.8-4.8µm
Me 8.6 x 4.2µm
Q 1.7 - 2.4
Qe 2.1
N=24
Possibly Pseudosperma friabile:
https://mushroomobserver.org/observations/122799
In deciduous woods, oak-maple-hickory woods. Cunningham Park, Queens, NY
Pink ghost pipes with some of the petals having fallen off.
Small wasp about 1 cm long. Burrow in a decorticated tree in a vernal pool. I observed the wasp carrying out little pellets of wood from the tiny burrow, which was about 2-3mm in diameter.
On bald cypress, See https://extension.umd.edu/resource/european-fruit-lecanium-scale
On a serpentine rock hill side . Leathery leaves with curled edges. Green flowers
On a serpentine rock hill side . Leathery leaves with curled edges. Green flowers
High up in the hardwood tree tops, in a residential neighborhood
July 9, 2024, morning
A tan Russula growing near the roots of a large Carya cordiformis. Gills and stem blackened within a minute or two.
Cap leaves a spicy taste on the tongue after a few seconds.
Lamellae very spicy on the tongue.
Probably not R. albonigra, as that one is known to have lamellae with a menthol like taste:
https://imafungus.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s43008-021-00064-0
Lichen like organism growing on hardwood leaves and sticks. It's been very hot and humid these past couple of weeks.
https://www.hiddenforest.co.nz/slime/family/didymiaceae/didym02.htm
Two squirrels communicating
Cool feathery antennae . Near a vernal pool, resting on a log.
This cute midge did not bite me.
Found on the bathroom wall . I released this guy to the outside world. About 3.5-4 mm long . Brownish red in color.
I was near an American beech and noticed this tiny black beetle on my hand. About 1.5 mm long
On Japanese persimmon . Found under curled up leaf edges.
In a sidewalk crack
He was hovering by moving up and down, in place, over some pooled water on the roots of an American beech. Body looked greenish and possibly metallic.
My first bolete of 2024. June 20th, Cunningham Park .
Growing in moss, at the base of Quercus rubra
Small cap, brown, cracking, matte. Pore surface bright yellow. Stem smooth. No obvious staining from handling other than some yellowing. Flesh exposed to oxygen didn't stain. Taste somewhat sour and soapy
During the last half hour of daylight, I observed a group of about 10 waxwings doing aerial maneuvers over the kettle pond as they caught insects in mid-air, landing on a Buttonbush branch every few seconds to perch and look for more insects. I assume they were catching mosquitos which were plentiful at this pond, on this terribly hot and humid day.
On Rhus aromatica. Could not find any chasmothecia. Mostly on the upper leaf surface, especially on new growth, where it seemed to cause stunting and distortion.
Abdomen and mesosoma covered in pale hairs .
On Circaea canadensis
White cottony fluff on young green twigs of Pinus strobus
A cute weevil on Oenothera biennis.
This weevil feeds on the leaves of Oenothera biennis.
An ethereal lacewing, resembling a fly with oversized wings. Pale green body, wings with black spots. I think this was a female, as I believe I saw an ovipositor. She was moving about clumsily, wobbling side to side, as she appeared to be ovipositing - she was moving her curves ovipositor up and down along the trunk of the tree.
This critter was dangling from a silk strand in the woods. Alive, soft and squishy. A moth larvae of some sort?
Two raccoons talking after one of them noticed me. They scurried up the tree.
Cocoon on a dead Prunus serotina branch
Similar to Brown recluse egg mass:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/41273
Narrowly lobed leaves. A graceful plant with a nodding cluster of pale yellow flowers at the tip of the stem. Leaves and stem glabrous. Growing on a roadside, alongside Erigeron annuus
Blotch leafmines on Circaea canadensis.
Here is a beautiful blog post by @ceiseman:
https://bugtracks.wordpress.com/tag/mompha-terminella/
The spider had made a web on a Sourwood leaf . Quite small, maybe 4 - 5 mm long.
A tiny, glossy, oblong, spiral shaped snail wedged in a bark crevice of an old Eastern Black Walnut tree. About 3.5-4 mm long and 1.5 mm wide.
Clusters of white elliptical sporangia on long stems . On a well rotted log, near a dried out vernal pool . Microscopy pending.
Two thin chains of cylindrical metallic bronze egg cases on the underside of a red oak leaf . The chains were about 1 cm long each.
Small, about 1/4 inch tall, clove-like, black cup on a thick stem. Growing on a Black oak snag - this oak had recently fallen over leaving behind a stump with a large hollow on which this clove-like fungus was growing.
Microscopy pending.
Later photos show the fruiting body more mature. I kept it in a moisture chamber and it expanded in size and became more gelatinous.