Thursday, November 17th, 2016
12:30 PM
Mostly cloudy, patches of blue sky
Dark and light cloud cover
49 degrees, very cold breeze that comes through about every 2 minutes
Phenology Update:
Holy cannoli, it's getting colder! There's a crisp chill that is definitely a harbinger of winter. I can feel it in my fingers and toes the most. On top of the chill, I'm getting sick, so this journal might not be a shining star of an entry. It's definitely a take the elevator, ride the bus kind of day.
At the site, the feathers are still there, and the ground is still extremely mushy. I feel like there's more bird song than usual today, but that's probably just because I've started to pay more attention. I heard a woodpecker foraging for food- I soft pecking, not the loud signaling pecks.
It's looking pretty sparse and barren here.
The Rubus spectablis plants are falling over and dying.
All of the Athyrium filix-femina are basically gone, and the Polystichum munitum is even more shriveled than last time.
My 1 meter investigation reveals similar findings as last week-the feathers are withered, and the leaves are more brown. Nothing really unexpected.
Detritus isn't really unusual in mid-November. What is unusual is that it's just starting to get colder! We've usually had our first frost by now. Lucky for our fungus unit, I guess!
Part II: Fungus Foraging and Looking for Lichen!
Specimen #1: A "flowering" fungus, about 2.5 inches tall, the cap is about .75 inches high, conical in shape, with a .5 inch diameter. The mushroom is brown, and fades from a light-brown on the outside edges to almost black towards the center of the cone. The stem is very thin. This mushroom is growing in a patch of moss in a marshy area at my central spot. It's closest to a Thuja plicata, but I don't know if it's a mycorrhizal fungus. This mushroom was here last week, but not two weeks prior. It stands alone, not in multitudes.
Specimen #2: I think this is the dust lichen. It's growing with moss on the outward-facing side of a limb on a Taxis brevifolia, which is growing right by a slow-moving creek. I think this is crustoce. The tree is fairly wet- the bark looks very damp.
Specimen #3: This is a ghost white mushroom with very similar features to specimen #1. However, this fungus is much smaller, at about 1 cm tall. It's growing on the same Taxis brevifolia as specimen #2, on a limb where there isn't a whole lot of moss growing around it. This specimen is growing alone, not in a patch. I liked this one a lot, definitely wanted to show how small and delicate it was.
Specimen #4: Very fine mint-green crustose on my central Thuja plicata, growing closer to the ground than to the top of the tree. The growth pattern is minimal and patchy, but circles around the whole tree. There is more of it growing on the side facing uphill. I wonder if this has anything to do with moisture flowing downhill?
Specimen #5: Bleach-white crustose that looks like bird droppings. It grows on the underside of Rubus spectabilis plants, where there is exposed bark, and no other limbs extending from it. The Rubus spectabilis hangs over the stream.
Specimen #6: This one is kind of confusing. I'm pretty sure it's a fungus. It grows with moss that heavily coats an Acer macrophyllum, on the East side of the tree. The growth looks like rings/crescents that are about the size of a soccer ball. The crescents have two layers- the outer layer is lighter, and the inner layer is darker. The tree is at the bottom of a ravine. I wonder if sunlight from the East has anything to do with its growth patter. It seems to be like a mold that is inoculated onto the moss.
Man, I'm tired and cold. Time for lunch! See you next time, Ravenna.
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