Went for a nice walk in the woods today. Brought my new field guide for mushrooms to try to practice identifying some mushrooms. Struggled a lot. I think I'm only certain of one species. Good thing I'm not picking any mushrooms to eat, cause I would not trust myself not to pick any poisonous ones. I've definitely got a lot to learn before I start to pick any mushrooms to eat.
This is one of my favorites trails to walk that is close to my home. Most of the trail goes through a mixed forest of mostly scots pine and birch, with a few rowan trees interspersed. I also took a detour to have a look at a lake. There was no wind today, so the reflection in the water was beautiful. I saw and heard many dragonflies, but none of them came close enough for me to identify or photograph them.
To the right is a photo of a majestic dead pine tree that I walked past. These trees can stand for so long even after their dead. Whenever I see one I can't help but wonder how long it must be since it sprouted.
Now, on to the mushrooms!
Birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) This was the only mushroom I'm fairly certain about. These only grow on birch trees, and tends to target old, weakened trees. This one I found on a dead and rotting birch tree, so that checks out!
Now this one I've struggled a lot with. None of the mushrooms in my book quite fits its description. I think it miiight be the whitelaced shank(Megacollybia platyphylla)? But I think that might be wrong... Or perhaps the wood woolyfoot (Collybis peronata)?
As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear, I'm quite new to mushroom identification, so ant help is appreciated!
This is the field guide I'm using btw. It's not great, as it only has so many species, so I'm already noticing mushrooms that I can't find in the book. One example would be this one, which I think is an angel's wings mushroom (Pleurocybella porrigens).
I also saw and heard a woodpecker drumming, though it was too far for me to know which species. Most likely the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) as that is the only woodpecker I tend to see around here.
All in all it was a really lovely walk, and I'm looking forward to trying to identify some more mushrooms. I've realized that I rely too much on apps that use AI to help identify species, such as "seek" by inaturalist or the app "artsorakelet" here in Norway. Now, there's not necessarely anything wrong with these apps, and they can be a great help. My problem is just that I tend to just snap a photo of whatever plant/fungi/insect i see, use the app to tell me what species it is, and then move on. Using a field guide forces me to actually spend time really observing the organism, and learning all about it to really identify the species.