Hi all, I just got back from the COMA foray in Hebron Conn. What a fantastic time, lots of mushroom species, lots of great amateur and professional mycologists, food, drink and fun. If you have a chance to go to one of these forays, I highly recommend it, even for beginners. One fellow named Bill that I met was there after attending him very first walk with COMA a week earlier. He was really good at spotting mushrooms and I could tell he was hooked. He admitted that he couldn’t understand much of what some folks were saying and that he needed to learn a new language. I’m expecting to see Bill again in the future.

Below is a summary of our Byrdcliff walk that I didn’t get a chance to get out before my excursion. I think there are hens out now so try to get out. On Sunday, Carol found 2 near a white oak tree in the ravine behind our house that are in great condition!

Gerry

Byrdcliff Walk, September 9, 2012, Summary,

Wow, we had 35 participants at the Byrdcliff walk, lots of new people looking to learn about fungi. Several MHMA members were on hand to help guide things along including David Work who we were happy to see back in action. David got the pre-walk mushroom conversation going with a handful of Agaracis campestris he collected en-route off the front lawn of the school.

The walk began with a moderate level hike up the trail behind the Byrdcliff Theater. The somewhat steep grade slowed the pace and some of us needed to take an occasional break to catch our breath. The unevenness of the trail also made going a bit difficult. Not long after the walk began we broke into smaller groups and I walked with a group that traversed the side hill through somewhat mature oak / hemlock forest, looking in catchment areas where one might expect conditions to be a bit wetter. The younger members of the group seemed to be really good at finding the small mushrooms. Kids are really good at finding mushrooms, I think It’s because they are closer to the ground, but there may be something else to it. I enjoyed watching Peter Barret’s son Milo, who fashioned a really nice woods swing out of a grape vine.

Not a lot of fungi were found on the side hill. Most were saprophytes growing on wood debris, fallen logs, branches and stumps. Mycorhizzal fungi such as Amanitas, Russulas and Lactarius were surprisingly somewhat scarce, perhaps due to the recent lack of rain. We weren’t sure of the success of the others who went further up the hill and after a hour or so, we headed down and back to the Theater to see what the collective finds were.

On our way back to Byrdcliff, we walked a quiet one lane road with beautiful houses and estate settings when all of a sudden 2 police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance, what the heck? Turned out that a participant of the walk fell broke her ankle up on the mountain and the rescuers were attempting to find the way in to the rescue. We all felt really bad this happened to this poor woman, it was her first mushroom hike, not a good start. Our best wishes go out.

On behalf of MHMA, I’d like to thank Peter Barret, Director of Byrdcliff Artist Colony for hosting the walk and inviting us along. I would also like to thank the local emergency responders who helped to extricate the victim.

Here is a partial list of tentatively identified species.

Laetiporus sulphureus – Chicken of the Woods

Oxyporus populinus – Mossy Maple Polypore

Cantherellas cibarius - Chanterelle

Trichaptum biformus – Violet Toothed Polypore

Coprinus altramentarius - Alcohol Inky or Tippler’s Bane

Innotis obliquous – Chaga

Lycoperdon perlatum - Gem Studded Puffball

Amanita flavoconia

Coprinus disseminates – Non Inky Coprinus

Lepiota procera – Parasol Mushroom

Ganoderma tsugae – Hemlock Reishi or Hemlock Varnish Shelf

Daedialia corcina – thick maze polypore

Polyporus arcularius – Spring Polypore

2 Russula sp.

1 Lactarius sp.

Several unidentified small mushrooms clustered on wood