Monthly Archives: March 2021

With the weekend fast approaching, I had to pick a destination since I took Monday off. This time, instead of opening 50 tabs and stressing myself out over where is best, I listened to my inner self and committed to a new location down south. The goal was Milky Way Sunday night at Alabama Hills and everything else will be a bonus. Usually Milky Way is best starting in May, I knew I had to get up really early. My only concern was giving up sleep, and sleeping in the car means tossing and turning all night. I have been scoping this location on google maps last year, but with the Sierra passes still closed for the season, it was going to be a lengthy eight hour drive. But then I asked myself, if not now, then when? It was time to wake up and go. I decided to split it up over 3 days, as the most I have driven is 6 hours in a day. I also wanted to go to Death Valley for years but never made it there. As this was the last month of pleasant temperatures there, my goal was to to just use my annual pass and enter the park, that was it.

The 7 hour drive today felt like nothing. The contrast between sitting stationary all week and speeding down an open highway was invigorating. I didn’t get much sleep the past week, but for some reason my mind was racing with excitement, adventure. An open mind, open heart. I spent the late afternoon exploring Red Rock Canyon State Park and taking my ‘foreground’ shots. With the desert wind howling I couldn’t stay long. I headed early into the small town of Inyokern and stayed the night at a very nice motel.

March 13, 2021

Oyster Flower (Pleurotus ostreatus)

Hounds Tongue (Cynoglossum grande)

Pacific Trillium (Trillium ovatum)

March 7, 2021 There it is!

Parrot Waxcap (Gliophorus psittacinus)

With what may be the last rain for the winter, I thought I wouldn’t be able to find the parrot waxcap this season. When I first started taking photos of mushrooms this year, I was immediately jealous of this shot by WildMacro. He mentioned it took 3 years to find it. It’s elusive nature definitely did not get my hopes up of finding it especially for an amateur like me. Despite persistent searching up and down the coast the past two months, I didn’t find it, until today.

Like I tell myself every weekend, I had a choice, stay comfortably at home, or go somewhere. Again, the uncertainty was killing me. Were there going to be mushrooms 24 hours after a decent rain? Did it rain enough? Oh great, a frost advisory. That’s not good. How far should I drive? Being an optimizer, I always have a hard time committing to a location; the paradox of choice. I narrowed my choices down to two, shut down the computer and used my intuition.

The ground was definitely wet with damp moss redwood duff. It felt very “mushroomy”, just like how a beach would feel “fishy”. I found a few wax caps early on, one had almost a greenish cap. Could this be a parrot? How am I supposed to find a green mushroom in a forest of green? It was a needle in a haystack, only the needle is the same color as the hay. The others around were more yellow and brown, keep looking. A feeling of excitement came to me as that was the closest I’ve been to finding the mushroom. Two hours in, I didn’t find much other than some nice golden waxcaps and purple Mycena that was past its prime. As I approached a bridge to the waterfall connector trail, I spotted in the corner of my eye, a round, slimy, green colored mushroom. There it is! With mushrooms, you find one and suddenly you discover a whole cluster. I lost track of time as I spent the next hour cleaning and photographing the parrots, at times I simply just stared at it. It was really that green, nothing like I’ve seen before.

With fishing, you never know if one more cast will be the one. With mushrooming, you never know if 10 more steps will uncover something. That’s what keeps me excited, the unknown, the suspense, the chance you may discover something totally unexpectedly.