Slime Mold (Stemonitis axifera)

Space Balls (Lycogala epidendrum)

The mushroom season has officially started! With over 2 inches of needed rain last week in the Bay Area, I started the hunt at the same location as last year; the coast redwoods in Santa Cruz county. 

I was ecstatic when I spotted slime mold just a few feet from my car on a decaying log after parking; the same luck as last winter. Usually when there are mushrooms or fungi in the parking lot, you know you’ll spend the entire day there. But despite initial luck and hiking a mile, it didn’t seem like there were anything larger than a quarter inch, perhaps it was still early in the winter season. Wolf’s Slime Milk (Lycogala epidendrum) was abundant, so much so I couldn’t stop myself from having fun popping some of them. Nevertheless, I could not be more thrilled photographing some creepy looking fungi for Halloween weekend. Hopefully La Niña produces a good rainy season this year because there are still a plethora of mushrooms I still have on my list to find!