Aefintyr observations for the week of July 25th, 2021

We continue to have dry conditions and smoke from Canadian wildfires has been lingering for days causing poor air quality. The most notable thing for me this week was the abundance of fungus in the woods!

Animals

I continue to see deer and a pair of hawks almost every time I am out to Aefintyr. I saw a rabbit by the Celtis camp also.

A doe and her fawn have taken up residence. I see them on the trail camera video frequently and twice now I've seen them in person. There is a funnel area on the property, northwest corner of a field that transitions to woods. Both times, they have been walking in the this area from the woods towards the field a bit before sunset. They don't seem to be too concerned with me. The first time I saw them they casually proceeded in plain sight to the neighbor's soy bean field. There was another deer somewhere in the woods the snorted after a few minutes and at that time they walked in the woods out of my view and shortly appeared several hundred yards further down in the soybean field. I also stirred up 2 deer, does I believe, near the Quercus camp. They ran off into the soybean field.

I captured a few bucks on the trail camera video. They were alone. In one of the videos there was also a turkey. This is the 3rd time this year I've captured deer and turkey together.

I found a broken blue egg shell at the Carya camp.

Doe and fawn out while I was working 07-21-2021

Fungi

In the last couple weeks I've seen lots of fungus. Mushrooms are popping up out of the ground, growing on down wood and on live trees. I am noticing many white moldy looking patches of mycelium on the ground in lots of primarily shaded places within the woods. I am continuing to learn about fungi and how to identify them.

Golden Oyster / Yellow Oyster

I found these on what I believe to be a dead elm tree. They are in clusters with the gills running down the stems. The smaller/younger ones are more funnel shaped and the larger ones flat with a dimple in the middle.

Other Fungi Photos

Plants and Trees

There are many beautiful wildflowers blooming and many of the trees have fruited. I have so much to learn but of the things I can identify:

Wild Bergamot is still in bloom but appears to be towards the end. I've noticed this week a whitish grey coloring on the leaves of several of these plants.
Golden rod has very pronounced galls and is budding out.
Several yellow black eyed susan type flowers growing in sunny areas.
The wild parsnip has been in bloom for weeks and is almost going to seed now.
Raspberries are still present.
Bellflower is abundant.
Fleabane has been blooming for weeks and continues to bloom.
Several types of "clover" are in bloom.
Queen Anne's Lace (Aka "Bird's Nest") is in bloom and very abundant in sunny areas and along roadways.
Sumac has had flowers for a few weeks.
Campion is still blooming and has been for weeks.
Common Milkweed is blooming.

Ghost Pipe (aka Indian Pipe)

I found a Ghost Pipe plant. I read on minnesotawildflowers.info that these plants do not contain chlorophyll and obtain their sustenance from a relationship with fungi called mycotropism. I also made a connection to a picture I took last year in the winter which turns out to be the seed pod.