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| the ultimate king, the porcini, the one and only |
Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report-
October 1, 2017
With the kind support of VLT and MCHT
“Beautiful” –
said about a gagillion times on recent mushroom walks by both myself and
Leif
my apologizes - I just snuck a glimpse at a preview of this VSR and there are incredible empty spaces between photos and writing. this is not the way it looks on the editing screen, it looks great on that screen. so there is nothing I can do about it.
this should be the best VSR ever with all the shrooms and everything, but the blogging gods have not been working with us. this has taken two full days plus to put together and it looks awful, or at least not up to standards. I will not use my new work computer to post again. this has been a big pain!
please bear with it , its worth it!
Highlights – Boletes featuring the King, Corts,
Amanitas (including “the prettiest little amanita”) and other mushrooms,
preying mantii (?), mixed species flocks featuring Wilson’s, Palm, Pine, Cape
May and other warblers!, Great Cormorant from the ferry,
leif found this praying mantis
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| shamrock orb weaver |
This is a special King Bolete collector’s edition. Seemingly unlimited with mushroom photos, this is one where we (the royal “we”) let loose and go free style on the fungal photog. Or something like that – it’s a little mammoth.
king bolete photo gallery!
king bolete photo gallery!
First things first – a video of Leif cleaning a king bolete
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thistles
photo by Banner Moffat
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Second things second – here are a few shots sent in by Banner Moffat. My apologizes for the
delay in posting these great shots! Thanks for sharing Banner!
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Buck
photo by Banner Moffat
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grey seal
photo by Banner Moffat
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Bald Eagle
photo by Banner Moffat
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Great Blue Heron and otter spraint
photos by Banner Moffat
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Business (third things third (are you
catching onto the pattern here?))–
contact us – vinalhavensightings@gmail.com
with sightings, photos and emails to add to the address list. comments are also welcome - not necessarily taken seriously.
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| a boy and his kings |
Tiit trick –
click on photos to enlarge them. Make sure you take a close look at every
mushroom and otter latrine!
also - you might notice that the photos seems a little different as far as placement and organization. not sure what is going on here=, but with a new work computer this uploading is weird to say the least. we ask for your patience.
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| all hail the king! |
Kingly business
(fourth things fourth)- Bolete break #1 - Don’t know where to being -…
I am not exaggerating (OK. So, I might
be exaggerating how little I am exaggerating) but it may be physically,
spiritually, and legally impossible to explain how incredible the last week has been with mushrooms, especially King Boletes. There will be a complete
onslaught of mushroom photos in this post, selected from the 500 pictures of
mushrooms I took over a seven-day period. Capturing views of some of the 175 or so King Boletes (Boletus edulis)
that we (the family “we”) have crossed paths with, with about ½ coming home
with us (if you know what I mean).
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| family of kings |
Is this because we live in a new zone
– finally in a zone with kings? The vast majority of the kings we have found
have been within walking distance of our house, many on our property (we bought
well! Great neighbors!). finding so many on Vinalhaven, so many more than I
have ever found on island tells me this is probably, at least in part, just a
great year with the right conditions. Or
maybe this is more of the “regular” king scene. We will keep you posted for
years to come! (threat or a promise).
Regardless, this “King week” has been
exciting and thrilling in ways that have made for a very unique King
experience. Stories ad nauseum below! They will be called “Bolete breaks” from
the “normal” VSR, whatever that means. This was “bolete break” - Enjoy the
bliss!
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| great egret - photo by Rick Morgan |
Sightings – Great Egrets – Rick Morgan snapped these shots of a Great Egret in carvers pond last week. Great
Egrets, while not being the rarest of birds in Maine, has been seen in “larger
numbers than normal” (judgement, no scientific evidence to support). There have
been clearly more than one or two on island (people saw two together – you do
the math!) which may automatically make it a big year for Great Egrets on
Vinalhaven. Regardless, we are happy to see them and happy to post photos of
them enjoying the island lifestyle. Hope you have crossed paths with an Egret
sometime in the last month or so!
Bolete Break #2 – (9/19) Tuesday – Tenants Harbor,
mainland – at the
last second I grabbed my Estonian mushroom knife and headed down a trail I had
never gone before. At the end of the new (for me!) road that we live on are
some 4-wheeler trails that I had not experienced since we moved in, mostly to
avoid ticks. A neighbor reminded me of the trails and it being mid-September
and the fact I haven’t seen a tick in well over a month added up to a trail VNM
for this bald dude.
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| a little dirty |
To make a long story short, I took
home 10 King Boletes (only 9 pictured) from that exploration hike, and can honestly say that I
have never walked that trail and not come back with at least one King Bolete!
And I have walked it 5 times now! Anyway…
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| clean |
Excited to tell Amy and Leif about my “find” (only in the loosest terms of finding), but when I got home Amy told me she had found a patch of Kings within 50 feet of our property and so Leif and I said – take me to the boletes…and that just got the ball rolling…..
This patch pumped out at least 20
kings (that we processed) over the next 4 days, and a dozen more that we left
behind. Anytime we went outside Leif would
go check the patch for more, he got hooked and the proximity to the house was
key. The patch was almost too good to be true! We refer to this as Amy’s patch.
And to my amazement (pleasant
surprise, maybe?) Leif as an 8 year old has only gotten more into mushrooms compared to when he was a little youngster! King boletes bring families together
outside with knives! Needless to say it is awesome to mushroom hunt with Leif
and Amy, and over the past week in particular! More below with Wednesday
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| like little loaves of bread |
(9/21) Ferry Ride – 8:45 Rockland to Vinalhaven – Northern Gannet,
Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Bonaparte’s, Laughing, Herring, Ring-billed and
Great Black-backed Gulls, 10+ Common Loon, Great and Double-crested Cormorants,
Black Guillemots, 3 Surf Scoter, Common Eiders
here's a video of boletes cooking - no liquids added - its a dry sauté and the water is from the boletes!
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| more kings please! |
(9/21) Vinal Cove – Harbor Seal, Northern Flicker, Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Black-capped Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Dark-eyed Junco, winter wren. Mink Den, Otter latrine and mounds. Garter Snake, Monarch on goldenrod, Lady’s Tresses, Poison Ivy!
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| red-gilled cort |
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| false chanterelle |
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| Microphale foetidum |
So the story here is….mushrooms of course. The woods were (almost) literally lined with mushrooms. check out the diversity in the list above!
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| basket of boletes |
King Bolete break #3– quote from David Arora, Mushrooms
Demystified….
“One of the finest of fleshy fungi and certainly the best-loved and most
sought-after in Europe, where it has more common names than there are
languages. If any mushroom deserves the dubious title of the “king”, this is
the one. It is a consummate creation, the peerless epitome of earthbound
substance, a bald bulbous pillar of thick white flesh – the one aristocrat the
peasantry can eat!
The entire fruiting body is exceptionally
delicious….But you have to find them before you can eat them, and it isn’t
always easy. You can’t just casually look for them the way you can look for
chanterelles or blewits – you have to hunt them down and root them up from
under the duff before they are visible to others. Timing is of paramount importance, because
you face formidable competition from both maggots and boletivores. One source
suggests getting up at the crack of dawn and wearing your t-shirt inside out.”
(9/20) the next day – Wednesday was a half day of school – by law I am supposed to mention
that it is only a half day for students, teachers still work the rest of the
day. (Hope that satisfies those radical teachers out there!). Anyway, Leif and
I were down for looking for kings, especially since that morning I had found
about 10 more on the close trail. Within an hour we had 24 (two dozens for
those non-bakers out there) beautiful kings, way more than we needed but they
were just so much fun to find…and pick…and kiss!
It was around 2:30 or so and we
realized that teachers would be done with the day and meetings soon, thinking
they would be heading out the door and home and maybe in the right zone for
taking a king bolete or two. We were spot on!
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king bolete mushhump.
hunting kings is a totally different game
more of a tracking experience
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We gave away 15 or so kings that
afternoon, and maybe 2 dozen (that’s 24) total over the 5 days of bolete bliss
that we found ourselves entrenched in. Some paused when approached, most asked
advice on cooking, but all returned the next day with stories of tasty times
and appreciative eaters. It was the anniversary for one young couple and the
female representative in the mixed gender union told me they had gotten some
nice salmon for the occasion (salmon is yummy) and that the boletes were the
perfect compliment. Another lucky path crosser spoke of a tasty steak dinner
taken to the next level by the King Boletes that accompanied. Those were
supplied from the Pleasant River area, and the random paths crossing and mushroom
handoff between humans took place on the ferry. The 100% positive reports made
Leif and I stoked…this was the best kind of sharing. More below…..
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| wolfs milk slime is always a welcome sight... |
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| ...at any stage or phase of their life... |
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| destroying angel |
Fun to get up to Armbrust for an hour or so, loads of Yellow-rumpeds, quick cameo of the Palm and a nice session with the Sapsucker and Rick and Janet of course. But the store here is so clearly the 24 + KING BOLETES found along the less than .5 miles total of trails through the park. How many king boletes have I found on Armburst hill before you may be asking? The answer is none, zero, nada, empty set! What a week!
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| roadkill mantis |
Insects -
Preying Mantii
– this is something of a side note to the king and mushroom scene, but recently
the praying mantis scene has been somewhat hefty in observable entities (are
you with me?).
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mantis on helmet
photo by Amy Palmer
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The roadside observer turned up two
specimens, one photographed. Two roadkill mantii probably meant many more to
find out in the world, and so leif found the one at the top of the report....
and my father in law found this one while biking. it immediately went for the highest point on Jeff - his helmet!
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| citron amanita button |
Other mushrooms – yes there are other species than Boletus edulis.
Mushrooms - I’m an Amanita man – They (David Arora) say to look for King Boletes when Amanita muscaria
is up, so let’s not forget that mushroom families other than Boletes exist.
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| amanita muscaria buttons |
Let's start with Amanitas…
Amanita muscaria – we’ll start with
honoring this species, as well we should. They have been every much as
beautiful (judgement) as the King Boletes, and every much as present. nice to see them in multiple stages. Amanita muscaria gallery begins now!
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| citron amanita |
Citron Amanita - sublte, especially when compared to the Amanita muscaria, always a welcome sight
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| wells amanita |
Well's Amanita - Amanita wellsii - Amanita VNM - the prettiest little amanita these eyes have seen. found a few and more on the king hunts. Barron says "Widepsread but rare and handsome and distinctive" in Mushrooms of northeast North America. Stunning in a way different than other Amanitas I cross paths with.
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| soft characteristics aren't best captured on "film". must be seen in person! |
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| wells amanita undercarriage |
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| baby honeys |
Honey Mushrooms? - and at the same time as the Bolete burst came the Honey Mushroom explosion that is a September stable for Maine. To say this year's explosion was subdued would be to speak correctly for a change! subdued in numbers and mass, honey's still put on a show on every preserve and every trail I went down.
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| honey undercarriage. nice veil! |
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| little bigger honeys |
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| more and more honeys |
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| this shrew looks to have not been hit by a vehicle just died on the road, like a rebel |
Roadside lessons – lots of dead stuff on the
side of the road these days. Some obviously
effected by vehicular traffic, others appear to have just died there….
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| newt skeletons are usually positioned like this |
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| not sure what happened here, but I do know that snakes are usually found in one piece |
Had a “5 species dead individuals roadside bike ride” (trying saying that
10 times fast and understanding it) recently. 4 of the critters were cold blooded.
All were cold….
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| there are still dead raccoons on island |
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| that's a neat trick to get your jaw like that |
On Vinalhaven – this nasty raccoon reminds us that raccoon have not been extripated from the island at all. seems like there are still pockets of raccoons around the island. story still yet unexplained as more folks approach me about the lower numbers of raccoons people are encountering..
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| those are king boletes, right next to the airport |
Untouched by humans, this is a king bolete spot of historical importance.
2010 maybe was another 12 or so kings sprouted (not politically correct) by the
white spruce there.
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| baby red-mouth bolete |
but what about other boletes? good call! here are some other boletes that have been popping up around island and on the mainland.....
...Red-mouthed Bolete - the only poisonous I know of in the area, look for the red pores below.
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| the dark pores of the red-mouthed bolete |
here are some shots from recent weeks - impressive size for the reds!
and here's a video of a red-mouth bolete staining blue - awesome video rated g!
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| lots of chicken fat these days |
Chicken-fat suillus - can't miss these yellow beauties under pines these days. look for under white pines.
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| chicken fat undercarriage |
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| chicken fat suillus are cool |
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| slippery jacks have a protective covering for their pores. this will turn into a cool veil |
Slippery Jacks - another suillus genus, simply a beauty at any stage. so much fun to find....
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| slippery jacks are pretty |
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| slippery jills have dark spots above and below the veil that has yet to break off yet! |
slippery jills - saw fewer of these than slippery jacks, but still appreciated their look!
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| hefty amount of scabers on this birch bolete Leccinum scabrum |
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| birch bolete |
Scaber -stalks - genus Leccinum - look for the black, flakey pattern on the stalk of these yummy dudes...
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| bulbous cort, note the Cortina wrapped around the top of the stalk- covered in orange spores |
Other mushrooms - Corts - here's a gallery of some local corts. check out that Cortina! the cobwebby covering of a corts gills that becomes a cobwebby veil covered in spores after a bit.
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| silvery-violet cort, note the orangey veil |
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| and another cort with the Cortina still attached from the cap to the stalk |
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| typical view/feel of a cortinarius genus mushroom |
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| typical feel of the gills on a cort. |
Final King Bolete break - this is kind of the grab bag of the bolete breaks. Couple of things, including a triumphant return video of a successful bike ride......
...its me going no hands and trying to have the mushroom and its shadow visible..... see what you think.
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| check out those pores! |
seeing so many Kings clued us in on some diversity within the species, which you would expect. yellow pores, odd coloration and extra cap pieces were observed.
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| this king had the huge stalk but the cap looked more like a chicken fat! |
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| some kings were attacked by mold molds deserve their share of kings too! |
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| this one had this extra doo-dad attached to the cap |
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| slug on king, the last few days the kings have looked more like that |
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| missing something |
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| old kings |
when the dust cleared several trips to the woods were made looking for patches of kings that we hadn't crossed paths with this year, but look forward to checking them down the line. this is the time of watching kings getting eaten
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| squirrel chewed to the pores |
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| ate right down to the pores. those circles in the middle |
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| final cook off - quick to freeze and we'll feast over the winter! |
and more of the boy with his kings. he loved this week, and even wanted to try and sell some at the Good Tern, which turned our mushrooms into money, which leif turned into a lego set. so if we use the transitive property of equality we find that mushrooms = legos.
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| the check that changed everything. or at least got capitalism involved! |
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| ink from an inky cap |
and some of leif without kings....
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| catching frogs |
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| interrupting dragonfly mating what a blocker! |
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| I am all smiles when it comes to finding kings I think this might be comforting to a king about to be decapitated |
ever wonder what a king bolete would see if they could see me approaching...here's a shot of what that view just might be like
and now, even after all that, I realize I am skipping stuff and dropping out even more pictures. I apologize to all the mushrooms I have neglected, but really it is time to post! but we will end with an orange-gilled waxycap, one that really got Leif going. he loved this color.
we'll see you out there!
