Mycologist Needed…

I photographed these on the Amisk Wuche trail in Elk Island National Park last weekend. They don’t quite match with anything in my mushroom books – is there someone out there who can help identify these fungi?

Order Agaricales (Gilled Mushrooms)

Honey Mushroom Trio

 

Photo Album – Leaf Topography

 

Elk Island National Park

Elk Island is the closest National Park to Edmonton and has long been one  been one of our favorite areas for walks, canoeing and cross-country skiing. In this early autumn trip (Sept 1) we decided to canoe Astotin lake to see if the birds had begun aggregating for the seasonal migration south. It was a fine day, sunny with scattered cloud and only a light breeze – a perfect day to be out on the water. As usual we brought a picnic lunch and our camera gear.

My D80 was set up with the Nikon 80 – 400mm while my wife used the D70 with the 18 – 200mm, both very useful VR lenses on  a moving canoe. We keep them in our camera bags loosely covered so they are protected from stray drops of water, but ready for quick removal should a subject present itself. For wide angle pictures from the back of the canoe I used our trusty Canon A620 compact.

We didn’t see the mass gatherings of birds as in former years, but it was a good birding trip. First spotted was a Greater Yellowlegs working the shore line. Further on, we approached Cormorant Island, which can always be relied upon for – you guessed it – cormorants. And soon after passing them we came upon a juvenile Night Heron, but he flew off while he was out of range of my lens. I am hoping that the Kenko Pro 1.4x tele-extender I recently purchased will help avoid that problem in future.

We headed for a small bay where we often used to cruise close to the shoreline. There were a few coots there, who scooted off on our arrival, but photographing their long pattering take-off distracted us long enough that we unexpectedly found ourselves mired in the silted up bay. It became a real struggle to back out again and to get into open water – the silt was too deep to use the paddles as poles for pushing, and the muck grips the canoe so tightly that paddling became almost useless. With a lot of effort (and silent cursing on my part), we  reached open water again. This act of labour put us in mind of lunch and refreshments, so we directed ourselves to a headland where we often stop to eat.

At the  headland we found ourselves already hitting gravel 5 or 6 canoe lengths from the shore – the same spot where we used to disembark at when we first began to explore this lake. It was all boulders and silted gravel here, so I had to wade out to pull the canoe forward to a point where  Arwen and Yuet could step out onto rocks and make there way to the shore.

What we have noticed on canoe trips here lately is how much the lake has silted up and how water levels have declined over the last 25 years – areas where we once paddled freely are now impassable, and many disembarkation points are  now so shallow that wading out and hauling is the only solution to prevent the canoe bottom from being torn out by boulders.

On top of the headland we had a pleasant sandwich lunch with hot soup from a thermos. Arwen and Yuet managed to scavenge a few late season raspberries and then we went back to the canoe. I reloaded our gear and once more dragged it out into deep enough water to allow us to step in. We headed back to our launch point – somewhat disconcerted with the knowledge that ‘our’ Astotin lake was succumbing to time and yet still appreciative that we had enjoyed another beautiful day on the waters of Elk Island National Park.

And visit this page to see evidence of a little creature that came home with us…

 

Chickakoo Lake Recreation Area

Another trip with the ATA Photography group. Like the Victoria Trail trip, it was an overcast morning with scattered showers. This time I was feeling more positive, despite the weather.  I sometimes think too much about the photographic potential of the day rather than enjoy the outing for its own sake. This was the second trip to the Chickakoo area by the group, and I was looking forward to exploring the trails again. We were early so we headed down to the lake near the parking lot. It was misty morning, most of the leaves on the trees had blown down previously, but the air was still for now. There was a wealth of webbing on many of the branches, and each strand of the webs was pearled with moisture. I was using my 90mm Tamron macro lens with the 1.5 Kenko tele-extender attached. With a DX lens this amounts to an almost 200 mm macro. This gives the necessary range to avoid one of the mishaps of web and dew photography – a short macro is more likely to bump into the web and knock off the drops. I had not tested this combination yet, so I was hoping for the best. My partner was my daughter Arwen, who was most fascinated by the birch trees and the multiplicity of hues revealed by the peeling bark. We walked and chatted, and enjoyed the day for what it was – a pleasant late autumn walk in the woods.