Mushrooms, Insects And Flowers: A Hike With My Macro Lens

It was a spectacular Summer day here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Clear skies and cool  Canadian air filtered into the Commonwealth. It was a perfect day to search for wild mushrooms. Once again I hiked with the macro lens on my camera since I didn’t want to give my location away. I was only going to take photographs of things up close. As I began my hike I  found this marsh morning-glory or bindweed growing along the trail. 

For the first couple of miles I had little luck finding mushrooms. I found  a couple of edible lactarius milkcaps or milker mushrooms. As I said in my previous blog posts,  do not eat any wild mushroom  unless you are absolutely certain they are edible since you can become very ill or die if you eat  a poisonous species. 

There were also a few yellow/red bolete along the trail.  Another good edible species. 

Although there weren’t a lot of mushrooms I did get to put my macro lens to use. This interesting spider was spinning a web along the trail. 

 I believe it is a spined micrathena. 

While searching for mushrooms I saw the yellow jacket near the ground.

I haven’t been able to identify it but it was very docile and let me get very close with my macro lens. 

Looking on the ground for mushrooms I noticed that the acorns were starting to drop from the oak trees, a sure sign Summer is nearing its end. 

The  intricate details of nature always fascinated me. I would spend hours watching nat activity in my backyard when I was a child.  Even a fly,

a leaf 

or a thorn has a unique beauty if observed up close and especially with a camera with a macro lens. 

I also found two flowers I had never seen before. This I believe is a white wood aster. 

This interesting plant was growing near a pond. I believe it is a downy rattlesnake  plantain. 

It is actually a species of orchid. 

Of course, when I was out about three miles I started finding quite a few milker mushrooms. I gathered enough for a nice meal. On the way back I saw a number of species of colorful coral  mushrooms including this yellow coral,

this cotton base coral 

and this pretty violet-branched coral.

It was the first time I saw this mushroom and took a close up with my macro lens. 

On my walk back the air warmed up and there were now a lot of dragonflies along the trails. 

I love photographing these beautiful and ancient insects. 

They come in so many vivid colors.

There were also a few bees visiting the few flowers now in bloom.

It wasn’t my best day for gathering mushrooms, but it was a wonderful 7 mile hike capturing some more of the beauty of nature through my macro lens. Here is a link to some more photographs from my hike. Macro lens hike August 10 2019.

“In summer the empire of insects spreads.” 
― Adam Zagajewski

fskokoski@gmail.com

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