Mushrooms Were Scarce But A Lot Of Cool Insects
Late August usually means an abundance of mushrooms here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Of, course it depends on the weather and the amount of rainfall. But the longer, and cooler night, most years, produce at least some mushrooms. So, on Saturday, I grabbed my macro lens and visited some woods where I found mushrooms in previous years. 
It was a cool, breezy day with brilliant sunshine. There is not the wide variety of flowers found in Spring but the flowers blooming now attract a wide variety of insects. Large patches of spotted knapweed or star thistle were growing along the trail and attracted hundreds of different species of bees, hornets, wasps and yellow jackets. 
It was good to see the bees. The increased use of insecticides has dramatically decreased their numbers.
The knapweed also attracted a number of moth and butterflies. 
My search of mushrooms was further delayed when I found a large patch of milkweed. This time of year I always enjoy inspecting the milkweed plants I come across to look for the monarch butterfly caterpillar. Well I found quite a few. 
The monarch butterfly caterpillar can only feed on the milkweed plant. If the butterfly lays its eggs on another plant the caterpillars will starve. 
The milk-like sap of this plant is toxic to many other insects and animals but the milkweed caterpillar loves it.
I roamed the milkweed patch, looking for the caterpillars, but also found some grasshoppers perched on the flat leaves.
Once again I found many different species of the grasshoppers.
Looking at them, and capturing their images, with my macro lens always fascinates me. Amazing how complex this tiny residents of our forests and woodlands are when looked at up close. 
Growing between the milkweed plants were an assortment of wild flowers and, what some folks call, “weeds”. These weeds also attracted a number of insects, including wasps,
yellow jackets,
butterflies,
and dragonflies. 
mushrooms
I could have spent the entire day watching, and photographing the many insects I was finding along the trail. But I was looking for mushrooms so I continued my walk. Unfortunately, my search for mushrooms was not as productive as my search for insects. I found very few, including this one milky lactarius mushroom.
I walked for a couple of miles without success in my mushroom hunt so I decided to gave up. On my return hike I stopped and photographed some more insects, including some bees on a thistle flower. 
And some more colorful butterflies. 
I also stopped to photograph the complexity of the many ferns on the trail with my macro lens. 
As I neared my car I was happy to find a few bi-colored bolete mushrooms. Not enough for even a small meal but better than nothing It was not a very successful mushroom hunt but I enjoyed the sunshine, fresh air and the many insects I saw and photographed. Here is a link to some more photographs from my hike. Macro lens hike August 24 2019.
“Around a flowering tree, one finds many insects.”
– Proverb from Guinea 
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