Nature Up Close: Another Hike With My Macro Lens.
My love of nature began when my dad took me looking for wild edible mushrooms at a very young age. He taught me and my sibling how to identify the two species of scaber bolete mushrooms his dad taught him. We also learned so much more about the wonderful world of nature, ant hills, caterpillars, deer, chestnuts, snakes to name a few. I continue this tradition of looking for mushroom every summer. When I go I like to take my macro lens since I don’t want to reveal my secret spots. Mushroom pickers never do. So early on Saturday I was off looking for mushrooms, and anything else nature had to share. 
Unfortunately I didn’t find a lot of mushrooms on my hike. This surprised since we did have some rain this past week. There were a scattering of various species of inedible russula mushrooms. Well I don’t eat them anyway. 
There were very few of the milker mushrooms I had hoped to find. And no chicken or bolete mushrooms. This is a milker or lactarius mushroom. 
There were also some older chanterelles but they were infested with insects and not edible.
However, as always, my walk through the woods in search of mushrooms revealed the beautiful diversity of nature. This time I saw a few red efts crawling along the forest floor. These brightly covered salamanders are the land phase of the eastern newt.
Sometimes, after a summer rain you can find hundreds of them crawling along on the forest floor looking for a pond or puddle to breed. . It is now late summer and I only found a couple on my 7 mile hike. 
As I approached the many puddles along the trail, I could see, or hear, frogs jumping to safety in the muddy waters. I was able to photograph one before it could jump to safety.
Although I wasn’t finding many mushrooms I did see some pretty and unusual plants along the trail including these snakeberry or false lily of the valley berries. 
The teaberries are now producing berries. These berries will be bright red at the end of summer will be found throughout the winter here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. 
The patch of rattlesnake plantain orchids I found on my last hike, 
was still producing flowers. 
I saw this oak apple gall on a scrub oak tree. These galls are created by the larva of a wasp. 
It was a warm and sunny day and the sun filtering through the trees lit up the leaves.
Once again I used my iPhone app to identify some ferns I saw along the trail including these eastern hayscented ferns,
cinnamon ferns,
and the bracken ferns which already are started to change into their fall colors. 
Looking on the ground for mushrooms, I found this busy yellow jacket nest. It was early morning when I began my hike. The yellow jackets allowed me to get pretty close to their nest. It got much warmer, and, on my return the yellow jackets were much more active and wouldn’t let me near their .Here is a link to my Youtube video of the nest.
Growing along the trail was a hobblebush which was now producing berries. 
I also found some jack-o-lantern mushrooms growing on an old stump.
These poisonous mushrooms emit a green glow in the dark. 
It wasn’t a productive day for finding edible mushrooms, but once again I was able to experience, and share some of the beauty of nature. It is everywhere, if you walk in the woods and keep your eyes peeled. Here is a link to some more photographs from my hike. Macro hike August 17 2019.
“Photography saved my life by opening my eyes to the beauty that surrounds me each and everyday. Life look much richer from behind the lens.”
―
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