Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Black-Backed Woodpeckers? Northern MN has been "very dry" according to the weather lady - still hardly any shrooms! (but one pin started growing)

Yes I just did another inoculation session up north. I noticed one log has started "pinning" - with a little mushroom - two of them - growing out. So I soaked that batch of logs for 12 hours - "shocking" as it is called - and the mushroom was still growing - albeit very slowly. It was finally drizzling this morning and hopefully it will be a substantial rain. But the thing about fruiting or shocking shrooms - is it is the cold water in contrast to the warm air that initiates the fruiting as mushrooms. So I hope the water is still cold enough. If they don't fruit on their own then the logs are not ready yet - as I was told by the mycologist - but without rain then the logs are not going to grow enough to fruit this spring.

So it might be a Fall harvest! Or maybe I will have shrooms in a few days.

In the mean time the birds are all back - the Veery - and a Cat bird - and a Raven and a rose-breasted grosbeak and many more birds - and I saw two huge woodpeckers that I think were new to me.

So I saw a PAIR of them on the same tree. At first I thought it was a Hairy wood pecker - but these were a bit bigger.

the call of hairy woodpecker but lower pitched and to some ears slightly more resonant.
 Yes - that makes sense.

 So that's a NEW bird species for me.  Black-Backed Woodpecker.

The Alder Flycatchers were fighting over nesting territory. There is an Alder Flycatcher nest just less than 50 feet from the Hermit Hut - so they check me out and I get to watch their quarrels - kind of like hummingbird's battling it out - super fast manuevers. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Alder_Flycatcher/lifehistory
 Males are fairly territorial, and respond to rival songs by flicking the wings and tail, raising the crest, and chasing the intruder.
And then the Alder Flycatcher is feeding its young - so I hope it's not feeding a cowbird baby! We had more cowbirds than before this spring - maybe cuz the neighbors got horses.

I have about 30 logs left to inoculate.

Still at least seeing those baby shiitake gave me just enough hope to carry on in the "sweat equity" as the Cornell Shiitake forest Farm video calls it - starting out. Since I'm working off grid it takes a bit of time - at first I used the wood stove to melt the wax. Then I tried the passive solar oven - nope. So then I switched to my Survivor rocket stove and that worked the best - I just have to keep the pan on to block out any sparks.

So I was meditating and fasting but not was much as I would have liked to meditate - I was focused on inoculation and soaking logs and wondering if I'll ever get a harvest. haha.

Generally uncommon
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/black-backed-woodpecker



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