Pool Party

It's early fall and all of the pools are closed for the season.  A recent rain shower, however, made this pool party possible for a family of robins.  We stopped and watched as the birds splashed and danced in the puddle of water. A blue jay  even flew down to join the party, stopping to indulge a sip or two of the fresh rain water. Then, Topsie, tired of watching the birds, barked loudly and frightened them all away.

Pie in the sky

They looked like pies ...

....good enough to eat, I thought

A conifer-based polypore

It was on our walk one afternoon that I came upon this latest find. From a distance, they looked like pies rising from the earth. How spectacular, I thought, delicious pies laying upon the ground just waiting to be eaten!! Alas, as I drew nearer, what my eyes perceived as pie, my nose told me was far from it. "Polypore," I exclaimed! Polypore galore, to be precise. Large fleshy masses of white and brown marked the presence of a conifer-based polypore. Although common in northern temperate zones, this was my first sighting of the species. Excited by my discovery, I examined the delicately formed layers emerging from the ground. They do look good enough to eat, I thought. Then, I hurried home for my afternoon tea, as visions of pie danced in my head.

Strange phenomenon

A strange phenomenon has plagued the pond this summer.  Despite the summer rains, the pond has been drying up; the water shrinking into shallow puddles surrounded by growing stretches of dry earth.  The ducks, ever faithful to the pond, spend most of the day roosting on the muddy banks and only occasionally dipping into the water as though it were a privilege to enjoy sparingly not to be overused or taken for granted. Tinkerbelle, Topsie and I have mulled over this strange phenomenon speculating as to its possible causes ... perhaps one or more of the waterways that feed into the pond have been blocked by debris, or perhaps it just hasn't rained heavily enough or frequently enough.  Whatever the cause, with the fall rains approaching, we hope the water will return to its normal level.

Spore of the polypore

It started out small...

While we were checking on our recently found orange fruiting bodies, we also stopped by to visit our previous find the polyppore. On one occasion we noticed that adjacent to the polypore a new

...and grew into an impressive mass

fruitbody was forming.  It started out small, but as the days went by we watched it grow into an impressive mass.  At the same time, we observed the polypore slowly darken and die.  At first, we assumed, naturally, that spore from the polypore had spawn this new creation. However, as time went by, and the new fruitbody grew, it became clear this was not spore of the same polypore but rather a species of its own.  Its multitude of intricate lobes liken it to a cauliflower mushroom.

...while the polypore darkened and died