New Year 2024 starts with a bang!
It is a venerable tradition that the New York Mycological Society holds a Fungus Foray in Central Park every New Year's Day. This year's outing started at 12 noon on Monday January 1st, meeting up at Central Park West at 96th Street.
I had reminded my friends David Ringer, Misha Zitser and Steven Bodzin about it, because it had been quite a while since I had seen each of them, and I really value any outing I can take along with one or more of my favorite iNat NYC co-observers.
In the end, all three of those friends of mine came, plus about 40 other mycological members, that is, out of a total of about 3,000 members of NYMS. A senior member explained to me that there had been one New Year's Day when there was a foot of snow on the ground, and another year when the temperature was only about 6 degrees, but in both cases they got a good turn-out!
We entered the park near 'The Pool" and then we climbed the Great Hill and searched the woodland all around that area. The weather was in the low 40s, and it was mostly sunny. I was there for 4 hours and was very tired when I got home, plus my foot was hurting. But I did really great. I surprised myself.
I found nine new-to-me species, thanks to some help from the other iNatters. Among the 95 observations I made, I was lucky that I saw several animal lifers:
American Green-Winged Teal, thanks to David Ringer.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195510938 1
Ground Wolf Spider, thanks to Misha.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195510337 1
Metallus rohweri, a sawfly leafminer with no common name.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195510390
Pine Witches Broom Phytoplasma, but this might turn out to be normal epicormic growths on Pitch Pine.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195510735 1
…And several of the fungi I photographed were new to me too: …
Merismodes anomala – looks like coral cups when you use some magnification
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195509027 3
Peroneutypa scoria – little twig-like branches
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195509235 2
Propolis farinosa – white oval marks
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195509697 2
Hypoxylon perforatum – they look like little beige cakes
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195509666 1
Plus, I finally paid attention to what is a new-to-me plant pathogen fungus, and new to NYC:
Raspberry leaf spot, Sphaerulina rubi
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195510622 1
I was happy that Sigrid Jakob, who was leading the walk, told me that in 2023 I had added three new species to the MSNY fungus list for New York City, all of them plant pathogens.
And I was also pleased that I got to observe three slug species under logs: Limax maximus, a Mesarion species, and one Arion hortensis.
I was kind of surprised that I found a couple of small clumps of Allegeny Spurge, which I have seen only once before near the Reservoir.
We also came across a friendly lady who was walking her pet chicken in the park. What a nice hen it was, and you could pet its soft brown feathers.
All in all quite a tiring walk, but a lovely afternoon in the Park.
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