We met at Van Cortlandt Park for our mushroom exploration walk. Our leader, Paul Sadowski, is an instructor in mycology and a longtime member of the New York Mycological Society. After he gave us a quick overview on how to use a hand lens—even lending lenses to those that needed them—we jumped right in to begin our exploration of the Park.
Paul guided us through a few different habitats where we searched for fungi, including mushrooms. We stopped at a couple of really productive tree stumps that hosted several fungi species, and located other species along the way. Paul generously shared his knowledge of mushrooms and other fungi, and all who attended learned something new, with many discovering species we hadn’t seen before.
Species List
Mushrooms and Fungi
Crust Fungi
Cyphelloid fungi
Ganoderma sessile
King Alfred’s Cakes
Luminescent Panellus
Oak Bracket and Artist’s Bracket
Shelf Fungi
Slime Mold, Myxomycetes
Turkey Tail
Violet-toothed Polypore
Birds
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
House Sparrow
Common Grackle
Northern Cardinal
Mammals
Eastern Gray Squirrel
