Time flies when finding fungi!

Jamie Kish, the Tidepool Ambassador Program Coordinator for the Cape Perpetua Collaborative, has been hosting a series of mushroom BioBlitz events for us this fall. Check out the Cape Perpetua iNaturalist BioBlitz project and recent observations here and keep scrolling to learn more from the field and see some photos from these events.

Jamie’s notes from the field

Time flies when we are finding fungi, every tour has been over 3hrs long, and we never even finish half the trail we are on because there is so much to see and talk about every few inches or so. 😆 The Cape is alive with a wide variety fungus right now, from slime molds, to large choice edible King Boletes!

The variety of local species we have been finding really help demonstrate the wide world of fungi, which pairs up perfectly with using the iNaturalist app! Everyone has been so excited to learn the app while in the forest, and even more so to explore and utilize it around where they live.

It’s been really neat seeing people start the tour, afraid and intimidated of interacting with mushrooms, leaving the tour bursting with excitement with a choice edible in hand or a new to them species to ID, ready to get back out into the woods almost immediately! That was one of my big goals with these tours, just allowing space to nurture a deep sense of wonder and education around the Cape, where people could feel comfortable and at ease asking any questions (which often times in large online mushroom groups, can be shot down or belittled due to more experienced people’s egos).

Paired with learning iNaturalist, everyone has left the tour with a mushroom or two and various colors of construction paper so they can learn to spore print at home, as well as book and location recommendations for learning and finding more.😀

Want to learn how to use iNaturalist? Watch this introductory video or download this simple how-to.

Photo credits: Jamie Kish