Maybe the Golden Chanterelles Where Late This Year?

It occured to me today, when I saw two more lights shining in the forest that turned out to be Golden Chanterelles, that it was white chanterelles I collected earlier in the season. Maybe with the funny weather in August and September (touch of rain in August, stretch of sun in September) that the Golden Chanterelles came out in early September, and this is a second, staggered bloom late in the season?

They are definitely mature, but not waterlogged, and these were, like the one's I got yesterday, tight in near trees, away from frost and rain. So maybe it is just that the bushes have lost their leaves and so there is a little more vista in the forest and otherwise hidden mushrooms become visible.

Whatever the explanation, it is a happy discovery.

Ok, so the Season Goes on a Little Longer...

I was out for a walk today and enchanted by a patch of little mushrooms glowing in the dimness, possibly Mycena alcalina, and that pulled me off the trail where I found some greenbacks (winter oysters) just starting to show.

Later at another site in the forest I saw a little chanterell peaking out of the moss and thought of "Stay in the Wild's" video in which he finds chanterelles on January 15th.

So I wandered into the forest and within a few minutes, using Stay in the Wild's technique of looking near debri that would shelter the chenterelles from frost, I found some nice ones.

It was getting dark, so I headed for home. The thermometer outside my office window read 2 degrees. Gotta love it -- chanterelles on December 11th!