It may be only April, but it’s already time to pull on your mushroom hunting fashion boots. You’ll fend off ticks and look good while slinking through the woods.

Tom found this pair of morels nestled in the grass. Excited at an early find, he didn’t even wait for me to take their picture before plucking them from the ground. They were a little dry, but let’s not get picky here.

Most of of the mushrooms we found are probably inedible or at least not choice, but they weren’t all boring LBMs. I am curious if these might have been Velvet Foots (wild Enoki). Pending confirmation, I have decided to call the above fungus a Hamburger Bun Mushroom.

There were, of course, plenty of Little Brown Mushrooms. Here they are gathered together in a tiny mushroom village.

This is the sort of mushroom under which a fairy might enjoy a tiki drink.

Morel #3. They don’t call her the Minnesota State Mushroom for nothing.

A Mushroom Choir.

A woody-looking fungal friend.

Furry shelf mushrooms from below, showing off their hedgehog-like undersides.

Furry shelfies from above. Now you see their furriness, yes?

All in all, we had a good walk in the woods. Now that we know for sure that the season is on (and early), we hope to get back at it next weekend with our out-of-town guests and 4 pairs of eyes to comb the woods.

Tom and I walked at Wood Lake Nature Center on Sunday. This was our second time there, the first over Memorial Day in May 2011. There were no turtles in sight yesterday (they are in brumation this time of year, so I learned), but we did find an array of winter textures and a few chickadees.

These photos date from July 11, 2009, so I’m a bit off in my date matching (today being the 18th). Early that morning Eduardo, my cousin Natasha’s husband, led us up their neighborhood “hill.” Tom, Ed, and the dogs made it up easily… I huffed and puffed and really wished I hadn’t been wearing hot and sticky blue jeans. This week in Minneapolis that’s a pretty familiar feeling.

July 4, 2009. We were up early, had arepas for breakfast, and explored around the house—peeking out the windows, poking around the patio, and getting to know la casa on our second day in Cali. My cousin Juan came over around noon to greet us. After a visit to Juan’s house to find his wife Betty and son Lucca, we headed into the mountains to have dinner at a reserva natural and do a little exploring.

Tom and I spent Memorial Day visiting Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield (a first ring suburb of Minneapolis). The weather had been off-and-on all weekend and when it began to clear up on Monday we headed out, not wanting to wait too long… considering the sky might turn on us again. When we arrived our car was among few in the lot; when we left the lot was nearly full—a sign that others had also decided it was safe out, finally.

I’ve been wanting to visit Wood Lake ever since I met Karen Shragg, a naturalist/activist and Wood Lake’s manager, a couple of years ago. And, as with many trails in and around the Twin Cities, visiting the area left me and Tom with that why-haven’t-we-been-here-before? feeling. With three miles of trails, the center is a great place to walk and most of its trails are wheelchair accessible. Because of the way the trails loop in and out of Wood Lake’s wetlands, woods, and meadows it’s easy to take in a variety of habitats in a short walk and hard to miss the animal life. We saw five turtles, a muskrat, and one Baltimore oriole. Butterflies, ants, bees, dragonflies, turtles, and other birds also greeted us along the path. Missing from my photos are the birds: red-winged blackbirds, geese, and others whose names I’m not sure of were all around. If you’re into trail running, light hiking, or birding—this is a fantastic spot. For those reading locally, you’ll find the preserve just off Lyndale Avenue at Lakeshore Drive, a few blocks to the south of 60th and highway 62. Don’t forget your binoculars!