Mushroom Hunting In Illinois October 25th, 2014

The weather was perfect, 65 degrees and sunny without mosquitoes, so I decided to hit the woods.  The first stop was a strip of woods that runs along a creek that I have never been to before.  My kids were bike riding on a trail there the day before and told me they found an "Obama" mushroom.  I had to go investigate.  I found the one they were talking about and it's pretty funny.  If someone could identify this one that would be great.  I've never come across this kind before.  Here are some photos and a video clip.

I also found these white mushrooms everywhere.  They all see to be growing where a branch has been broken off of the tree.  I probably found 50 of these today.

I spent the next 2 hours at my favorite mushroom hunting woods.  The place is vast and there are so many unexplored areas that it'll take me years to cover it all.  This is where I found my first morel mushroom and and unlimited supply of Dryads Saddle mushrooms.

My first find in these woods was inside of this stump from a fallen tree.  It was nice and moist inside the stump and found some wild oyster mushrooms which I took home to clone and see how they turn out.

I was on my way out of the woods when I finally found my first hen of the woods aka "maitake" mushroom.  I was really thrilled.  The sun was hitting it just right and it was illuminated for me.  Below is the video of where I found it and weighing it once I got home.  I'm going to attempt to clone it.

  I find that going out different times of the day I will often find mushrooms in areas that I already looked around.  The light changes everything.  I consider the hunt a success.  If you're interested in mushroom hunting I put together a list of equipment that I use and it will make your hunt mush more enjoyable.  Thanks for reading and watching!