In the Spirit of Fairness

To be completely fair and honest, I wanted to show you the difference that the Super Vivid setting on my  camera has on the pictures I take. Here are two pictures, of the exact same tree, taken seconds after each other. The first one has super vivid, which should be apparent.

The one below does not. Now I'll admit that the one above looks more like what I was seeing that day in the bright sun. It is closer to the colors. Which might explain why I took so many pictures that day. All my pictures tend to be dulled just a bit from true color. But this has been the case with every camera I've ever owned. Either way, fake or real, that super vivid is a really cool feature for photos of the fall colors.

Yet Another Rant

I'm up on my soapbox again. Just consider yourself warned.

I came home from work last night to find that all the beautiful old trees along my street have been ripped out. Huge, mature trees have been pulled up by their roots and scattered along the roadside waiting for the wood chipper. I am disgusted. And why did they do such a terrible thing? Simple, they need to widen the street. Apparently two lanes is not enough and well...as you know, progress must take precedence. I was awful to see all the dead trees and I was a bit angry. Then I saw the creek. They are also pulling out trees along the creek that don't even come near the road. And now I'm pissed.

We chose this house because of it's proximity to the creek and the wooded area that borders the townhouse compound. I love that I get deer in my yard some evenings, either foraging or simply laying down. I can sit out in my front yard and watch tons of birds and the occasional animal. To see them tear out some of these beautiful trees just makes me ill. Add this to the fact that I had to spend some time on the DNR's website yesterday and happened to find their wildlife report. I thought that would be interesting reading. I could read about the reintroduction of peregrine falcons or how we are starting to see more mountain lions returning to the region. But a good chunk of the document instead covered deer. More specifically how well the herd management program was going.

And that, combined with the trees, just made me furious. Why are we the only species that doesn't watch it's population size? Our population has almost tripled in the last sixty years. From 2.5 billion in 1950 to an expected 7 billion shortly after 2010. We plow and pave gigantic sections of the world making them only habitable for humans. We call rabbits and deer pests when they eat the flowers we plant or when they step in front of our cars. And we can't understand why they would do that. Perhaps those roads cut off access for them to food sources. Perhaps the flowers we plant are regular food staples for them. I'm scared to see how many deer will die on the newly expanded road in front of my house. And that will only bring more legislation on herd management. We won't seem to see our involvement. We drive out creatures who are only looking to survive so that we can expand.

I'm not having children for a number of reasons. Some are selfish, some are not. But one of the reasons is that I feel that we humans have grabbed a little two much of the planet for ourselves. We push animals into small stretches of land and then get angry when they step back into the ever larger chunks that we steal for ourselves. I see other creatures constantly forced to make do with our scraps while we build ever larger freeways and push our cities out into the farmland. I hear of nature preserves losing funding and that extra money going toward bringing in new construction to destroy even more land. And sadly it seems never ending. According to a forecast done by the US Census Bureau, the world population will reach 8.5 billion during my lifetime. And I wonder what will be left of the planet to support them. And with 8.5 billion, will there be enough room for the other species.

One of the comics I read daily is Non Sequitur. Wiley Miller does some incredibly funny stuff but he can also be incredible poignant. He did this comic almost a year ago and I had to save it. It fits so perfectly with some of my thoughts. (for a larger size go here, I know it is hard to read)

'Shrooms

Today was cold and a little rainy so of course I had to get out in it. Why is it that I tend to stay in and read or play on nice days but the rainy days are almost always outdoor days? My dad had texted me yesterday to see about going birdwatching/mushroom hunting. I can't pass up the chance to be out in the woods. Dad was looking for morels to take home and cook up but we had no luck in that department. I was just hoping for a nice big puffball. I love that they can grow to about basketball size. 

I'm not good about staying on the path when I'm hiking. I tend to just wander off into the woods cutting my own trail or following a deer trail. Thankfully Dad is the same way. We never even touched the nice nature trail the park offered and instead set out in our own direction. The focus was on mushroom hunting but we were interested in pretty much any and all unusual plants. I found this beautiful flower hidden under some huge umbrella like leaves. It's called a May Apple.

We hadn't found any mushrooms yet although I'm not the best at spotting them on the ground. I am excellent with shelf mushrooms though (mushrooms growing into the sides of trees). I found these different types of Turkey Tails. Here is the pure white:

The red and white.

And the grey. 

All members of the same type just with different coloration. Shelf mushrooms often form on dead logs. They are normally easy to spot because they tend to be white or light colors in contrast with the dark wood of the tree. Only hen of the wood shelf mushrooms are truly edible, and only with caution. In fact, unless you can positively identify a mushroom (100% certain) you should never ever eat a wild mushroom. There are only a couple types that aren't poisonous and even the experts are wary. 

Finally we found this interesting looking Dyer's Bracket mushroom. It was the only one of size that we found. It was about the size of my whole hand and just as thick. Cool mushroom but still not edible. 

I loved getting a chance to be out in the woods. We did find this amazing tree that looks like it had been twisted up. I took a couple pictures and both Dad and I speculated on how it had gotten that way. Still not sure. That's not bark by the way. The bark was gone. 

Dad took one mushroom home to try to identify but no real good haul. No mushrooms for me tonight.