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Beaver Creek, which is located outside of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, has diverse biota, i.e., fauna, flora, and funga. Not surprisingly, Beaver Creek's wildlife includes several wild mushroom hunters, such as squirrels, deer, fishers, and hairy woodpeckers.
Beaver Creek Biota, a game camera photo book authored by T.J. Le Duc, documents Wisconsin wildlife interacting with, and sometimes, eating wild mushrooms - including gyrmitra, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, lions mane, pheasant back, black xylaria, and more. The following photos were originally published in Beaver Creek Biota.
The Big [Mushroom] Year
Fueled by the monsoons of June, it was a Big Mushroom Year along Beaver Creek. Seeing this Chicken-of-the-Woods in the creek bottom, we recognized another wildlife photo opportunity.
Choice-edible Chicken-of-the-Woods
This large Chicken-of-the-Woods (“Chicken”) appeared around Labor Day and attracted much attention, including hairy woodpeckers, squirrels, mice, chipmunks, and fishers.
Chipmunk & Chicken-of-the-Woods
Squirrel & Chicken-of-the-Woods
Fuzzy Young Male Fisher & Chicken-of-the-Woods
Hairy Woodpecker & Chicken-of-the-Woods
Blaze Runner with Mouthful of Chicken-of-the-Woods
The young male fisher in these photos has substantial white chest blaze. And as fishers typically run, or at least hop along at a hefty pace, everywhere they go, we call him Blaze Runner. Blaze Runner's twin sister is vision impaired - she ran right by us one January morning without noticing us (we had our cold weather on, i.e., blaze orange). As a result, we call Blaze Runner's sister Ms. Magoo.
Chicken Becoming Less Appetizing as it Decays
Male Fishers have Tan Fur (Young Females have Black Fur)
As this chicken decayed, we surmise that young Blaze Runner may have been merely looking for dew or water in the crevices of the chicken…Beaver Creek was bone dry in this spot due to lack of rain…the springs that feed Beaver Creek are located a bit downstream from the area shown.
Two Hairy Woodpeckers on Each Side of Decaying Chicken-of-the-Woods
Hairy Woodpeckers pecked the chicken into pieces as it aged. Presumably, the chicken had become insect infested as it decayed – as the woodpeckers did not appear to be too interested in the chicken itself, but rather the insects. Conversely, at night, the local mouse (not shown) carried several pecked-up little pieces of chicken off like pieces of cheese.
Woodpecker & Squirrel Playing Nice – Enough Chicken for Everyone!
Pileated Woodpecker (left) Supervising Hairy Woodpecker (right)
We did not see these two woodpeckers get into it, but the hairy woodpeckers were definitely keeping one eye in the sky on the lookout for the much larger pileated – who appeared to be merely curious as to what the hairy woodpeckers were up to. Next is a few short videos clips of Wisconsin wildlife interacting with chicken of the woods.
In years past, we captured various wildlife on film. However, in 2023, we were hoping to expand our horizons with a few game camera photos of wild mushrooms and other fungi. Well, if you know mushrooms, you know there is wet, and then there is “mushroom wet.” Mushrooms need a lot of moisture: “No rain, no mushrooms.” Not surprisingly, mushroom hunters follow the rain. Disappointingly, 2023’s Flash Drought in May and June essentially ended the mushroom year along Beaver Creek literally before it began – until October anyway.
Once the rain arrived in mid-April 2024, we were optimistic that Beaver Creek’s mushroom year could be off to a good start. When we returned to the area late April, our middling expectations were exceeded (Happiness is Based Upon Expectations – that’s what we tell my beautiful bride, the exquisite Hunter, anyway) – for the gyromitra (i.e., false morels) had arrived in numbers.
Gyromitra are one of the year’s first mushrooms, and a harbinger that choice-edible morels will soon appear. The Beaver Creek Gyromitra are of the gyromitra esculenta variety, and have an irregular reddish-brown, brain-looking fruiting body that’s commonly baseball-sized.
Certain mushrooms grow around a dying tree or a dead tree/stump – forming a fairy ring around the base of the tree. Shown next is a gyromitra fairy ring. Medieval legend and folklore has it that crossing within the middle of a fairy ring will bring bad luck, if you believe in those sorts of things. Unfortunately, we commonly pass through fairy rings before recognizing them.
Gyromitra Fairy Ring
The stump shown is decades old. As noted, the gyromitra are the reddish-brown mushrooms surrounding the stump, while the black fungi on the stump itself are aged polypores. Below, with the sun poking through the clouds, the ruffles and ridges are clearer on the larger gyromitra.
By mid-May, the gyromitra had mostly decayed away….but that didn’t stop Huey from checking on his “mushroom spots.” Similar to humans, Huey is very possessive of his mushroom spots.
By way of background, Huey was born in 2019, and is now seven years old. Behaviorally, Huey is a very friendly bear and gets along with the other wildlife. Heuy even tries to get along with the grumpy old opussum, Mars (short for marsupial), who does not get along with anyone. Physically, Huey has a black snout and an abnormally long neck, and still retains much of the common young-male-bear-lankiness.
Huey Checking his Gyromitra Spots
On Mother’s Day, we were mushroom hunting along Beaver Creek with enthralling Hunter. To our dismay, the true morels were not in the usual spots. As the woods appeared dry, we didn’t go bushwhacking looking for morels – Hunter hates to bushwack. On the bright side, we noticed a few gyromitra remained along Beaver Creek, and that pheasant back was starting to appear.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak on Pheasant Back-Laden Stump
Pheasant back (i.e., dryad saddle) is a polypore that grows on dead trees, and has a camouflaged appearance on the top of its body.
Slick Checking his Pheasant Back Spots
Slick is a few years older than Huey. He is rather passive, and tries his best to avoid the larger male Beaver Creek Bears. Unfortunately, Slick is often scarred from skirmishs with the larger males. On the plus side, bears heal pretty quickly from bear-on-bear violence.
Greta the Grouse
Shown above is Greta the Grouse inspecting the pheasant back. Greta is very reclusive, like Greta Garbo – typically quickly running away when we come across her, which is quite often. The following videos show, inter alia, wildlife eating polypores and enoki.
Most mushrooms are short lived. The following videos follow inky caps as they come and go, eventually decaying away. Inky caps are not a deer favorite. Which says a lot, because deer eat just about anything, especially late winter and early spring before Beaver Creek "greens up." For instance, the deer often munch on conifer seedlings, as well as lady fern remnants, before the woods come back to life after another long, cold winter.
With fresh pheasant back coming in, we positioned a camera at the following black xylaria stump. Upon reviewing the images, we noticed honey mushrooms (mid-photo) had also arrived. Honey mushrooms are a favorite of some types of wildlife.
Young Male Fisher (Blaze Runner) on Black Xylaria Stump
White Chest Blaze on Fisher (“Blaze Runner”)
Honey Mushrooms (Mid-photo) Growing by the Day…
….Trying not to get Eaten by Wildlife (Oh, to be a Mushroom on a Stump)
Squirrel Taste-Testing Honey Mushroom
The squirrel was taste-testing the honey mushroom on the left behind the black xylaria. It was to his liking – either he ate the honey mushroom or took it home for winter storage. Meanwhile, the pheasant back on the right are past their prime, slowly decaying without receiving any love, and used only by the birds for bathing.
Honey Mushrooms Surviving until Deer Takes a Bite
We see the honey mushrooms mid-photo finally start to decay on September 24th…our first photos of these honey mushrooms were on September 20th….as noted, most mushrooms have a short lifespan.
Next Day, Mushrooms Decay Becomes Noticeable
The next videos show various interactions between wildlife and wild mushrooms. A few birds of Wisconsin are shown, including a male pileated woodpecker and rose-breasted grosbeak. A camera was also positioned by an emerging giant puffball. Unfortunately, a doe picked up the little giant puffball with her teeth as if bobbing for apples, and tossed the puffball away, along with our giant puffball photographic hopes and dreams. But alas, we recovered as more mushrooms emerged, providing other interesting photographic possibilities and opportunities.
Beaver Creek also has maitake or hen of the woods. Shown below, our large oak tree sometimes has a few hens.
Maitake at the (local) Champion Oak
Huey Checking his Maitake Spots
The next videos show Beaver Creek's diverse biota, and includes fishers, owls, coyotes, etc., and of course, The Beaver Creek Bears. As shown, red squirrels love the yellow amanitas that grow in our conifer grooves, white spruce in this case.
For those interested in foraging and mushrooms, our exquisite bride, Hunter, has an online store with various mushroom products - The Mushroom Lover.
We recommend Hunter's Porcini Rub, which is sublime seasoning when cooking or grilling rib eye steaks. And Hunter's children's book, Where The Mushrooms Are, is a fun way to get your toddlers interested in nature and everything interwald.
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