Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Unidentified Flying Fungus (UFF)

Just for the record, we live in northern Illinois on 3 acres of farmland. No shade to speak of in the yard. And lots of wind. With that in mind you can imagine my surprise when I mowed the grass today and found legions of evil mushrooms stalking their way across the lawn. I counted at least five separate armies. I can guess that they are here trying to take over because the cloudy, muggy days and more than 4 inches of rain over the last week or so gave them an opportunist's foothold.
Here are some of the culprits:












I don't know what any of them are, but they all had one thing in common: They all get chopped up nicely and come flinging out of the mower just like the grass!
Here are a couple of other things I found today while mowing:


This baby bunny isn't much bigger than a field mouse and doesn't even have it's eyes open yet. The rest of his story is sickening and quite pathetic so if you want you can skip down to the tennis ball.

The bunny is currently in a shoe box resting. I had seen him from the mower and avoided his patch, but when I checked it out later, he was sitting at the top of his nesting hole--on top of several dead siblings who had drowned in the rain. He stunk something hideous, but has had a gentle rinse and now only smells slightly like fish. I won't say what he smelled like before. I have a friend who is a forest ranger and wildlife rescue-er (??) that I hope can help.


About 16 Eastern Tailed Blues were "puddling" on one of Kirby's tennis balls. The whole time I was mowing, there was a thick cloud of these and other butterflies around me. It was too cool.

3 comments:

  1. the butterflies are very pretty. i hope the bunny is okay. we raise bunnies, so they have a special place in my heart. my brother hit a baby bunny with the weed eater once -- he didn't see it at all. it didn't make it, and he felt so bad he almost cried -- and he's 30 yo!

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  2. I cleaned out the hole last night, lined it with clean dirt and grass clippings and put the rabbit back. I had been careful not to touch it with my hands at any time hoping the mother would return.
    Then we got another .9 inches of rain during the night and when I looked this morning, it was dead. I am NOT telling the girls though.

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  3. i am so sorry to hear about the bunny. if you ever tell the girls, they will be crushed. thank you for caring about nature.

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