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Liberty caps - 2019 season

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Thanks for the beautiful pictures, Triglav! I am a beginners Liberty cap hunter this year. Just as you said, I came across a few mother tufts with up to 50 mushrooms hiding in between... Most were sedge in swampy areas, and one was regular grass as you posted. As far as mushrooms in wide open grassy fields, I had luck with just one field among countless I hiked and explored for days and days... Other grass fields had a mushroom or two, while this one had almost 200. The fields were all in proximity and around a huge sedge covered marshland. I could not find a single mushroom outside of this area around the marshland...

İt appeara I had missed the best window as it had not been raining for days and the mushrooms were dry. The weather forecast shows an upcoming rainy period of days now... I am wondering, should I wait for the rainy period to finish and the sun to come back, or should I go hunting right after a day or two of rain, while it's still raining?
 
dithyramb said:
Thanks for the beautiful pictures, Triglav! I am a beginners Liberty cap hunter this year. Just as you said, I came across a few mother tufts with up to 50 mushrooms hiding in between... Most were sedge in swampy areas, and one was regular grass as you posted. As far as mushrooms in wide open grassy fields, I had luck with just one field among countless I hiked and explored for days and days... Other grass fields had a mushroom or two, while this one had almost 200. The fields were all in proximity and around a huge sedge covered marshland. I could not find a single mushroom outside of this area around the marshland...

İt appeara I had missed the best window as it had not been raining for days and the mushrooms were dry. The weather forecast shows an upcoming rainy period of days now... I am wondering, should I wait for the rainy period to finish and the sun to come back, or should I go hunting right after a day or two of rain, while it's still raining?
Click to expand...

It depends on how many days of rain will you have. I think that after two days of rain and correct temperatures you can go look for them even if it's still raining. However if the rain stops don't wait too long before you go hunting. I would say don't wait more than max 48 hours.

I must say however that I'm speaking about what I observed in my area and can't say 100% about your area. It's best to observe what's happening and thus gradually learn how they "work" in your area. Yes, it takes some time and dedication, but it's truly worth it IMO and IME. :)
 
I am in th mountain fields at the moment, and it appears that my marked spots are all covered by snow now... I've been searching at lower altitudes free from snow, and have found no Liberty caps yet, but I have come across a lot of these. Could they possibly be active Conocybe cyanopus?
 

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"cyanopus" means "blue foot", thus the stems will turn blue at the base if they are the correct species. It's something I check for every time I find little shrooms like this and to date I've never observed the bluing and thus I would not eat an unidentified specimen - especially not from the genus Conocybe.

It doesn't look like yours have turned blue, either. If you think there is a hint of blue on any of your specimens I would still strongly recommend checking them over with microscopy and the other attendant mycological techniques.
 
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