Mushrooms, wildlife signs, scenic vistas, and a southern Oregon hiking hazard! Come with me to finish my walk -- up, up, up through the lichen-covered Oregon White Oaks!
I'm helping my sister identify and count every bird we see, as part of the Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Her assigned area is near the Umpqua River, in the Roseburg-Sutherlin count area. Here's the first half of our day, with Black-tailed Deer, 3 different wild mushrooms for lunch, and more!
Watch Out for the Poison Oak!
This is where we left off. We're headed cross-country, up through the Oregon White Oak forest, toward Blacktail Ridge.
It seems like easy traveling. But watch out! Do not walk through that thicket of stems! That's Poison Oak! It's the western version of Poison Ivy, that thrives in eastern North America. Most people will get a rash, and even blisters, from Poison Oak or Poison Ivy -- even the leafless stems in the winter!
The leafless stems may seem hard to identify, but they're really not. In the winter, they have white seeds that hang down in clusters. And look at the tip of the stem. This is so typical of Poison Oak and Poison Ivy. That plant is flipping the bird! It's middle finger is raised and it is flipping you off -- with every single stem!
Mushrooms!
Is it a Turkey Tail? Turkey Tails have little pores on the underside of their cap. These have ridges, like a maze! It's the Oak Mazegill - a sturdy brown rot bracket fungus. It loves oaks! It breaks down cellulose in the tree's heartwood, leaving only brown, blocky, punky chunks of lignin.
The Oak Mazegill can take different forms. The ones on the oak branch were flat, like a typical bracket fungus. The ones on this cut stump barely made a shelf - they are mostly just the spore-bearing surface!
Scenic Vista!
We can't look down for mushrooms all the time. This is a bird count, after all! Here's a good spot to turn around and look back where we came from. That big turn in the Umpqua River is called Whistler's Bend. The land inside the loop, on the other side of the river, is public land, too. If you want to walk with me over there sometime, let me know in the comments!
Tough Luck, Little Tree!
Let's keep working our way up toward the ridge. We're moving into a more mixed woodland, with evergreen trees. Good luck to this little Ponderosa Pine - it's in a tough spot! See that dark strip of exposed soil right behind it? That's a deer trail. And one of the bucks has been rubbing his antlers on that little pine, breaking a branch and tearing off the bark! Good luck, little Ponderosa Pine!
Into the Madrones
Not all evergreens are conifers! This stand of Pacific Madrone trees was thick with all kinds of fruit-loving birds -- Robins, Scrub Jays, Cedar Waxwings, Starlings. It was so loud with birds squawking and whistling and cawing! What are they after? Red berries, hanging in clusters so big you can see them even from this far distance!
The madrone berries have been pretty well picked over on this tree. So many animals -- and people -- use madrone berries and other parts of the tree. It's an important part of the ecosystem along the west coast of North America!
Higher and Higher
We're getting higher and higher along the ridge. We can even start to look down on some trees. Do you see what I see, there in the center? On the trunk of the fallen Oak tree? It is so tempting to go down there and look closer!
Mushrooms! From this distance, they look like more of the Oak Mazegill bracket fungus. But I'm not going all that way downhill and then back up -- especially when there is a big thicket of Poison Oak to get past! And I've got birds to look for!
Let's just keep heading up the ridge. Here's an oak tree that's way downhill. But we're in luck - one of its big branches is reaching all the way up to us on the edge of the slope.
Moss, lichens, mushrooms! All the different forms of life on oak branches can look pretty fantastical! I think this looks like some drooling dragon-poodle. Leave me a funny caption to this picture in the comments -- and I'll choose my favorite for a 1 SBD prize!
Were those Turkey Tail mushrooms on the oak branch? Check out their underside -- it's a smooth surface, like leather, with no pores. So that's no Turkey Tail. That's the False Turkey Tail, Stereum hirsutum. It's a white rot that's digesting all the lignin in the branches, leaving only the soft, white strips of cellulose.
But fungi don't always take over every oak. As we're getting to the ridgeline, here's an oak that's still standing, long after it died. These dead standing oaks are so important to woodpeckers. This one has long, rectangular holes made by Pileated Woodpeckers, smaller round holes that could be from a lot of different woodpeckers, and groups of even smaller, shallow holes made by Acorn Woodpeckers to store their food - acorns from the oaks. I couldn't get any closer, because that tree is in the middle of a big Poison Oak patch!
On the Ridge
Up here, this high, we get some big views. This country is perfect for Golden Eagles and other raptors. It was so cool to see one here. And a White-tailed Kite! Distances are deceptive at this large scale. Do you see the road, toward the bottom left of the picture? How about those white dots in the far valley, toward the center of the picture?
That's a good flock of sheep over in that valley. Do you see the road now? Would you like to take that road up the valley and see what's around the corner?
Looking the other direction, the light is all different! I really like the scraggly silhouette of Oregon White Oaks. And the clouds are rolling by, changing the light minute by minute. We better get down off the ridge before the clouds settle in here and the sun sets.
Heading In
The sun is setting and we've got to hustle to report what birds we saw. Everyone meets for a big chili feed and lots of fun - and appreciation of the birds and beauty in this part of the world! My sister and I saw only 32 species this year, much lower than usual. But we saw some great ones. The Golden Eagle and White-tailed Kite were real highlights! It's a good thing we walked all the way up the ridge!
Thanks for walking with me! Thanks to 
Hive account@lyndsaybowes for the #walkwithme tag! Thanks to #ewkaw for the #fungi-friday tag! I hope you will join me again for another walk sometime!
Plant and Animal List
- Oak Mazegill mushroom - Daedalea quercina
- False Turkey Tail mushroom - Stereum hirsutum
- Ponderosa Pine - Pinus ponderosa
- Pacific Madrone - Arbutus menziesii
- Poison Oak - Toxicodendron diversilobum
- Poison Ivy - Toxicodendron radicans
- Robin - Turdus migratorius
- California Scrub Jay - Aphelocoma californica
- Common Starling - Sturnus vulgaris
- Cedar Waxwing - Bombycilla cedrorum
- Golden Eagle - Aquila chrysaetos
- Pileated Woodpecker - Hylatomus pileatus
- Acorn Woodpecker - Melanerpes formicivorus
- White-tailed Kite - Elanus leucurus
Haphazard Homestead
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for the #fungi-friday tag!