FIRST FINDINGS OF 2022

Today, after buying some stuff in the city, I went driving around in search of themes and photographs for a new post.

I stopped by the crossroad in the rural area near the town called Bale, about 30 - 40 kilometers from where I live. Here you can see the remains of some old, mysterious drystone construction. I mean, that's how it looks. But I don't know, maybe it was built recently using the old stones taken from one of the many old walls that can be found everywhere in Istra.

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The sparse signs of springtime were visible in some treetops ...

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... some branches were covered with fresh new buds ...

... and down on the ground, I found a bunch of small mushrooms that I have never seen before.

They looked like the typical umbrella-shaped fruiting bodies with gills or spongy pores under the cap, but when I came closer ...

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... and took a look through the macro lens, it was clear that this is something else.

The cap was like a small puffball mushroom mounted on a pretty long stalk. I tried to squeeze it to see if the spores will get out, but the thing was hard and woody. Well, on the mushroom shown in this photograph, at least.

Very soon I came across a softer mushroom filled with spores that came out in form of a minuscule cloud of dust, just like in any typical puffball.

This minuscule, translucent shell was photographed nearby.

Here you can see one of the small plants that grew among the moss and mushrooms.

This is a young sprout of Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)

Here you can see another empty snail shell. This one isn't translucent. I found many similar shells ...

... scattered among the mushrooms.

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An hour ago, when I started preparing this post and searching for information on the Internet, I found out that this is a species from the Tulostoma genus of the Agaricaceae family. It could be the Tulostoma brumale, but I'm not sure about the exact species.

I found plenty of interesting details about the mushrooms. Here you can see the old, dried-out fruit of the Medicago disciformis plant.

A couple of centimeters further, the Tyta luctuosa moth was resting on the ground.

Near the sleepy moth, I found these minuscule droplets caught on the silky threads.

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Here you can take a look at the vegetation at the edge of the meadow. The focus is on the old trees covered with ivy. It's good to break the macro view for a moment.

Do you remember the stones from the opening shot of this post?

I spent some time exploring them with the macro lens.

Inside one of the holes there ...

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... I found the remains of a pill bug.

The segmented exoskeleton looked like a piece of some futuristic machinery.

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When I went on this excursion, I definitely didn't expect to find any Fungi-related material. Mushrooms can be occasionally found in springtime and summer, but autumn is the only good fungi season in this area.

An encounter with a species that I have never seen before was even less expected.

There is always something surprising and new to be seen in this area that I visited many times. Every day brings something new, and I never returned home without something cool to show.

About 10 kilometers from this place, on my way back home, I stopped again to photograph the vegetation by the road.

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Patches of fresh green foliage and white flowers looked great among the prevalently barren branches. Just like the early autumn, the early spring brings some lovely color combinations to the shrubs and trees.

AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.