Wood Ducks and Bluebirds
It’s that time of year again. Time to clean out your Wood Duck and Bluebird boxes. In just a few short weeks the first Wood Ducks and Bluebirds will be returning to the northland and right now is the time to get ready for their arrival. Cleaning out your nest boxes sounds easy enough but there are a few things to consider before jumping out of your Lazy Boy and running out to clean your boxes. You will need the following items before heading out. Gloves, ladder, plastic bag, dust (particulate) mask, and a 3 inch putty knife. I start by using my ladder to carefully climb up to the Wood Duck nest box. Most nest boxes are located over or near water, so getting to them now before the ice melts make it a lot easier. Always use a dust or particulate mask to avoid breathing in the dust when removing the contents of the nest box. Mice often use these boxes during winter and these four footed creatures can carry several airborne nasty diseases. Position yourself upwind so when you are pulling out the nest material any dust and debris blows away from you. Gloves serve well to keep your hands warm, clean and protected. I often find one or two infertile eggs remaining from last season. Be extra careful when removing these. If you’ve ever had one of these eggs break, you know what I mean. The smell of the rotten contents can be overwhelming. Handle these eggs with caution. This is where the plastic bag comes in handy. Remove and dispose of the eggs away from the nest box. You don’t want to attract raccoons and other predators with the rotten eggs. In addition to removing the infertile eggs, I always remove the soft downy feathers that line the nest box. The female woody will replace the feathers to cover her new clutch of eggs. If the woodchips at the bottom of the box are soiled, I often remove and discard the top layer. I have never found it necessary to remove all of the wood chips. Consider replacing all of the chips if they are wet or moldy. Before adding any addition wood chips I use my putty knife to scrape off any spider egg casings. The egg casings are the white fuzzy balls stuck to the inside corners of the box. Also make sure the wire that the young ducks use to climb out of the box is secured before adding the extra chips and closing up the box. Also, now is the time to make any necessary repairs to the box. Bluebird boxes tend to be a bit easier to clean out. First of all, you don’t need a ladder to reach the box and they rarely have any leftover smelly eggs to remove. However, if you left the Bluebird box closed all winter you might have to deal with mice. You’ll know if you have mice because you’ll find a large round ball of plant material for a nest and it will have a strong odor of urine. Don’t be surprised if a mouse jumps out at you either. All the same rules apply when cleaning out the Bluebird box as the Wood Duck. Wear a dust mask and gloves and stand up wind when removing the contents. I clean out all nesting material from my Bluebird boxes and the spider eggs. I also remove the nesting material from the area near the nest box. The discarded nest material can attract predators to your Bluebirds boxes. I have lost too many baby Bluebirds to domestic cats and raccoons to loose any more. If your bluebird box is urine soaked from mice, I recommend leaving the door open for a couple weeks to dry out before closing. Also, consider installing a predator guard at this time. You don’t want to install these wire guards after the birds have move in. Predator guards are always a good idea. Why not greet your favorite birds this spring with some brand new boxes or consider adding some additional boxes. Until next time…
House Finch
As a wildlife photographer I travel extensively throughout the United States. I consider it a major perk of the job. I am fortunate enough to see some of the most beautiful places at the best times of the year. For example, I am writing from Tucson Arizona right now. It’s a wonderful desert city surrounded by snow capped mountains reaching 9,000 feet elevation. Each region has it own unique mammals, wildflowers and birds. Some of the unique animals of this region are the Harris’ Antelope Squirrel and the Rock Squirrel. They would be similar to the Eastern Chipmunk and the Eastern Gray Squirrel. However there are some animals that are more familiar such as the Bobcat. Bobcats are very common in Southeastern Arizona. In fact, the other day at ten o’clock in the morning our small dog went to the back door and started to growl. Growling is something our little dog doesn’t do much so I went to investigate. I slide the screen door open and our dog ran out into the backyard. Right then a Bobcat sprang from a small bush and jumped up onto the wall surrounding the yard. It turned to look at my dog and me before fleeing into the desert beyond our yard. How exciting. I only wish I had my camera. One of the most common birds in the desert southwest is the House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus). You may be familiar with this backyard bird in the northland, however it is not a native bird of the northern or eastern states. No, it is a relatively recent addition to our backyards. House Finches are sparrow-sized birds. The males are brown and white with a orange to red wash on its head, chest and rump. It has brown streaks on its white chest and flanks. The females are brown with a heavily streaked chest and sides. The historic range of the House Finch was the western half of the country. In the early 1900’s the birds were trapped and sold as a caged birds. The males beautiful red color and sweet warbling song made them highly desirable in the pet trade. Eventually laws were passed that made trapping and selling native wild birds illegal. Many birds were released on the east coast and a small population of House Finches became established on Long Island, New York in the 1940’s. It is believed that this population of birds is the origin of all the birds in the eastern half of the country today. By the 1970’s the House Finch invasion was well underway with populations extending across the Ohio Valley. By the 1980,s the westward march of the House Finch had reached Illinois. By the early 1990’s they had reached Minnesota and the Dakotas and started to meet up with the original western population. Currently, House Finches now extend all across the US. Clearly this is an example of a bird that has benefited greatly from human meddling. House finches tend to be early nesters, with nesting activity beginning in late March and early April in most of the country. Females nest more than once a year, some re-nest even before the first broods are fledged. The species uses a wide variety of nesting sites, but seems to prefer hanging flower planters for some crazy reason. However before the advent of hanging planters they used coniferous trees. If you do get a pair of House Finches nesting in your hanging flower basket, don’t worry. Just be sure not to soak the nest when you water your flowers and they will do just fine. Females do most of the nest building and all of the incubating, although the male does bring her food. If he does not bring enough food, the female may abandon the nest. The young develop rapidly and leave the nest after about two weeks. So there you have it. A little bit of the western states right in your own back yard. Until Next time…
Florida Manatee
Maple Trees
Although it’s still cold and wintry outside, there are signs of spring everywhere. Red-winged Blackbirds and American Robins have returned to the northland. Boxelder bugs are seen sunning themselves on the south sides of trees and buildings. Black-capped Chickadees are singing their spring time song. And another sure sign of spring is the maple sap is running within the maple trees. There are over 100 species of maples in the world. About two thirds of these are found in Asia. Here in North America we have only 13 native maple species. All of our native maples share some common traits such as opposite pairs of leaves. Each leaf has anywhere from 3-9 main veins radiating from a central base. All maples produce pairs (rarely in 3’s) of winged seeds called samara, on a single stalk. These winged seeds are often called helicopters because of the way they rotate to the ground after falling from the tree. And all maple seeds are an important source of food for wildlife. One of our most common maples is the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum). It’s a medium sized tree averaging about 50-70 feet tall at maturity. It has a single large trunk with many ascending branches and a full round crown. Sugar Maples can live up to 200 years old. Like other maples, the Sugar Maple has oppositely attached leaves. Each leaf has five lobes (occasionally three) with pointed tips and a wavy leaf edge, which is called the margin. The leaves are yellowish green on top and paler below. This tree is the well-known source for maple syrup and maple sugar. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make a single gallon of maple syrup. In spring, any broken twig or branch will leak the watery sap. These natural taps attract many species of birds and mammals to drink. Also called Hard Maple, the Sugar Maple has extremely hard wood that has been used in make furniture, flooring and cabinets for hundreds of years and continues today.Another lesser-known maple is the Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum). It grows in wet to moist soils, often growing in pure stands in the floodplain of large rivers and lakes. It is one of the first trees to send out flowers each spring which are often confused with leaf buds to the casual observer. Leaf buds and their resulting leaves don’t come out until after the tree is finished flowering later in spring. The bark of the older trees is characteristic, with long strips that often peel and curl at the ends. Silver Maples produce seeds every year but it also produced extremely heavy crops every two or three years. It’s often called Silver-leaf maple, because the underside of the leaves are silvery in appearance. The Silver Maple also produces a sap that can be collected and boiled down to make maple syrup. The yield is only slightly lower than the Sugar Maple but just as tasty. The sap flows in early spring when the nighttime temperatures drop below freezing and the day time temps go above freezing. A typical tree can produce anywhere from 5-50 gallons of sap each spring. Until next time…
Adventures in Southeastern US
My photographic adventures continue in southeastern Arizona. As you might remember, last time I wrote about an encounter with a bobcat in our backyard. Believe it or not, since then I have encountered several more bobcats which is more than I usually encounter. I have also seen several coyote, a dozen or so jack rabbits (which by the way are nearly as large at the coyote), a couple javelina (an animal that looks like a pig but is not related to pigs), a heard of about 35 mule deer and at least a billion desert cottontails. One morning I saw about 150 cottontails in just one group. Each encounter has been fun and exciting especially since these are animals that I usually don’t encounter in the Midwest. Spring is in full swing, here in the Sonoran Desert. The Sonoran Desert is an arid region covering 120,000 square miles in southern Arizona and southeastern California, as well as most of Baja California and the western half of the state of Sonora, Mexico. It is a wonderful place filled with all sorts of cactus and succulent plants. I think most people would think the desert is a barren region that is devoid of any wildlife. Nothing could be further from the truth. Each day I am impressed at the variety of birds and animals that call the Sonoran Desert home. One evening I was photographing a Western Screech Owl. Now normally that would be a very exciting event but as I stood there in the twilight a Great Horned Owl flew in and landed on a Saguaro Cactus just over my head. Three Elf Owls started to call about 50 feet away from where I was standing and a Barn Owl flew over to see what all the commotion was. That is four species of owl in just a few minutes and a hundred feet. I started feeding the birds in the backyard of our rental house and within a day or so I have had about 15 species of birds show up. In fact I am getting so many birds that they empty my 3 tube feeders and one tray feeder by 9 AM each morning. If I filled the feeders again they would have them empty again by noon. I am lucky if my feeders at home are empted every 3 weeks or so. The sheer volume of birds in the desert is nothing short of astounding. Even though this region is one of the hottest in North America, the nights still can get very cold. Average night-time temperatures during winter and early spring are in the 40’s. Many mornings when I go out the temps are in the high 30’s, but it doesn’t last long. By the time the sun comes up the temps shoot up to the mid 70’s and it seems like every day is a beautiful day. Many of the birds you see in the desert are very different from what you would see in the northland. One bird in particular looks similar to one of our common backyard birds. It is called the Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus) pronounced Per-lux-e-a, and looks very similar to the Northern Cardinal. In fact they are so closely related that they are exactly the same size, shape and proportion. Both have a tall, pointed crest on top of their head and a large heavy bill for cracking open seeds. The male is over all gray with rosy-red highlights around its head, chest, tail and wings. It bill is yellow to tan, unlike the cardinal which has a bright red bill. The female Pyrrhuloxia is very similar to the female Northern Cardinal in all respects except for the color and size of the bill. The Pryyhuloxia’s bill is yellow and is shorter and not pointed. Even the song and call of these two birds are similar. I always have to stop and listen carefully to determine the differences. I find that I enjoy seeing the Pyrrhuloxia as much as I do the Northern Cardinal. Until next time…
Woodcock
Nearly 30 years ago, the legendary naturalist Kathy Heidel introduced me to a small plump bird named the timber doodle. Since that time I make a pilgrimage each spring to see one of my favorite rights of spring—the dance of the timber doodle. Better known at the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) the timber doodle is a upland shorebird that is closely related to sandpipers but the woodcock lives far from the waters edge, instead preferring open or young woodlands and moist fields. Woodcock are an oddly shaped bird with a plump round body, short round wings and a stubby tail. Its long bill project from a tiny head that seems to be lacking a neck. The bill has a soft pliable tip that moves independently of the rest of the bill. This allows the woodcock to insert its long bill deep into the soft mud and still be able to open the tip and grasp a slippery worm before extracting them from the ground. Often confused with the Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) they are similar in size, shape and long bill. They are both tan to brown in color which allows them to blend into their leafy environment. One way to tell the difference between the two species is the pattern on their head. The Woodcock has stripping that extends from side to side while the Common Snipe has stripping that goes from front to back. Woodcocks are crepuscular, which means they are most active during the twilight hours just after sunset and to a lesser extent just before sunrise. Each spring near dusk, as it has done since before recorded history, the male woodcock performs one of the most elaborate courtship flights know in the bird world. As the female stands nearby on the edge of a small clearing, the male begins his mating dance with a loud call that sounds like he is saying “peent”. Suddenly and without warning the male woodcock launches himself into the evening sky. Peenting turns to a twittering noise as he ascends. The twittering noise is created mechanically by wind rushing through his outer primary fight feathers on each wing. Reaching an altitude of nearly 300 feet the timber doodle flies in circles high above the watching female. Round and round he goes uttering a canary-like song, until again without warning he drops from the sky like a rock. Near the ground he extends his wings and flutters to the ground. Landing nearly the same spot he launched from, the male woodcock begins the nasal peenting call again. He will continue this routine until after dark and sometimes all night if the moon is full. Even though the male and female woodcock look identical, only the male flings himself against the evening sky in his vertical-mating dance. Several males might display in a small woodland opening hoping to attract as many females and possible. A lucky male might mate with several females. After mating, a female will go off to scrape out a shallow depression in the ground and lines the nest with a few twigs and grass. She will lay 4 buff brown eggs and incubates them for 20-21 days. Most nests are located within 100-200 yards of the male’s display ground. After the young hatch, she alone raises the young. Each baby woodcock eats its own weight in earthworms every day. Their diet is supplemented with insects and seeds. To witness the splendid springtime goings-on of the woodcock, head out to your favorite clearing in the woods about 20 minutes after sunset and look and listen for the call and display flight of the timber doodle. Until next time…
Squirrels
Feeling a bit squirrelly lately? Maybe a touch of spring fever? Well, so are the squirrels in your backyard. Many people are reporting that their squirrels are exhibiting strange and unusual behaviors. The squirrels have been seen chasing each other across the ground, up trees and tumbling back down to the ground again. This outrageous behavior is all contributed to one thing–mating. Each spring our friendly backyard squirrels are establishing or reinforcing mates by an elaborate system of chasing each other. There are 60 different kinds of squirrels in North America each falling into one of two groups—ground squirrels and tree squirrels. Let’s look at a few of the “tree” squirrels. One of the most common squirrels is the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus coaolinensis). It is large, 8-10″ long, with a gray coat, hence the common name, and a white belly. They are often rusty red around the head and ears. Not all Gray Squirrels are gray, some are jet black. These are known as the black morph or black phase of the gray squirrel. The term “phase” or “morph” might make you think that their black color is temporary but it’s not. They are born black and will stay black their entire life. The largest tree squirrel is the Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger). It is 10-15″ long, orangeish-red in color with a tan colored face and undersides. Their color is similar to the red fox, hence its common name. The most aggressive squirrel is the American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). This powerhouse is only 7-8″ and is often seen chasing larger squirrels and even birds. Covered in a rich red coat it has a pure white belly. The smallest squirrel is the Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus). It is only 5-6″ long. It is a one of the most abundant squirrels but since it is nocturnal (comes out at night) it’s rarely seen. The scientific name for squirrels, Sciurus combines the Greek word skia for “shadow” and oura for “tail” to indicate that they are the only animals that can sit in the shadow of their own tail. A squirrel’s tail is functional in many ways. It is used for balance when climbing or as a parachute to slow their descent in preparation for landing when leaping from tree to tree. It is also used for warmth, like a blanket, and as a communication device to signal displeasure. The more agitated the squirrel, the faster it flicks its tail back and forth. Squirrels usually live out their entire lives within 200 yards of their home. The exception to this occurs usually during the mating season (right now) when males may range widely in search of a mate. Mothers and babies stay together for up to 6 months after birth. Mothers can have two to three liters each year, consisting of three to five, babies. Until next time…
Spring Ephemerals
There are many aspects of nature that might remind a person of the changing season from winter to spring. The thick sheets of ice melting from winter chilled lakes, the return of migratory birds, the fanciful flight of the Mourning Cloak butterfly, or even the whine and sting of the years first mosquito. But for me, spring is trumpeted by spring ephemeral wildflowers. Ephemeral wildflowers are a special group of woodland flowers. Often the average nature watcher might mistakenly believe that the first wildflowers of spring don’t emerge from the frozen ground until May or June. Not so with the group of wildflowers classified as spring ephemeral. Ephemeral flowers are so named because they appear above ground in early spring—they flower and fruit and then die back into the ground all in a short two-month period. Long before the trees had a chance to unfurl their leaves. Ephemeral wildflowers such as Bloodroot, Cut-leaved Toothwort, Trout Lily and Trilliums emerge in April and are all gone by May or June. As a group they constitute one of the largest groups of wildflowers. By the time the warm winds of summer begin to blow, these flowers are long gone. Often unnoticed by the casual nature explorer. This remarkable group of wildflowers has adapted to the rhythm of the trees that they dwell underneath. A rhythm tied to the soil moisture, soil nutrients and available sunlight. Not to mention a very important relationship to ants. Essentially a spring ephemeral wildflower appears early each spring, before the leafing out of the deciduous trees in which it dwells underneath and when full sunlight streams uninhibited to the forest floor. Sunlight is one of the keys to the ephemeral wildflower. If the flowers where to wait until the weather warms up, the leaves of the trees would enclose the canopy of the forest and cut off any sunlight. In addition to the sunlight factor, this is the time of year when soil moisture is at the highest because the trees are not actively soaking up all the available moisture. Soil nutrients are also at the highest levels at this time of year. A considerable amount of decay from the previous year’s leaves took place last autumn leaving a bumper crop of nutrients in the soil. The spring ephemeral wildflowers have first crack at this abundant food supply. There are many questions brought up when considering spring ephemeral wildflowers. The first is, how does this class of wildflower unfurl their leaves without any damage from unpredictable temperature extremes. The answer lies in the moist earth that buffers the extremes of the day and night temperatures. Plants can leaf out nearer the ground sooner than they can thirty or fifty feet above the ground. Supporting this idea is the fact that the earliest flowering ephemerals are shorter than the flowers that come later in the season. In some cases, the earliest of spring wildflowers are not only close to the ground, but they have leaves that envelop the main flower stem to trap warm air, such as Bloodroot. Another successful strategy to trap warm air is to be covered with dense hairs such as the early prairie bloomer, the Pasque Flower. This flower is so heavily covered with tiny hairs it looks like it is wearing a fur coat. Many of the spring ephemeral wildflowers have seeds that contain a special oil that is especially attractive to ants thus ensuring the ants will carry off the seeds. The ants store these seeds underground and the seeds often sprout before they are consumed by the ants. This is a great way for the plants to disperse their seeds into the surrounding environment. Until next time…
Bluebirds
There are many signs of spring that I look forward to each year. I enjoy hearing the two note “spring-time” call of the Black-capped Chickadee. It’s hard to beat seeing a big old Tom turkey displaying for a hen. The emergence of the Eastern Chipmunk and Woodchuck is something I always look forward to. But it is hard to beat my favorite sign of spring—the return of the Eastern Bluebird.I am not the only one who has a soft spot in their heart for bluebirds. Throughout history the bluebird has played a large roll in stories, poems, art and even movies. In 1859, Henry David Thoreau wrote “His soft warble melts the ear, as the snow is melting in the valleys.” In 1909 Maurice Maeterlinck published his book, The Blue Bird, a fairy tale about the bluebird of happiness. The tenor, Jan Peerce made the song “Bluebird of Happiness” a nationwide hit in 1934. Shortly after that in 1939 the movie, The Wizard of Oz, staring Judy Garland sang “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly……”. Frank Sinatra sang, “I wish you bluebirds in the spring…..” in his song I Wish You Love. The nineteenth-century American naturalist John Burroughs described a bluebird as having a “disembodied voice; a rumor in the air before it takes visible shape before you,”. He goes on to say about the bird blue plumage “one of the primary hues, and the divinest of them all.” Most certainly he was enamored with this bird as I am. The first settlers to America from England were greeted with a healthy population of Bluebirds. From the mid 1700 to mid 1800’s much of the eastern half of the country was extensively logged and farms replaced the forests. Despite a changing landscape Bluebird populations remained stable and in many cases thrived. In the days before pesticides farmers put up nest boxes for bluebirds to control insect pests since the main diet of these birds are insects. In 1825, Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology noted “…few farmers neglect to provide for him, in some suitable place, a snug little summer house, ready fitted and rent free….And all that he asks is, in summer a shelter.” In 1842, the American naturalist Henry David Thoreau, wrote in his diary “Today… the bluebirds, old and young, have revisited their box, as if they would fain repeat the summer without intervention of winter, if nature would let them.” In 1884 the Peoples Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge, noted that “Few American farmers fail to provide a box for the bluebird nest.” Staring in the early 1900’s several factors lead to the decline of the Bluebird. Introduction of the House Sparrow and European Starling which also uses cavities and nest boxes for nesting started to take a toll. Also at that time wooden fence posts that often had natural cavities for nesting were replaced with metal posts that offered no nesting. Field borders and fence rows which historically were used for Bluebird nesting were cleared to increase cropland acreage. During this time the chainsaw was invented which allowed farmers an easy and efficient way to clear dead trees and branches contributed greatly to the decline of nesting habitat. A dramatic increased in free roaming domestic cats also hit the Bluebirds hard. In the 1940’s and 50’s Bluebirds were delivered a final devastating blow. DDT an agricultural pesticide which was seen as a miracle chemical because of its amazing ability to kill huge amounts of insects was used in massive quantities by farmers across the United States. The chemicals effectiveness killed the Bluebirds main source of food and in addition poisoned the bluebirds reproductive tract. It didn’t take long. By the 1960’s and 70’s Bluebird populations were at an all time low and in some areas they had become extinct. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book entitled Silent Spring was published. She said “Who has decided – who has the right to decide – for the countless regions of people who were not consulted that the supreme value is a world without insects, even though it be also a world ungraced by the curving wing of a bird in flight?” “Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song.” It is believed that this book stimulated the modern environmental movement. In response, laws were passed to ban the use of DDT. Also, thousands of volunteers began working to bring back the Bluebird by putting up nest boxes. It took over 20 years but today the bluebird population is doing well but still recovering. To conclude, John Burroughs wrote, “With the earth tinge on his breast and the sky tinge on his back, it is surely enough attainable happiness for one small bird to deliver.” And it delivers that happiness to me each spring. I hope it can do the same for you. Until next time…
May and Morel Mushrooms
If you are at all like me, you can’t wait for the month of May. By far, it’s a month that has so much to offer a nature nut like myself. It’s a time of birth and bloom. Woodlands are filled with spring flowers such as hepatica, bloodroot, trout lily, spring beauty and one of my personal favorites–trilliums. While many of the migrating birds have already returned to the northland by the beginning of May, there are many more to come. Migrating shorebirds and warblers migrate during the month of May. And no backyard bird watcher can deny the splendor and excitement when the baltimore orioles and ruby-throated hummingbirds return to our gardens during this wonderful month of May. However, the month of May can have its dark side. A deep lurking illness that remains hidden throughout the rest of the year. A disease that can cause the most normal person to act out in strange and bizarre behaviors. There is no cure for this malady of May. What is this plague upon our woodlands—MOREL MADNESS!! That’s right, run for cover, lock the doors and bar the windows, its morel mushroom time again. If you feel a fever and an over-whelming desire to crash through the woods in search of this elusive fungus, then you can be certain that the morel madness bug has bitten you. The only cure for morel madness is a couple days searching your local woodland for this spongy devil. Depending upon which expert you talk to, there are up to 10 species of morels (Morchella sp.) and fortunately all are edible. However there are several species of mushroom that appear similar to the morel which are not edible. So, for safety sake, lets go over some general rules to keep you safe if you succumb to the morel mushroom sickness. Morels grow in a short window of time, usually for a couple weeks during the month of May. Many mushroom hunters use the blooming of wildflowers to signal when the conditions are right for the morels. It is said that when the Trilliums are blooming or when the Lilac bushes are blooming is when the morels are up and ready to be plucked. That means right now. Morels have hollow stems and caps. One of the safety checks is to cut your morel mushrooms in half, lengthwise to inspect the interior. A morel will be completely hollow like a straw inside. If there is any cottony material within it’s not a morel. The cap of the morel is connected directly to the stem. This means the cap shouldn’t hang over the cap like a typical mushroom. Morels always grow on the ground. It’s a fungus that breaks down dead plant material, called saprophytic. If you think you found a morel and it’s growing on a log or stump, it’s not a morel. The cap or top of the morel is sponge-like (some would say brain-like) and is covered with pits and ridges. Also, morels don’t have any gills like the typical button mushroom. I have some advice for anyone who hasn’t been out morel hunting. Don’t do it!! It will quickly take over your life. Once you start hunting for these elusive fungi there is no turning back. Before you know it you’re life will be in shambles. First you will start to neglect your family, than you will start to call in sick to work just to hunt for the morels. And before you know it your life is ruined. There is no cure for morel fever, so do yourself a favor. Stay home and paint your house. You’ll thank me in the end. For me, its too late, I will probably be unemployed by the end of the month. Until next time…I hope.