On Sat, 23 Sep 1995, Thomas Love wrote:

> OK, in this uncharacteristic tweeter-pause (does this have to do with the
> stable high-pressure system over us the last week or so? And when will
> this break?), I wanted to follow on Irene Wanner's note that some birders
> may be out collecting mushrooms.
>
> How many tweets collect mushrooms? Which species most collected? Where
> do you go?

Tom,

On 17 Sept, my family and I went to the Mt Rainier area (oh, no! "Real"
mushroomers never tell their good spots, not even on Tweeters....) for
chantrelles and Masutake. Lot of boletes around. Many that I can't
identify. I will say that we were on the south side of the mountain
(somewhere :-)) at about 800m elev.

I've never been able to bird *and* collect mushrooms, and do either well
when trying to do both, so only ended up with:

Raven
Chestnut-backed chickadees
Robin
Red-breasted Sapsuckers
Red-breasted Nuthatches
Hairy Woodpecker
Flicker
Golden-crowned Kinglets
*Beaucoup* Red Crossbills!!
Imm. sharp-shinned hawk

5 lbs of Chantrelles
15 lbs of Masutakes (does anyone know the etymology of this word?)

Anyway, Tom, I'm not as concerned in this situation about the locals who
consider the woods (and mushrooms, birds, and timber) as "theirs", as I
am about those people who pick for profit, maybe even have bought
themselves a permit on DNR land, and figure that they can run the rest of
us weekenders off the public lands. I've heard tales (and I can only
wish that's all they are) of mushroom harvesters brandishing weaponry and
chasing people who are picking for personal use off "their" plots.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov