Every once in a while I like to grovel a bit while hiking in the woods. You know, get down on my belly and really take a look at things, usually with a macro lens or a wide angle lens, which focuses fairly closely (a few inches).

This spring has been the spring of the black slug, Arion ater, which is actually an invasive species, native to Europe. Thing is I don’t see them throughout the woods, just in a few sections. They are common, though and they apparently taste bad. The dog gave one a sniff and thought otherwise and the birds don’t eat them either, as they go untouched when sliding across the trail in broad daylight.

The big slugs are omnivorous  apparently, which I also find to be true, as they not only seem to be eating stuff from the forest floor (though I haven’t actually seen them munching on native plants) they especially like coyote turds.

Another cool thing I found that I have never seen before was a purple mushroom. It was right along the trail and fairly large, about three-quarters the size of my outstretched hand. Some people on Fakebook guessed at what it was, and a mushroom guide is one of the few field guides that I don’t have, so anyone with an additional guess can feel free to contact me.

In other words, “Is there a mycologist in the house?”

The wet weather has also been good for wildflowers, particularly heart-leaved arnica and bunchberry dogwood, which is not to be confused with red osier dogwood, which is a bush. The bunchberry dogwood is low to the forest floor, while red osier is typically found along streams.