3:00 snapshot #1789: Thursday

Exidia recisa, also known as elm brain or brown witch's butter. I had fungi on my own brain because earlier I had done a zookeeper training class on mushrooms.


One of the students spotted this group of attractive agarics! I plucked one, bisected it to show that the gills were free (not connected to the stalk) and brought half of it back to take a spore print.


The spores were dark brown. This, along with the habitat (growing directly on the ground), the prominent ring, the free pinkish gills, the tan and white cap, and the thick stem all added up to the genus Agaricus, the same group that grocery store buttons and portobellos belong to. However a combination of other characteristics including the scaly top darkest in the middle, the fact that the flesh bruised reddish when handled, and tand geography (northeastern US) leaned it toward A. placomyces, a species known to be poisonous, at least to some people. In the future I'll know to look for a phenolic smell and bright yellow color inside the base of the stem to positively identify mushrooms to this species.

3:00 snapshot #1790: Friday

"The Greeting" is the straight road that runs most of the length of Franklin Park Zoo. It was originally conceived as a path for those wished to be seen, to cruise in their carriages. I guess that was a thing at the time (late 1800s). It makes for a distinctive feature of the zoo.


We're still an inch of rain behind this year, but this week we started to make up for it. Here are some common puffballs Lycoperdon perlatum enjoying the sudden moisture.

3:00 snapshot #1791: Saturday

Checkin' myself out midway through constructing my Hallowe'en costume.

The final look, photo by Alexis:

Pocket Mega Post

Pocket's face! (My dad and Pocket).

What follows is lots of photos, mostly of Pocket. Mostly taken with my phone, in the dark, at a party. Not great quality. Imagine if you followed me on Instagram (@urbpan) you would have had these spammed to your phone in real time!

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