Golden Gate Park (09/27/2021)

today i saw this morning that it might RAIN in the late afternoon. and, it was wet out from the night before! so, i wasn’t sure i’d get out today. but by early afternoon, the chance appeared to have gone. free from rain to go Naturing! since it was wet from the night before, i thought MAYBE a mushroom or two would be out? headed out toward the Oak Woodlands Trail, but i was stopped on the ballfield by mushrooms. and not the typical Mower’s Mushrooms i’ve seen before there. but, big ones! California Agaricus? and, there were like 7 of them?? it was a delightful first find to start my day. was about to leave the ballfield when i noticed a SLIME MOLD on a tree log!!! i think it’s Dog Vomit Slime Mold! first time i’ve seen definitive slime mold in GGPark!! thought it’d never happen after all this time. it was a frickin’ DELIGHTFUL DAY at that point. decided to stroll through the CAS Botanical Garden for no real reason. stopped to note that California Sweetshrub blooms in the Fall (as well as the Spring), and i noticed a small orange leaf looking thing on the ground. but, wait. upon slightly closer inspection, it looked like an orange banana slug! got closer, and it totally was!! it hadn’t moved at all since i first noticed it, so i crouched over it and waited. no movement. i touched it gently with a small twig, and it moved! it crouched its tentacles inside and waited. it was at the edge of the trail path, so i ohsogently moved it out of the way. it turned into a ball and waited. i wanted to see if it’d come out, but it just sat in its ball shape and started swaying side to side! caught it on video and posted it to comments, in case you’d like to see it in action. it just didn’t stop, so i carefully walked away, apologizing profusely. and also watching my step along the trail out. where i IDed it as a Chocolate Arion! i’ve never seen such a thing in GGPark before. but, i’m rarely out so close after rain/dense fog, i guess? so, THAT WAS AWESOME. realized i didn’t have time for the Oak Woodlands Trail, so i stopped to say “Hi!” to Junior, and i proceeded to continue my mushroom journey. my gawd, they were EVERYWHERE. stopped to listen to a guy playing a digerido (sp?) in the tunnel connecting the Conservatory of Flowers with the Lily Pond. then, onward to the Secret Mushroom Spot, where a Mica Cap explosion had burst open in a couple places! i thought it took 2-3 days after rainfall of any kind for them to blossom, but, APPARENTLY NOT. by that point, it was such heavy fog out that it was essentially raining on me. so, i headed back after getting to watch a Nuttall’s Woodpecker and perhaps the same group of Western Tanagers i saw before hanging out in the Tree Fern Dell. and listening to the fog raindrops falling hard onto the Chilean Rhubarb at the Lily Pond. what a fun sound. and watching a Shamrock Orbweaver quickly taking its web down as the fograin got more intense. walked past the owl nursery on my way back, and Junior was gone. maybe got a better spot out of the wet? lastly, i stopped by to see if my slug friend had moved on or what. on my way to where i left him, i spotted a Chocolate Arion on the path that was twice as long! confirmed my first slug friend was in the same spot and in the same shape. probably still pissed at me. but, wow. all in all, an epic day!