Autumn! time to share 'quiet hunt' tropheys.

My today's post dedicated to some beautiful mushrooms I've found: red-head Boleto.

Red-head Boleto (or Leccinus Auracantius, or Подосиновик или Красноголовик in Russian) is my favourite mushroom to find since my childhood days -- not in terms of their taste and cooking value (those are edible, ofc) but in terms of 'hunting tropheys'. I always was fascinated by its outlook.

I never have those fellas growing around my place in huge amounts, they do appear in families, just do not form a huge clusters... and they are not rare (in comparison to the really rare Red book species) but still harder to find then, for example, ubiquitous britlegill shrooms. Thats probably the reason why I used to value them so much. It is amazing feeling to walk across the green forest, to look at the green moss or brown carpet of soil and dead leaves, and suddenly to notice an alien sign of delicate pale-orange or neon-red colour (those mushrooms can vary the exact colour of their caps and stems). The hunter instinct is so much alive inside of me!

This one isnt 'perfect like a gem' -- snails have found it before me, and left their mark on its cap. Well, anyway. Amazing pale orange-brown colour contrast to the dead leaves and environment, filling my mind with so much visual pleasure after finding it. The hunters instinct is feeded well. By the way, this one appeared under a sprout, literally, just 4 steps from a doorway to my village house. Isnt it cool? We keep a lot of trees at our site (except of two apple trees, there are birches, sprouts, pines, a few oaks and a rowanberry). And thats why a lot of mushrooms pop up there willingly each year.

Two young editions of this boleto on this capture, probably just 1-2 days old. This is just the beginning of their lifecycle. I found them in the neightbourhood to our village site, at quite crowdy place, and hided over with moss and leaves, to give them chance to grow more -- and to make more shots of more matured forms.

Well, I succeded -- nobody managed to find them and I happily cropped the harvest 4 days later. This is how it looked like by the time. I decided not to wait more, otherwise worms could discover it too, and imply some multiple hostile takeovers.

Ok, now its time to round up my post, I have performed a cool evening-long Photoshop meditation, 'developing' the raw files and adjusting the color grade of those shroom bodegons.

I didnt intend to overload you with too much reading about this mushroom in my post, but hope nevertheless it will make a decent entry for the next round of #AmazingNature contest by @adalger. Here you may check the details for the contest.

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All images taken with Canon 5D 150mm. Hi-res clickable. Full hi-res digital versions (up to 4000 pix) are available for purchase.

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