First morel mushroom: Comes with a different sort of view; plus a bonus

Paul Yambrovich’s first find of a morel mushroom. | Provided

Paul Yambrovich found his first morel mushroom last week to earn Morel of the Week.

“Not a big deal for some, but a major milestone for this mushroom hunter!” he emailed. “To top it off, saw a fox strolling across the yard in town, too!”

He can touch all the bases. That’s combining two of my favorites.

“Have been out a few times, mostly when it was really dry with no luck,” he explained. “Did find some pheasant back mushrooms as consolation prizes, though. Also came across two garter snakes entwined. Don’t know if they were mating, or just good pals, but they stayed there for the 15 minutes I was in the area:-).”

As somebody who has looked at hundreds or thousands of mushroom photos over the years, I know it is tough to do something different with the photo, but Yambrovich pulled it off.

Might have been his first morel, but he knew enough to include a time stamp for the photo. See the full-length photo below.

Full-length view of Paul Yambrovich’s first find of a morel mushroom, complete with a time stamp in an innovative photo.

MOTW, the celebration of morel mushrooms and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago outdoors. MOTW will run, as warranted, Wednesdays and/or Saturdays in the outdoor section of the paper Sun-Times. The online posting here at https://chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors goes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on the wide world of the outdoors.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).