Gary Lincoff will be this month's speaker at the Mycological Association of Washington. He's author of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms
and the recently published The Complete Mushroom Hunter
. We use several mushroom field guides regularly, but if we're going to carry just one, it's often the Audubon guide. He's a hero among mycologists, with an annual event named after him; he was even on the Martha Stewart Show. This is not a book talk -- the title of Gary's presentation is "The natural and cultural history of the polypores; OR, why we should want to know what they're good for besides decomposing wood." On the same night (what are the chances??), Richard Crossley will be speaking at the Audubon Naturalist Society. He's the author of the Crossley ID Guide
, which I reviewed last week. It's a hugely impressive (if a little overwhelming) book, and this is your chance to hear about his very different approach to creating a field guide. I'd love to ask him how long it took to take the 10,000 photographs that he used. Check out this video for a teaser. As always there are lots more events on our calendar. In particular, this Saturday is the annual Potomac Watershed Cleanup. We'll have more details on Wednesday.
As for tomorrow night, how to choose? It may come down to a coin toss...