Magic (?) Mushies

This morning when I woke up did I honestly think I would be blipping a mushroom? No. I was surprisingly organised this morning so instead of rushing off to work on my bike I decided to walk. It's about 1 km to the bear centre with thick forest on either side of the road. Now that the weather is cooling down we are starting to get winter migrants coming through Tam Dao. Not that I've had much of a chance to really go looking for them! The walk started off promising, so much chirping and carry on. There were literally birds all around me. But could I see them? No. The sad reality of living in a Vietnamese National Park and particularly one thats been so heavily degraded, such as Tam Dao means that all the animals, including the birds are so flighty and people shy that getting a decent photo is truly a mission. Poaching is rife. All the big birds, such as hornbills disappeared many years ago and even the small ones are in danger of being caught and put into small cages and hung up outside a house or shop (the streets of Ha Noi are sadly filled with these caged birds).

Ok, so no luck with birds... focus on all the beautiful butterflies fluttering around... arrghh no luck, none of them will land for more than a split second! I wonder if they too are concerned about being caught and ending up on a framed pinboard? Hmmm.. insects? Unfortunately not enough time to stalk and find said insects.. oh look... I'm at work... well it was still a lovely walk... but I am now still needing to find a blip. An hour or so later I hear A. on the radio. A: Hello translators? Can you ask hort team if the mushrooms growing outside the education room are poisonous or not. T: Hort team says they are poisonous and will remove them now. I frantically look over to where they are. Me: Hello Translators!? Can you ask the hort team not to pull the mushrooms out til I've come and taken a photo of them? Silence on the radio... I dash out with my camera and start snapping away on the ground whilst the hort team looks on rather bemusedly I think! But, I do have a blip and this mushroom was huge!

NB: I have not yet mentioned this but I have actually been taking a photo a day since January 1st. I have been uploading these to my facebook album
366 days of Grateful, humble and Inspire. But then I was introduced to Blipfoto by Raej around June and once i started I couldn't really stop, so now I am talking two photos a day! One for my 366 facebook project and one for blip! Talk about challenging myself!

Pretty magic in LARGE :)