It looks like some of the spores are ruptured. Maybe free cytoplasm and organelles are making the spore mass sticky. Spore walls look very thin. I wonder if I damaged them with the knife when I scooped them up and mixed them into the water drop.

I also notice hydrophobic spores in Pisolithus. I wonder how common it is. I suspect that it is so when a raindrop falls on the spores they fly everywhere.

The spore mass stayed clumped together when I added a drop of water. I had to stir it up quite a bit to get the spores to disperse, and then they floated instead of dissolving. In the micro shots you can see little non-spore bits that were ejected with the spores, strange.

These kinda look mostly like Mycena, but maybe you should check spore color? Perhaps they look a little Entoloma-like also?

But if they are wood, they look like M. abramsii perhaps. But also with the long. striate stipes there is another Mycena they look more like… and the name escapes me now… Oooh, this is going to kill me, and I don’t have to book to look it up, it is in the SMG library…

I think maybe Mycena polygramma is what I am thinking of, with the grey long. striate stipes.

Just some ideas… I would say the one from last Nov. is similar, but what you show from this time past year, I don’t think so. That one is too brown, and also not sure it is really Mycena.

For the last four days, temps have been in the 30s-40s, but before that it was freezing and snowy back to the day after Christmas. It got down below 15 F a few nights during that cold spell.

The snow melted four days ago, it rained all day the next day, and we have had lots of fog since then. It’s been a perfect little thaw for winter fungi.

This mushroom from early November is very similar.

http://www.mushroomobserver.org/27737

I think it popped up around this time last year as well.

http://www.mushroomobserver.org/16302

Dan, it must be warmer down your way. On the other hand I have not been in the woods….