It is nearly impossible to forecast a morel gathering season; there could be frustrations in trying.

A word describing the “season” is best put in place after the sum of those who pick and eat, gather and preserve, hoard and sell, and give to those who live to find enough for a meal have opined.

A woman contacted me wanting to be shown (guided) how to find these mysterious mushrooms.  She wanted, once in her life, to pick one herself and maybe have enough for a meal, too. Sure, why not?

First, I asked her to read David Holt’s “The Mystery of Mushroom Valley” (2025), A Tale about the Magic of Nature and the Power of Kindness.  Even though it is written for children it is a worthy read for any wannabe adult morel hunter.

There are measuring points along the season, but sometime those, too are misleading.  Many searchers go early, too early, and may not have a positive experience. Those who wait find that heavy rains, slugs, hot days and pickers stomped while looking and destroyed a good thing.

“People have not said the word morel yet, so it is still a bit early,” said Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage. “Mother’s Day is better.”

Those who have been searching for decades have tales and special finds, not necessarily motherlodes, but excitements more so than numbers.  Here are a few I have heard or experienced. They tend to make a poor season memorable.

In serving up cooked whole morels the guests found ants had filled the hollow stalk with grains of sand.

Another find was finding morel hyphae had explored the inside of a small white birch log and formed mushrooms out the open end of the birch.

Then there was a hickory nut gnawed open in places where the hyphae grew in and then out of the nut shell to the point that the mushroom resembled being strangled.

Double morels, perfect morels, or other unusual shapes and locations such as in a cave entrance became tales, sometimes embellished.

Years ago, a graduate student returned to a laboratory with a foot-tall mushroom he found growing from a manure pile on the University of Wisconsin “Ag Campus.”

Special finds included 1,000s of mushrooms near a giant American elm tree struck and killed by lightning.  A different motherlode was discovered growing early near a white elm stump near a campus heat duct very early in the season.

A group of graduate students trekked to Minnesota across the Mississippi River from Stoddard, Wisconsin, picked beautiful, stately specimens only to pickle and infiltrate each with paraffin making everlasting display specimens for botany students to admire.

When times were good, five adult men filled a wheel barrel after an afternoon afield.  On occasion gatherers have been known to take off clothing items to provide enough carrying containers to fill t-shirts, shirts, and even the legs of pants.  Emergency roadside containers include Styrofoam coolers, beer boxes and large coffee containers providing a way to take every last morel fruiting body home.

Ear-rings, t-shirts, walking sticks, carrying bags and coffee table items have been fashioned using morels as models.

Knives and tiny brushes, not really needed, point to how far morels have taken the art and science of moreling.

Turkey hunters are likely, if they look down and up while walking, to stubble over a cluster of morels where they are about to plop their seat cushion to wait for a tom turkey.

The turkey season continues into mid and later hunting periods.

Early period registrations, 24,189 by April 29, suggests hunting is right on schedule to match the 2024 turkey registrations.

Some turkey authorizations remain for zones 1 and 3, during periods E and F.  Lone hens are feeding afield while taking a break from incubating a dozen or more eggs.

Trout season is now open to catch and keep but check the trout fishing regulations for specifics.

Farm fields are beginning to be planted with oats, alfalfa, corn and soybeans.  Wildlife is there to follow behind the preparation equipment and planters, too, but more likely will return in the weeks ahead and feast on fresh greens, developing fruits, and insects the eat the plants, too.

Flowers continue to bloom with Dutchman’s Breeches being one classic with its white flowers remaining open throughout the day, and beyond.  This plant may cause severe problems for cows consuming too many plants.

Ducks are nesting. Woodcocks have hatched, leaving a handful of beautiful egg shells.  Bald eaglets may be seen alone in a nest while both adults or out hunting.

Wild and garden asparagus and wild leeks are in season.

Kelly Maguire, at the WDNR Game Farm in Poynette, Wisconsin said the first of 14 hatchings came off without a hitch.  “The hatch was over 80 percent, which is good for early hatches,” she said.  “We’re planning 75,000 birds for release; 16,000 for the day old chick program to 16 clubs; and 1,000 birds for the Learn-to-Hunt fall pheasant program.”

Try to keep up with happenings outdoors. Activities include inland fishing opener, regular trout opener, other wild edibles of mushrooms, bird nestings, prairie and forest early flowering, fawning later in May and garden planting.

— Jerry Davis is a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.