Checking cattle, turns out it wasn’t what it looked like.

[Ky hills]

Driving around checking on cattle today, when my wife points and says oh no and she is close to being in tears thinking its a dead calf.
I walked up to it thinking the same thing until i got a little ways from it and realized it was the end of a downed tree limb and some fungus growing on another limb. From distance it looked like BWF calf laying out or dead.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Yes it does! I didn't scroll down at first, had to zoom in to dbl check.

 

[faster horses]

It could have fooled me!! Glad it wasn't anything dead!!

 

[TCRanch]

I hate when that happens! And I do it all the time. Almost all our calves are solid black, and I'll see a log in a weird angle in the draw or creek and I'm just sure it's a dead calf. What's worse, there's an old tractor tire that was strategically placed around a power support on the side of the central pasture (who knows how many years ago) and I always get a jolt when I'm scanning the pasture and think I have a dead cow. It's not like I don't know it's there!!! But again, it's black and kind of at an angle. That's my lame excuse and I'm sticking with it.

 

[kenny thomas]

Looks like supper to me.

 

[Ky hills]

Looks like supper to me.

What are they?

 

[kenny thomas]

Mushrooms. But hard to identify the exact type.
Identify for sure before you eat.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

That'll make you take another look.

Bout like that 30 point buck you know you can see across the field.

 

[Ky hills]

Mushrooms. But hard to identify the exact type.
Identify for sure before you eat.

I don't know anything about mushrooms, I'd be afraid to tackle that. Have picked wild mustard before though.

 

[BFE]

You wouldn't want to eat those. They kindly look like oyster mushrooms but the ones in the picture dry out to look like hard scales for lack of a better term. Oysters are thick with gills. Best time for them is during a good late winter warm up.

 

[kenny thomas]

You wouldn't want to eat those. They kindly look like oyster mushrooms but the ones in the picture dry out to look like hard scales for lack of a better term. Oysters are thick with gills. Best time for them is during a good late winter warm up.

You may very well be correct. That's why I said identify before eating.
The Oyster mushrooms are still out here but probably not much longer.

 

[D2Cat]

I hate when that happens! And I do it all the time. Almost all our calves are solid black, and I'll see a log in a weird angle in the draw or creek and I'm just sure it's a dead calf. What's worse, there's an old tractor tire that was strategically placed around a power support on the side of the central pasture (who knows how many years ago) and I always get a jolt when I'm scanning the pasture and think I have a dead cow. It's not like I don't know it's there!!! But again, it's black and kind of at an angle. That's my lame excuse and I'm sticking with it.

Get some cans of spray paint and paint it red, or in white "NOT A COW". Reduce our anxiety!

 

[Lucky_P]

That's a polypore/bracket fungus of some sort. May be edible, but probably woody at that stage, and not very tasty.
List here of edible types, with photos: https://www.ediblewildfood.com/edible-bracket-fungi.aspx

 

[gman4691]

What are they?

Take a picture of them on both the top and the bottom and upload them into i-naturalists...in all likelihood, someone there will be able to give you an accurate ID.