Hay Davedave,
The first advise I would give you is that if you cant identify the mushroom you found take a snap of that mushroom and post it on Google to find which kind or specie it is. Other than pictures you can make a video and find the related information about all those mushrooms and make a small clip including information about the mushrooms. You can also make a written document about your findings. Or you can do voice recordings of your surrounding that what you saw or what you found to have a detailed history about them. As I have never being in personal with any kind of mushroom so I have no idea about your third answer, but I surely will have my experience and will share that with you.
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