Foraging Oyster mushrooms
Pleurotus ostreatus / pulmonarius
Oysters are common and plentiful growers throughout the year, reasonably easy to identify, and make great eating! They’re also easy to cultivate, meaning you can grow them at home (or just buy them, they’re accessible even in most supermarkets). Tasty just sautéed!
Fun fact! Oysters eat bugs (nematodes) using hyphae lassos on their gills.
I mainly find them on fallen beech trees, but they can grow on other hardwood trees including ones that are still (just about) alive.
Look for groups of them, with round to wavy caps depending on size, white decurrent gills, and minimal off-centre stipe. All Pleurotus are edible and can have wildly varying cap colours - grey is most commonly associated with ostreatus and yellow with pulmonarius (as well as summer growth), but accurate ID is difficult without microscopy.
The closest toxic lookalike is Angel wings / Pleurocybella porrigens, which have been associated with some deaths. These are however pure white all over, grow on conifer only, and primarily occur in Scotland within the UK.
I have also seen multiple people confuse species like Clitocybe nebularis / clouded funnel for oysters, however these are singular ground growing fungi with proper central stipes - easy to distinguish.