What in the Woods Is That?

Play our biweekly guessing game!

Whatever draws us into the forest—be it birdwatching or logging, hiking or hunting—all of us are unified by the sense of wonder we feel in the outdoors. The forests, fields, and streams of our region are full of mystery, and if you stop and look closely, you’ll see all sorts of oddities.

Below find a picture of one such woodlands curio. Guess what it is and you’ll be eligible to win a Northern Woodlands woodpecker magnet designed by artist Liz Wahid. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner’s name, will appear when the next column is posted and in our newsletter (sign up here!).

A Puzzling Scene

Ben Haubrich stumbled on this scene while walking in the woods in mid-May; at first he thought it was an oil spill, but a closer look showed it was something else.

Answer

A large swath of springtails, better known as snowfleas. “While we tend to think of snowfleas as black and appearing on the snowpack, there are actually many species of different sizes, shapes, colors, periods of activity, and habitats,” explains Charles W. Johnson in his 2000 book, The Nature of Vermont.

This week’s contest winner was Dave Rogers