What in the Woods is That?

Who hasn’t come back from a walk outdoors looking like this? But do you know the name of the plant these burrs came from?

Penelope Harris forwarded these photos of a friend’s cherry tree in Bakersfield, Vermont. She was curious: what had caused the gelatinous material seen on the tree?

We heard from someone who just brought home a balsam fir Christmas tree and noticed a few places where the needles had curled and twisted. The same distortion is seen in this photo from UMass…

What bird made this distinctive nest?

A flashback to when we had leaves. What is climbing this tree?

Rich Root sent us this shot of a mystery insect he spotted on a spruce in a woodlot in Weston, Vermont, in late October. “It was dead when I found it,” he said.

Who’s munching on this milkweed?

A post for posterity. This piece of old wood was found sticking up out of a young forest in Chepachet, Rhode Island. What kind of wood is it?

What happened to this leaf?

Spotted in southern Vermont; what is this?

Spotted by Meghan Oliver in Thetford, Vermont. This trail of evidence points to whom?

A gallery of berries: These were all found within 10 feet of each other on a ridge sticking out of wetlands in Strafford, Vermont. Top to bottom, what are they?

Colorful, yes, but what is it?

When we see wood with funky colors and grain patterns we tend to assume it came from the tropics. But these three boards were milled from species growing in Vermont. Left to right, tell us the…

What is this (or rather, what will it be)?

Meghan Oliver spotted these winged creatures going in and out of four ground nests clustered near each other. What are they?

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.

Thanks to Kyle Jones for sending in this photo. What is he holding?

An animal was eating the bark near the crown of this sumac tree. What kind of animal was it?

We’ll try to make this the last WITWIT photo of the season with snow in it. At least the white background makes things clearer! Can you identify the sources of this scat (from left to right)?