What in the Woods is That?

Many mammals, including opossums, red foxes, woodchucks, raccoons, skunks, and cottontail rabbits, use holes for den sites, sometimes simultaneously. This particular hole is only being used by…

We’re going to purposely ignore the fact that there’s fresh snow on the ground at the moment and offer up a more hopeful look at the forest floor. What kind of flower is this?

As our resident tracking expert Sue Morse is fond of pointing out, feet make tracks! What kind of paw are we looking at here?

Our friend Bryan Pfeiffer submitted this intriguing picture. OK, botanists, what is it?

This tool was found recently leaning up against a tree in a forest. What’s it used for?

Each of these cones was collected in the woods around our office in Corinth, Vermont. Name all five species.

By now you’ve all had a chance to read Bernd Heinrich’s wonderful story in our winter issue on identifying bird’s nests. You have read the story, right? Put your newfound skills to work…

This picture, circa the mid-1980s, shows biologist Will Staats surrounded by scarred saplings. What, specifically, caused this damage?

Sort of other worldy, huh? What in the woods is it?

Chris Demers of Willington, Connecticut, took this photo a few weeks back after a fresh snowfall. What made these strange marks?

Reader Karen Jackson was loading her woodstove when this piece of bark fell off a log. The underside was covered in lacy designs. What caused these patterns?

A trapper in southern Vermont submitted this photo showing the tanned pelts of three Northeastern mammals. From left to right, what are they?

This archeological ruin was photographed in a yellow-birch/hard maple stand near the top of a mountain in southern Vermont. It’s not a cellar hole. For a hint, consult the winter 2009 issue…

This native tree is common throughout the Northeast. What is it?

No hints on this one. What in the woods is it?

A few years back, a group of amateur history buffs spent the better part of two days dragging an enormous hunk of metal off a densely wooded mountain in southern Vermont. The area is referred…

Driftwood? Nope. What in the woods could this be?

What caused the scar on this sugar maple tree?

Susan Elliott, a member of the Rutland County Audubon Society took this photo while bird monitoring in the Pomainville Wildlife Management Area in Pittsford, VT. What in the woods is it?

Last winter, Jason Selden and family were coming down a hillside in Chelsea, Vermont when a member of the group spotted something odd in an apple tree. Selden snapped this picture of the…