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 Bunch of Questions

While walking through a patch of brambles in Thetford, Vermont, we noticed many of the plants had bunched up leaves that were turning pink or brown at the center. What are these bunches, and what do they reveal about nearby trees?

Answer

These are the work of blackberry psyllids, also known as bramble flea lice. The larvae of these insects shelter within their host plant’s curled leaves all summer, feeding on sap. By mid-autumn, they have transformed into tiny winged adults, which fly to conifers, where they’ll spend the winter. But they can only fly so far; you won’t find blackberry psyllid feeding sign outside of about a 1-mile range of conifers.

This week’s contest winner was Frank W. Sprague