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!).

Dead When I Found It

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.

Answer

We asked Barbara Schultz, forest health program manager with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation, for a remote diagnosis. She believes the moth is infected with an entomopathogenic fungus. “The fungus may be one of the species in the genus Cordyceps, which is one of the more common insect-killing fungi that you can see without a microscope,” she explained.

This week’s contest winner was Peter Hollinger