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!).

Fish-mish

Four native fish species. Left to right, what are they?

Answer

Walleye, Burbot, Perch, Pike

The first two were the trickiest. The way the first picture was cropped it could have easily been either a smallmouth or largemouth bass, as many guessed. (We enjoyed this relevant line on the webpage basicbassfish.com: “Basically, if you want to [ID fish], you’ll want to go deeper than skin (scale) deep. This is because scales look different depending on water conditions, light, and how many beers you’ve drank.”)

Only one person – the winner – guessed that the second fish in the lineup was a burbot, aka cusk. To learn more about burbot, check out this column we ran last winter.

This week’s contest winner was David Lemon of Cortland, NY