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!).

Just Roll With It

These snowballs weren’t made by the neighborhood kids. So who, or what, made them?

Answer

The wind.

If conditions are right, snow rollers can form when the wind blows large chunks of snow across the ground, causing the chunks to pick up more snow as they roll along. The center is often hollow as the inner layers are the weakest and thinnest, making them easy for the wind to blow out. Snow rollers are also known as snow donuts. Yum.

This week’s winner is Shirley Nelson, who writes, “We have 175 acres of fields that were covered with these on January 20. The ones we had were from baseball size to bigger than basketballs.”

This week’s contest winner was Shirley Nelson