Continuing Series on Sugaring! 

Since people are reading this blog in a variety of formats, reader's comments are not always visible. If you didn't see it, Pete Antos-Ketcham from Shaker Hill Sugarworks in North Starksboro, VT, checked in yesterday with a report that their first sap of the season was 1.6% sugar. Since the sap's not running for anyone so well at the moment, and since there's not much to report on in the woods, I figured it may be worth explaining to non-sugarmakers exactly what sugar content percentages mean...

We've all seen them, picking their way thoughtfully across a cornfield or lurking quietly in an abandoned pasture. Wild turkeys seem to be everywhere now. In one field near my home in central Vermont, a flock of nearly 30 turkeys seems to congregate just about every afternoon...

This long rusty mark was found on a black cherry near our office in Corinth, Vermont. What caused it?

Every other week we run a photo of something unusual found in the woods. Guess what it is and you'll be eligible to win a copy of The Outside Story, a paperback collection of our Outside Story newspaper columns. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner's name, will appear in next week's column. 

Reader Ben Haubrich was X-C skiing recently in Francestown, New Hampshire, off trail, when he came across this odd mound in the snow. A closer look revealed . . . we'll tell you, but you have to guess what it is first.

Haubrich noticed bobcat tracks using his previously packed ski-trail. He then came upon a landing mark in the snow where a turkey had flown down and trotted along an open area next to the trail. A few hundred yards later the animals' tracks intersected, and things didn't end pleasantly for the turkey. The cache site was very near the kill site.

While Haubrich never saw the bobcat, there's a chance that if he had, he may have noticed the cat wearing a radio collar. To learn more about this ongoing New Hampshire bobcat study, read the feature story in our Spring issue. A digital copy is available here.