Riverwalking - the act of hiking up a river or stream in the summertime - holds a special place in the rural ethos. It's as much a part of summer as 4th of July fireworks, or August trips to the county fair. Beyond the obvious fact that there's something cool and refreshing about wading in a creek on a summer day, young people are drawn to the pursuit because it's cheap. All you need is a pair of shorts, a beat up pair of old sneakers, and a sense of adventure...

One mid-summer day while out for a walk, I heard a loud buzz and looked up to marvel at a hummingbird moving methodically along the bark of a basswood tree, lapping up sap that oozed from small holes chiseled by a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Although the sapsucker is saddled with a name that sounds like an insult, it plays a critical role in the lives of hummingbirds and many other animals...

Our Executive Director found these in his garden. Is this Animal? Or Botanical?

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. 

Yes, we know it's a woman. The plant. What's the plant she's holding?

issue. What! You don't subscribe to the magazine!? Sign up today and we'll get the summer issue out to you in the mail. You'll learn, among other things, that the plant is mistakenly used by herbalists to treat headache, arthritis, bronchitis, "female problems," and syphilis. Botanically-inept marketers are confusing A. racemosa with unrelated Asian plants of the genus Nardostachys.

Thanks to our friend Alan Pistorius, the author of said spikenard piece, for sharing this image.

 Visit our What In The Woods Is That? contest archive.