If you've done any traveling around New York or New England this summer, you've probably come across one of the purple emerald ash borer traps that are hanging from ash trees along roadways - there are over 7,000 of them out there. And if your mind was free to wander, you probably found yourself wondering what the trap looked like up close...  

No one has been bitten by a rattlesnake in Vermont in over 50 years. But that streak ended last year when a man in Fair Haven was struck between the thumb and index finger by a snake as he was attempting to move it off the road with a stick...

Some trees continue to flower throughout the summer - like this one. What kind of tree produced this flower?   

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 Dick Pearson submitted this picture of two tiny fleur de lis'. What are they? And where did they come from?

Believe it or not, these tiny seeds might someday become birch trees - probably gray birch, since paper birch seeds ripen in late fall. (Both species are often referred to as "white birch.")  

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