Do I see at least one bear? If that's true, I'd be terrified!

I can't see it. I'll be killed (or at least bitten) by a wild animal that I can't see, I imagine.

I think I see something. Either a bear or a gorilla. ;)

More than one of the small entities. Sorry the photo isn't very focused. Critters are not dangerous. When forum is ready, I can post a sharper photo that will pretty much end the guessing.

I live in Zone 5a New England. The white trees are paper birches and the trees in the background are mostly red maples. To the left of the birches are raspberry bushes. Paper birches have white papery back with dark lentices (like these marks ----- ----- horizontally across the bark, impossible to see in the photo. Birches also have these large knot like, black scab-like marks that look like a branch thought about popping out at those locations. I tried to find out the name for these. No luck.

If you cannot discerns the "critters" (living, mobile entities) in the photo, offer a guess. Or, when you all call it time, I'll post revealing images. There is a bit of a hint towards the mid left of the photo.

Thanks for playing!

Turkey? Hawk? Eagle?

Petalique, don't tell us until later tonight or even tomorrow!

(I see the gorilla! I thought it was a bear with a toothy grin, lol.)

Seriously, I'm thinking that I see something hanging on the trunk of one of the background trees.

Rhizo, thanks for the feedback. I have posted one of these before, but I do enjoy them. I have NEVER found the "waldo" -- I look and look. I partition the photo into sections along various axes. I zoom in; zoom out. I can never find the entity. Also, I confess, I don't know the ground rules ;) ha ha. So let me know, and I trust its okay to submit some. Prior to a serious PC disk KLUNK, I had a few of these ready. But I often cannot consistently participate -- too many disparate things going on and my brain is a sieve sometimes.

I see a human face (!) and it scares me.

Petalique, many of us LOVE these challenges, especially when we can't see the critter right away.

Janie, I see a skull, too.....lol.

I see what could be a couple moths toward the top of the center birch tree trunk.

More than a skull, I see a face with a mustache - well maybe - kind of looks like Mussolini, no I don't recall a mustache on him. Maybe somebody else, oy vey, I'm gonna have nightmares tonight!!!

This is a very good one. I took the things on the trees to be scarring, but now see the moth shapes. I don't see Mussolini though ;(

No don't tell us yet. I also like doing these and although they aren't on a regular basis, they are always a nice surprise.

I don't see Mussolini but I do see Darth Vader.

I see that gorilla lol!

Does anyone want a hint? Like on which quadrant to concentrate?

I can't find the critters but suspect foxes...

Maybe a raccoon or similar banded-fur creature (with tail hanging down) in a notch of a tree branch in second dark bark tree from the left? Can't see any others. This is a really good one!

I'd appreciate a clue (or a solution). I can't see anything.

It's fun to see how vivid are your imaginations. When I was a child, I used to see the most vivid scenes in clouds. That was a lot of fun when joined by others.

I will post in a second and give you a very broad hint. You can opt out. Later, I will offer another.

Broad Hint:

-

-

- this has been made difficult, unfortunately, by the low quality phot. Shall I try to take a better one?

- HINT: this may be impossibly hard for those of you living outside of the Northeaster USA and who are not familiar with news coverage of an irksome, fairly frequent, seasonal -- (searching for good word) phenomenon / occurrence / event / blight of sorts.

Please let' me know if you want more hints, a more telling photo, or the answer. I'm enjoying your responses.

I give up.

A ghost

I see it clearly now

Actually looks like a skeleton in some ways I look at it.

I never would have seen it without this last hint

Is anyone a bit skilled with Photoshop or similar? I'd like to see some of the crits move to Washington DC.

Penultimate hint:

--

- --

Here is a section (from an Etsy shop) of paper birch bark:

ultimate hint at 6:45 P and answer at ~ 7PM.

You mean Mussolini isn't correct, I guess :( I'm in the northeast but I'm stumped.

I see sapsucker holes, maybe.

I have sapsucker holes. I even have sapsuckers ;0) They don't look like those.

These could be used (temporarily) as eyebrow replacements -- bristly eyebrow replacements.

Can you see me now?

A few days ago, I went out to the ew asp berry area to determine how much a clump of paper birches were blocking morning sunlight from the berry bushes. As I approached the trees and look at them, I was taken aback by the many European gypsy moth caterpillars that were on each trunk, and particularly fairly camouflaged by those dark scab like areas on all mature paper birch trunks. Clever little buggers! I've never seen birds eat them, but clearly these gypsy moths have evolved to avoid predation. Remember that biology class in which adaptive evolution was discussed and an example shown on moths in pre and post industrial England? The moths adapted as the soot increased and stained the masonry factory chimneys.

The European gypsy moth is an introduced pest (scourge) of the northeast US. In years of severe outbreaks, it can greatly defoliate shade trees -- particularly oaks. The black green dropping (poop) from the many hundreds of caterpillars can be heard as it drops through the remaining leaves.

Pin damp years, a fungus can develope in the soil and bark --this fungus can destroy the gypsy moth catarpillars, causing the to become disoriented, head down the tree instead of up, and (the juicy part) to deliquesce, disolve and disintegrate into a blacked goopy mess. Many don't make it to the foot of the tree. During one of the past severe outbreaks, an area of my yard that was moist, seemed to have a lot of this (invisible to naked eye) fungus. The gypsy cats were severely impacted. Since this looks like it could be a wet year, that fungus could crop up again.

At each of those scab-like black areas of each of the three birch trunks, you can find lots of GM caterpillars. Some are solo on the clear while paper bark. One the leftmost tree, upper section of photo, you can make out a greenish smudge where I squished some of the caterpillars with a stone. Green guts because they've fed on green leaves.

Soon the will pupate. Below is a link for more information about the European Gypsy Moth.

Thanks for participating!

https://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/gypsymoth/gypsy.htm

It was fun and stumped me for sure. Thank you!

Okay, so now tell me who is that man hiding in the photo inbetween the 2 right side birches. Thanks, Petalique! I was definitely stumped :)

Thank goodness for that fungus! Wonder if it is a fungus or bacterium?

That was a slightly bizarre and overly long experience.

What happened to Mussolini and the gorilla?

I still see a face and will dream about it.

So what I saw was actually "it", I just misinterpreted what "it" was. Oh well.

Rusty

PS. I never could see the bear, the gorilla, or Mussolini, either. Guess my imagination is worn out.

Rhizo, it's definitely a fungus. Want some?

The gypsy moth can destroy forests, farms, wineries and orchards. In BC we take any indication of a gypsy moth infestation very very seriously. The management philosophy for BC and the western states is eradication and so far no colonies have been permanently established. It would be catastrophic for our economy to have that happen.

I remember in the 60s that NY had a gypsy moth problem. There had also been a bad food poisoning and resulting recall of Bon Vivant vichyssoise soup. Comedian David Birney quipped that the residents of Westchester were coping by spraying their trees with Bon Vivant vichyssoise soup.

I was reading more about some methods used to help diminish gypsy moths. In addition to the fungus (species specific), there is a virus (non-species specific) that will destroy the caterpillars -- turnings them into "zombie caterpillars" and causing the infected caterpillars to "melt" (deliquesce). Fascinating (to me). The fungus was experimentally released in the late 1980s or early 1990s in CT, but it appears to also have been introduced decades earlier. That is what afflicted many of my gm caterpillars years ago. I wish I'd bagged up some of the material back then for posterity.

The virus has been imported from Asia (Japan?) and although marketed, is only available to selected researchers and scientists.

Here are links to interesting articles. Note the there is a hyperlink button on the abstract's page for a 3-page PDF file.

http://www.pnas.org/content/87/7/2461.short

And for the virus:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/110908-zombie-virus-caterpillars-science-weird-animals/

And also this (with photos of "zombie caterpillars"):

https://www.livescience.com/15962-zombie-caterpillar-virus.html