Watching the snow in Michigan

Posted on by farlane
Holstein Cattle in Michigan by Lee Rentz

Holstein Cattle in Michigan by Lee Rentz

mLive’s Mark Torregrossa shares that there is a winter weather advisory for 4-6″ of snow covering most of the southern two-thirds of the Lower Peninsula. He notes that the far southeast corner, including Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Monroe are expected to get some freezing rain as well that will reduce snowfall to 2-4″ in that area. He also shared a little bit about how a storm watch evolves over time:

A winter storm watch is usually issued when a storm system is one to two days from starting. This long lead time is used to help you get ready if you have to make travel or work changes. Eventually as the storm gets closer, the winter storm watch either turns to a winter storm warning or a winter weather advisory.

The map above shows how the large winter storm watch area earlier today has been fine-tuned to mostly winter weather advisories. A winter storm watch still exists for the Thumb and northeast shoreline until the next round of data shows which way to go on the watch. There should be some lake enhancement of the snow totals in the Thumb and northeast shoreline, possibly putting those areas over the six inch winter storm warning criteria.

Latest revision (3:26 p.m. Tuesday) of the winter storm watch to mostly winter weather advisories in purple. There still is a waiting game with the winter storm watch in blue for the Thumb, Oakland county, Macomb County and the northeast shoreline. image by NOAA
Total snow forecast from the North American Model (NAM) through Thursday afternoon.NOAA

Lee shared this photo of Holstein cattle on an Amish farm riding out a winter snowstorm in Mecosta County to the Absolute Michigan group on Flickr last January. When I did a quick Google search because I had forgotten if Lee was a he or a she, I realized that he had a lot more photos in excellent essay entitled FALLING SNOW: A Landscape Transformed on his blog:

When I see snow falling, dissolving the landscape into a place entirely different, I am enthralled by the veiled look of the land. Every surface is softened and sounds are muffled and most people have retreated indoors. The familiar is transformed.

The pictures in this photographic essay were taken near my Michigan home, where I love to venture into the heaviest snow squalls, finding barns and forests transformed by the falling snow. I am fortunate to live near an Amish community, where their barns and buggies and homes are often featured in my winter photography. Enjoy the photographs, and find a new appreciation for winter.

Head over to the Lee Rentz Photography Journal for lots more!

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Woody the Woodchuck waves goodbye to winter

Posted on by farlane
Woody the Woodchuck by Howell Nature Center

Woody the Woodchuck by Howell Nature Center

The Howell Nature Center shares: Groundhog Day 2025 is a wrap! Woody has predicted EARLY SPRING! 🌷🪻☀️ Thank you to everyone who came out to help us celebrate with Michigan’s official woodchuck. This was Woody’s 27th prediction, and her accuracy rate is about 65%!

So keep your Punxsutawney Phil forecast of 6 more weeks of winter, I’m going with Michigan’s official groundhog! Last year the Howell Nature Center shared why the event is so meaningful to them, education:

Groundhogs are often villified because of their digging habits, and it is easy to forget about their neat adaptations and their role in the ecosystem. We love sharing information about them to increase understanding, and this event gives Woody the opportunity to serve as an ambassador for her species to help people live in harmony with woodchucks.

DID YOU KNOW…

🐾 Woodchucks dig burrows that can be 50 ft long and include several different chambers for different purposes like raising young, hibernating, and toileting? Other species will even move into abandoned chambers!

🐾 With all that digging, woodchucks help aerate soil and recycle nutrients to increase soil health.

🐾 Woodchucks help disperse seeds, which promotes plant growth and diversity.

🐾 Woodchucks sometimes eat insects, which helps eliminate garden pests like grubs.

🐾 Woodchucks are an important part of the ecosytem and provide food for predators.

🐾 Woodchucks, also known as “whistle pigs”. are one of our only true hibernators in MI.

🐾 Their body temperatures can drop to 40 F and their heart rates to 4 beats per minute during hibernation.

Our wildlife helpline is available to help solve conflict with groundhogs that are living in undesirable places. We have lots of tips and tricks to humanely evict them and encourage them to move to a different location. Trapping and relocating is never a good idea, since it often results in death of groundhogs that are not able to find resources in a new location or of babies that have been orphaned by the removal of their mother.

I hope that you are able to make a donation on their website. Here are some of the injured and orphaned chucks they have cared for in their rehabilitation clinic.

Return to Bobcat Corners

Posted on by farlane

Bobcat by paulv21

Three winters ago, Paul shared the bobcat pic that is the first of the collection of his trail cam photos below. In the intervening years he has created some amazing documentation of wildlife activity on his land near Clare. Follow him on Flickr for the latest & check out his yearly Trail Cam albums!!

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Michigan Squirrels go nuts for National Squirrel Appreciation Day!

Posted on by farlane
Squirrels on a Snowy Winter's Day at the University of Michigan by Corey Seeman

Squirrels on a Snowy Winter’s Day at the University of Michigan by Corey Seeman

January 21st is National Squirrel Appreciation Day, and I just learned that Michigan has NINE different squirrel species! Fox, gray, red and flying squirrels nest and spend most of their time in trees while chipmunks, woodchucks and ground squirrels have dens underground and rarely spend time in trees. Here’s the list – both of Corey’s pics from Ann Arbor show Eastern fox squirrels.

Corey is definitely the official Squirreltographer of Michigan in Pictures. See more in his Project 365 2015 album and see his latest on Flickr!

Best Squirrel House at the University of Michigan by Corey Seeman

Best Squirrel House at the University of Michigan by Corey Seeman

PS: I really hope that everyone, human and squirrel alike is finding a warm place today!!

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

snow squalls & snow daze!

Posted on by farlane
Snow squalls at the Straits by Paula Liimatta

Snow squalls at the Straits by Paula Liimatta

mLive’s Tanda Gmiter shares that the cold front rolling into Michigan is packing a powerful punch:

Snow squalls are in the forecast across Michigan as a cold front rushes in, beginning today and lasting into Thursday. Drivers should be aware, as these can be a serious hazard if you’re out on the road when a squall whips up. Snow squalls cause white-out conditions and can leave roads icy. They are forecast to develop in West Michigan this afternoon, then over a several-hour period tonight in Southeast Michigan as a strong cold front arrives, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists in the Grand Rapids and Detroit offices said. The front is expected to spark some rapidly-changing weather conditions.

Paula got this shot of snow squalls buffeting the Mighty Mackinac Bridge back in January of 2018. See more in her Winter 2017 gallery including this reminder than for all its problems, snow can be SUPER FUN!!!

Snow Daze by paula liimatta

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Mr Coyote

Posted on by farlane

Mr Coyote by Mark Smith

Coyotes are found in every county in Michigan, something I learned on a Christmas Day 2019 bike ride in Detroit when a coyote & I surprised each other on the eastside! The Michigan DNR shares a little bit about living with coyotes in Michigan, including the fact that it is critical for their well being as well as the safety of our pets & farm animals that they retain their natural fear of people. To do this:

Eliminate outside food sources like garbage or pet food

Clear out brush piles that provide hiding places for small mammals and birds

And for sure keep small pets indoors or accompany them outside!

If you do see an unwanted coyote in your area, you can try to scare it off by yelling, clapping or making other loud noises.

Most coyotes are afraid of people and will leave if you frighten them, but if they don’t leave, remember that they are wild animals and also be aware that there are coyote/wolf crossbreeds in Michigan known as “coywolf” and they are a whole different beast!

Mark shared this photo back in 2016, saying that Mr. Coyote paid a visit to their house looking for Mr. Pussycat, who was smartly hiding under the coffee table! Follow @downstreamer7 on Instagram for Mark’s latest!

PS: Here’s a shot of a coyote pup I took years ago.

Coyote Pup by Andrew McFarlane

Coyote Pup by Andrew McFarlane

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Look out, it’s Deer Season in Michigan!

Posted on by farlane
Wheat Bucks by Andrew I

Wheat Bucks by Andrew I

Michigan Firearm Deer Season started today and runs through November 30th. It’s definitely a time for bright orange outdoors & to know whether or not the place you’re walking is open to hunting.

Back in 2008, Andrew caught this relatable picture of two young bucks in summer velvet watching a doe & this one of a velvetless buck in fall. See more in Andrew’s Whitetailed Deer gallery on Flickr.

The “velvet” on antlers is a fine layer of hairs that help the buck sense branches & other things that might bruise the antler while it is growing. Here’s another pic from Andrew of a velvetless stag in the fall!

No Velvet by Andrew I

No Velvet by Andrew I

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Riding towards Halloween

Posted on by farlane
Halloween Sunset by Nicole Wamsley

Halloween Sunset by Nicole Wamsley

Nicole took this way back in 2010 before a haunted hayride but it remains a top 10 all time Halloween vibe photo for me! See more horses & other animals in her Fauna gallery on Flickr.

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Return of the Michigan Dogman

Posted on by farlane
Dogman at the Shop n Save by Brauer Productions

Dogman at the Shop n Save by Brauer Productions

The Dogman of Michigan is a spooky Michigan tale that’s near & dear to my heart…

Several years ago, Michigan Public Radio talked with Rachel Clark of the Michigan History Center about the legend of Michigan Dogman . She shared that the tale dates all the way back to the 1880s when two Wexford County lumberjacks saw a creature they described as having a man’s body and a dog’s head:

“So, the early reports are usually of men working in the woods who encounter this beast during their time there. And then over the years, it’s a lot of times people who are again alone, either on an isolated road or the woods,” Clark said. “Their encounters are very similar though. They do talk about this beast coming out of the woods, it is very agile, it jumps in front of their car or in front of them. It scratches at their houses or their tents.”

Most of the original reports came from logging camps. In the 1870s, Michigan was the leading white pine lumber producer in the nation. These encounters have been said to scare people to death. Someone recently called OnStar reporting that Dogman ran in front of his car—causing it to flip over.

My two connections with the Dogman are through filmmaker & friend Rich Brauer (see below) and the time my son and I were driving through the pine barrens near Fife Lake in Northern Michigan when we saw a weirdly tall black creature like a wolf or huge dog cross the road ahead of us on all fours. The legs appeared to be about 50% longer than a wolf or dog – very freakish. There are a bunch of ORV trails there and we briefly considered driving in to follow it before realizing we very much did not want to do that.

My friend Rich Brauer premiered his first Dogman film back in 2012 and followed up with Dogman 2: Wrath of the Litter in 2014. TOMORROW (Saturday, Oct 26) he premiers Dogman 3: Fight to the Finish at Frankfort’s Garden Theatre. Check out the work of Rich & his team at Brauer Productions and enjoy the trailer below!

Almost forgot this post about the Dogman I did back in 2015 with more spooky stuff!

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Spider SZN

Posted on by farlane
Spider & Web by David Marvin

Spider & Web by David Marvin

Click On Detroit shares the reason we’re seeing a lot of spiders and webs in Michigan right now:

…Most spiders’ breeding seasons coincide with the transition from summer to fall. If you see more spiders than usual around your home during these months, chances are they’re mature males wandering far and wide in search of a mate. In fact, less than 5 percent (yikes) of the spiders you encounter inside your home have set one of their eight feet outside, according to Rod Crawford, Curator of Arachnids at the Burke Museum at the University of Washington.

Unlike humans, spiders are considered cold-blooded creatures since they don’t have a mechanism to regulate body temperature. When it’s cold, some spider species go through a process of cold-hardening to survive the winter. Beyond the chemical transformation in their bodies, many spiders seek shelter in piles of rocks, leaves or wood. Once snuggled up, spiders enter a slowdown state called diapause. In diapause, spiders are not completely inactive. Instead, they may emerge on warmer days to hunt and feed on any insect prey that may be active during this time.

So that’s fun 😉

David shot this in July – check out his latest on Flickr!

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon