Often mistaken for their more familiar cousins, the Cedar Waxwings, Bohemian Waxwings differences are quite noticeable. Slightly larger, with muted gray bodies and warm cinnamon accents beneath their wings, tail and on their lores. Their soft, almost melted waxy looking plummage complements winter’s softer light.
…They arrived the way waxwings always do—suddenly and together. A flock descended on a cluster of trees heavy with berries, moving with a quiet, choreographed urgency. Waxwings are communal feeders, virtually overtaking a tree before moving on. They arrive, thrive, and leave—often as quickly as they appeared.
That fleeting time of when then move south combined with their behavior is what makes these encounters feel so rare. Seeing Bohemian Waxwings each winter is never a guarantee. Some years they pass unseen. Other years, luck and timing intersect, and I find myself standing in the cold, bundled and unmoving, watching bird life unfold just feet away.
Are you looking for a summer job in the outdoors or do you know someone who is? The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is looking for new members for their 1,300 person team of summer park workers and spend the season in Michigan state parks, boating facilities, and other amazing outdoor spaces. You’ll welcome visitors, help campers, and keep our parks looking their best. With flexible scheduling, these positions are perfect for college students, teachers, retirees or anyone interested in working at Michigan state parks. Apply online today!
While you may not be able to hold three bear cubs like DNR worker in these photos, you might be able to! You’ll also be making the state better for everything that Michigan in Pictures is about, so if you do get a summer internship with the DNR and want to share a photo here every so often with a link to support you, just send me an email and we’ll work it out!
Ross took these shots of baby black bears being held during a bear den visit way back in April of 2014. See more in his awesome Wildlife gallery on Flickr and view & purchase his work at rossellet.com.
Nine years ago I featured Rephotographing Michigan, Paul Evans’s photographic exploration of the environmental and economic changes Michigan has experienced. I’m happy to report that Paul is still going strong and to share a few of his excellent yesterday & today photos.
Check out yesterday & today scenes from Bay City, Petoskey, Calumet, Lansing & Mackinac Island below and follow Rephotographing Michigan on Facebook for lots more!
Not gonna lie, I’m not feeling good about the “plan” for Venezuela. Also, while I actually have a degree in the geopolitics of the Caribbean basin, I don’t plan to argue the logic of starting a conflict with a Chinese ally because of “drugs” but then switching to “oil & regime change” before the fires are even out. Is Maduro a good guy? Unquestionably not. Is invading a nation of 30 million people for vague & shifting reasons a good idea? Also no.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Michigan in Pictures, and thankfully I realized that trying highlight the best of what is now 4,638 posts was a little crazy even for a dyed in wool webhead like me! Thank you all for being a part of this!! You can check out part one featuring 2005 through 2015. Now let’s get busy with the top pics for every year from 2016 through 2025!
Torch Lake is Michigan’s second largest inland lake & at 19 miles, our longest lake. In addition to being the top pic of 2017, Drew’s photo was featured in an excellent mLive profile of jaw dropping Michigan locations.
Pantheos put together an incredible list of 87 Michigan’s ‘skyscraper’ Coastal Dunes that he could verify at 100′ or more in height. He climbed a lot of them including the tallest: 526-foot Empire Bluff Dune in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
2020 was a tumultuous year in many ways, but one (actual) bright spot we could all enjoy was Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) that Shawn captured so well in this July photo.
Craig’s photo along with his information about how to see the CPKC Holiday Train when it passed through southeast Michigan was this year’s most popular photo. Even better, I know for a fact that his information along with updates shared by Montez Miller helped a ton of people see the train in 2025!
Twenty years ago this morning on December 30, 2005, I started Michigan in Pictures to share some of the great photos I was seeing on Flickr along with some of the Michigan stories & events we were putting out on Absolute Michigan*. By way of celebration, here are some highlights from the first decade with the second to follow tomorrow!
2006: Michigan Photographer Profiles
The top two posts of 2006 were also my favorite: the Michigan Photographer Profiles of Ann Arbor Huron High senior Marjorie O’Brien and Matt Callow, a British born and bred photographer with a penchant for pinhole photography & unique cameras. I had so much fun exploring the motivations and techniques of some of my favorite photographers that I am honestly wondering why I stopped 🤔
The most popular post of 2013 is also the most popular of all time: Know Your Michigan Turtles. It’s also the hub for information about Michigan’s 10 native turtle species so check it out!
2014 & 2015: Ice Cave Obsession
In the same way that I thought it was fascinatingly cool to have bridge photos as 4 of the 6 top photos in my 2025 Michigan in Pictures Year in Review, I think it’s pretty darn nifty that the top photos of 2014 & 2015 both reflected the hold that ice caves had on Michigan winter discourse. Check out Ken’s Ice Caves of Leelanau and Heather’s Ice Caves Return to Lake Michigan, and I will see you tomorrow!!
* Absolute Michigan was my Michigan supersite that was put out of business by the $10-30+ million per year behemoth that was Pure Michigan. Here’s a look courtesy the Wayback Machine of absolutemichigan.com in its prime.
It’s time for the annual roundup of the most popular photos of the year on Michigan in Pictures. Instead of the usual top 5, I’m doing a top six because baby cougars. Thanks everyone for being a fan!
Also, I am going to go ahead and declare 2025 the Year of the Bridge because 4 out of the top 5 were bridge photos. I will also be wondering what that says about me … and all of you!! ;)
The most popular post of 2025 with well over half a million views was this post of Craig’s photo with information about how to see the beloved the CPKC Holiday Train as it passed through Southeast Michigan. The train has collected over 5 million pounds of food and raised more than $26 million dollars for community food banks in Canada and the US, and – thanks in large part to Detroit photographer Montez Miller – our post and the one on Facebook with updates became important resources for folks to see to the train!
The second most popular photo of the year was from the Gordie Howe International Bridge who reported that the Canadian & US flags have found their permanent home at center of the bridge deck, adding “Soon you’ll be able to see the flags for yourself from the multi-use path as you walk or bike across the bridge.” Just missing the Top 5 was another pic of the bridge in a post about the fact you’ll be able to bike to Canada across the bridge!
We don’t have to go far at all for the third most popular photo which is Ryan’s excellent drone shot of a freighter making its way up the Detroit River under the Gordie Howe along with the news that the planned 2025 opening of the Bridge might be delayed, which it was! Ryan shared that this is one of his favorite shots of the new bridge. Click the pic to follow him on Facebook & head over to J&C Photography to view & purchase his work and to hire him for photographic services including drone photography & 360 degree panoramas.
On June 4th the Mackinac Bridge Cam shared this photo writing, “Unfortunately, what you’re seeing today is not fog surrounding the Mackinac Bridge but smoke coming from the wildfires and our neighbors to the North.” Head over to the Mackinac Bridge Cam if you’d like to take a look at how things are today. (spoiler alert: so windy & snowy that you can barely see anything!!)
In May we met Big Penny, Lansing’s twelve foot titan of truck termination that was completed in 1928 with the apparent purpose of destroying as many trucks as possible. There’s lots more Big Penny news this year including the 100th truck munched! Follow Stupid Lansing for updates!
Rounding out the top photos of 2025 was a report from the DNR that 2025 was a banner year for Michigan cougars! In addition to being the 3rd straight year of record numbers of cougar sightings, the fact that a pair of cougar cubs was spotted at the same time March 6 in Ontonagon County confirms we have breeding populations here in Michigan.
I would be completely remiss in my features of 2026 Michigan photo calendars if I left out one of Michigan in Pictures’ most enduring supporters, John McCormick of Michigan Nut Photography! His 2026 Michigan Wall Calendar is made right here in Michigan and features some dynamite photos from all over the Great Lakes State. He’s got all kinds of other photo-based gifts so head over to michigannutphotography.com today & make the Michigan lover on your list happy!
I realize that I should add that although you can book tickets to ride the North Pole Express from Owosso, they sell out very early so I will try and shout this out earlier next year!!
The steam locomotive Pere Marquette 1225 was first used by the Pere Marquette Railway to transport products between Detroit, Toledo, Flint, Saginaw, Grand Rapids and Chicago for a decade before being retired in 1951 when the Railway merged with Chesapeake and Ohio Railway who favored diesel locomotives. It was then given to a reluctant Michigan State University where it sat for 25 years. Spartan Newsroom explains how Pere Marquette 1225 returned to service & became the inspiration for beloved children’s book The Polar Express:
The Pere Marquette 1225 sat untouched on MSU’s campus just south of Spartan Stadium until 1969, when a group of students took interest in the steam locomotive. Randy Paqueete, a Michigan State alum and then-member of the MSU Railroad Club, suggested that the group try to restore the engine instead of it just being on display.
The club’s first goal was to get the steam locomotive up and running to transport students to and from football games. “These students had some crazy ideas. We’re going to go to away football games. We’re going to go to Florida. We’re going to go to Aspen. We’re going to run charters,” Struck said. In 1975, after five years of work, the students were successful in firing up the boiler long enough to sound the whistle. This victory did not come easy, as they needed to put 245 pounds of steam pressure into a 400-ton boiler, which the university was nervous about.
“Ultimately, we got permission,” Paqueet recalled. “We jumped through a lot of hoops but we got licensed. We had to do it on a Sunday when there weren’t very many people on campus.”
The students started the fire for the boiler at 4 a.m., and by 8 a.m., the steam engine had enough pressure to sound the whistle. For the first time in two decades, the whistle of the Pere Marquette 1225 was heard, proving the restoration process on the locomotive to be a success.
The legacy of the Pere Marquette 1225 is not limited to MSU’s campus. Author Chris Van Allsburg, who wrote “The Polar Express” children’s book the animated movie was based on, was inspired by this same steam engine during his childhood. Growing up in Grand Rapids, Allsburg frequently visited MSU on the weekends for football games and would see the locomotive on display. When writing the book he remembered the steam engine he played on as a child, and the model number 1225, which also coincidentally represented Christmas Day. During production of the film, animators were given blueprints of the Pere Marquette 1225, allowing them to accurately recreate the train. They also made frequent visits to Owosso, Michigan, where the locomotive was eventually relocated, to record its authentic sound to use in the movie.
Here’s a few more shots by Charles of Pere Marquette 1225 from this year along with one of a photographer getting the shot that I shared back in 2018. For sure head over to Flickr to check out more in his Steam Engine, Railroad Photos gallery.
I feature a lot of waterfalls on Michigan in Pictures. Because I’m a sucker for alliteration, many of them are shared on “Waterfall Wednesdays”. This tasty shot of Manabezho Falls in Porcupine Mountains State Park is one of three waterfalls in the 2026 Michigan Four Seasons Wall Calendar from Michpics regular Craig Sterken.
Michigan in Pictures 