Valentine on Ice by GR2 Photography
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone & I hope you have a lovely & love-filled Valentine’s Day & weekend!
I’ve featured this awesome shot from Lake Michigan in Empire before & I will feature it again! See more on GR2 Photography’s Facebook.
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.
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!
In recognition of the Philadelphia Eagles historic beatdown of the Kansas City Chiefs, here are a few shots from a series showing a bald eagle successfully hunting along the Grand River that Kevin shared to the Absolute Michigan group on Flickr way back in February of 2015.
You can see more in his massive Birds of Prey gallery on Flickr & for sure follow him for his latest!
Longtime Michigan in Pictures supporter Joel Dinda knows that the struggle to stay sunny is real in Michigan, so once again he is sharing A Flower a Day for February in the Michigan in Pictures group on Facebook! Check it out and follow along with Joel’s travels near & far in our group!
You can see some more of Joel’s Flower a Day series on Michpics from 2017 & 2012 as well!
mLive’s Mark Torregrossa shares that the winter storm bearing down on Michigan overnight is expected to bring a solid band of freezing rain from Jackson to Ann Arbor to Detroit and south to Michigan’s southern border that could have up to one-tenth of an inch of ice accumulation. Based on radar, the iciness will be worst from 4am – 9am Thursday
Mike captured this great shot of a mail truck delivering in Port Huron on a winter day with a Nikon Zfc & TTArtisan 50mm Tilt shift lens 1.4. I hadn’t heard of this lens befor which the manufacturer says transforms ordinary scenes into captivating ‘Lilliput’ landscapes with selective focus and beautiful bokeh.
See more in Mike’s Winter 2025 gallery & for sure follow him on Flickr.
Pothole Lighthouse by Tim Webb
Our friends at the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association share: And now for something completely different: A new initiative to highlight the problem of potholes. Lighthouses are being trialled at night to warn unsuspecting motorists.
😆 No lies detected! See more of the great pics they share in our Michigan in Picture group on Facebook & for sure visit their website to learn more about this champion for Great Lakes heritage!
I don’t think the lighthouse above is based on a Michigan one, so here’s a shot of Point Betsie on Lake Michigan GLLKA shared recently by Ross Ellet! More funny business on Michigan in Pictures.
Winter Sunrise At Point Betsie by Ross Ellet
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.
January Shore by Andrew McFarlane
Most of the photos on Michigan in Pictures are by other people, but sometimes on Fridays I like to share my own. These are from the Lake Michigan shore in Leland from late January 2017. Follow me here for more pics and for sure feel welcome to support me & Michigan in Pictures through Patreon donations!
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!!
Winter Roads – December 2023 by Thomas Mann
This gorgeous shot by Thomas from near East Jordan a couple Decembers ago is our latest Facebook page cover. See in his Michigan Winter Scenes gallery on Flickr!
Michigan in Pictures 