Cool shot of a tribal fishing boat in Leland harbor. See more on Jim’s Flickr!
The Beacon
James caught an awesome sunset at the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Head over to his Flickr for more!
You can read about Eagle Harbor Lighthouse & see another angle on Michigan in Pictures.
It’s Asparagus Season in Michigan!
The Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board says that:
The countdown to the kickoff of the 2021 Michigan asparagus season is officially over, as the seasonal favorite will be making its way to retailers across the nation. As a result of unexpected cooler temperatures at the traditional start of the season, the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board (MAAB) has announced that the production area of West-central Michigan began harvesting and packing this week.
“Because asparagus depends on weather, it does tend to be somewhat unpredictable,” explained Jamie Clover Adams, Executive Director of the MAAB. “But as all our Michigan asparagus fans out there will tell you, it is a veggie that is well-worth the wait.”
Mother Nature imposed her own plans for the “normal” Mother’s Day season, with near or below freezing night temperatures delaying the start of the harvest for about a week.
Fresh Michigan asparagus is definitely something I stop for at roadside stands. You can get some great asparagus recipes from the MAAB including the clubhouse leader for my dinner tonight, an Asparagus Bacon & Cheese Tart – YUM!!
Mark took this photo a few years ago & you can see more in his Garden gallery on Flickr.
It’s baseball, even if the Tigers are struggling
Cubs at Detroit Tigers by Dan Gaken
Dan went to Comerica Park this weekend to see the Tigers face the Cubs. The Tigers lost, but as John commented, “It’s baseball even if the Tigers are struggling.” Indeed!
See more awesome shots from Comerica & elsewhere in Dan’s America’s Baseball Stadiums gallery on Flickr.
The UFO Show
The UFO Show by Jamie Macdonald
In 1973, the nation (and my 8-year-old self) were captivated by a wave of Unidentified Flying Object sightings. Clipping the stories from the paper for a scrapbook left me with a lifelong fascination for UFOs which is apparently becoming mainstream. Last night 60 Minutes showed some declassified UFO footage previously leaked to The New York Times by Christopher Mellon and Luis Elizondo:
“It’s bizarre and unfortunate that someone like myself has to do something like that to get a national security issue like this on the agenda,” Mellon said. Everyone Whitaker spoke with underscored that unidentified means just that, not yet identified, there’s no evidence these phenomena are extraterrestrial, and they are a potential national security risk no matter who created them because the technology seems far beyond what the U.S. can currently produce.
Mellon said the UFOs are not secret U.S. government technology, and “I can say that with a very high degree of confidence in part because of the positions I held in the department, and I know the process.”
Former Navy pilot Lt. Ryan Graves told Whitaker that fellow pilots began seeing UAPs hovering over restricted airspace off Virginia Beach in 2014, after upgrades to their radar, and continued seeing UAP’s off the Atlantic Coast “every day for at least a couple years.”
Jamie took this photo back in June of 2016. See more in his Stormy Weather gallery on Flickr & for sure head over to his website at mirrorlessminutes.com for more!
How about a Driveway Concert?
Driveway Concert by Nicholas James Thomasma
Few industries have been hit harder by the pandemic than the music industry. Although things are definitely looking up for the 2021 concert season, there’s still a whole lot of ground to make up. One idea that a friend of mine had is one that I think a lot of musicians could use: driveway concerts!
More from Nicholas on his Instagram & on his website.
Beautiful Grand Mere Dunes
Beautiful Grand Mere Dunes by Mark Swanson
Michigan Trail Maps says that Grand Mere State Park:
…is a 985-acre unit in Berrien County that lacks the amenities found in most other state parks along Lake Michigan, including a campground and even direct access to its mile of Lake Michigan shoreline. It attracts only a fraction of the visitors that flock to parks such as Warren Dunes or Hoffmaster. Yet from a naturalist’s point of view Grand Mere is one of the most inquiring set of dunes in the state, an area so ecologically diverse that it 1976 it was designated a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Congress.
The glaciers that scooped out the Great Lakes 10,000 years ago also carved out a number of smaller depressions along the western edge of the state, which evolved into interdunal lakes, ponds, and wetlands. At one time, this area contained a chain of five such lakes that were protected ecologically by a line of windblown sand dunes between them and Lake Michigan. Now there are only three, a result of aquatic succession. Today Grand Mere is a textbook example of the various stages of succession from aquatic communities to terrestrial. Beginning at North Lake, you can see how each lake is progressively disappearing, with open water first turning into marsh and then woodland swamps and closed bog forests, the fate of the former two lakes that lie south of the park.
Almost 4 miles of trails form a loop through open dunes and the wooded areas of the park, but the only designated trail is a half-mile Nature Trail. The paved, handicapped accessible trail extends from the picnic shelter around South Lake, passing 10 interpretive posts that correspond to back of the park map. The rest of the trails are neither posted nor maintained. The most distinguishable trail extends almost a mile from a small parking area off Wishart Road to the west end of the Nature Trail.
Mark took this photo a couple months ago & you can see more in his Spring gallery on Flickr.
Looking through to another time … again
Looking Through to Another Time by Anna Newhouse
Sometimes I save photos I feature on Michigan in Pictures to a folder that changes my computer background every day. This one by Anna from 5 years back has always been one of my favorites.
You can see more in Anna’s My 365 Photo Challenge gallery.
Marching at the Marsh
Marching at the Marsh by PKHyperFocal
This dude definitely has swag! Here’s a few mostly male facts about red-winged blackbirds from the excellent All About Birds website:
The Red-winged Blackbird is a highly polygynous species, meaning males have many female mates – up to 15 in some cases. In some populations 90 percent of territorial males have more than one female nesting on their territories. But all is not as it seems: one-quarter to one-half of nestlings turn out to have been sired by someone other than the territorial male.
Male Red-winged Blackbirds fiercely defend their territories during the breeding season, spending more than a quarter of daylight hours in territory defense. He chases other males out of the territory and attacks nest predators, sometimes going after much larger animals, including horses and people.
The oldest recorded Red-winged Blackbird was 15 years, 9 months old. It was banded in New Jersey in 1967, and found alive, but injured in Michigan in 1983. It was able to be released after recovering from its injuries.
PK caught this red-winged blackbird on patrol last week. See more in their Feathers gallery on Flickr.
Read up on Red-winged Blackbirds on Michigan in Pictures!
Blossoms & Blue
Sweet Cherry Blossoms by Andrew McFarlane
Here’s a photo of mine from yesterday afternoon of cherry blossoms on the Leelanau Peninsula. You can follow my @mileelanau Instagram for more shots from northwest lower Michigan!
Michigan in Pictures 