Turtles get ready for their closeup

I’m Posing for the Camera by R.Miller96

From Waterfall Wednesdays to the Michigan Duckie Project to every flavor of rainbows, one of the things that keeps Michpics fun for me are my little photographic obsessions. Way back in 2011, I shared this photo on what became the all time most popular post on Michigan in Pictures: Know Your Michigan Turtles.

World Turtle Day (May 23) is just a week away so it felt like a perfect time to bring back this photogenic painted turtle for an encore! See more in R Miller’s water gallery on Flickr.

I Love You Mom

I Love You Mom by smiles7

I’d like to shout out all the moms out there helping their children discover the wonder & beauty of the world.

Julie took this awesome pic back in June of 2019. You can follow these adorable fox kits and others in her Foxes gallery or click to see Julie’s latest on Flickr!

Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures…

I Spy You Both……. by smiles7

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
-Albert Einstein

Julie shared this photo back in April of 2021, but I wanted to make sure everybody saw these sweet little fox babies. She has more great photos of these foxes & others having fun on Flickr.

Have a great weekend everyone, and if you have an extra dollar or three & enjoy Michigan in Pictures, consider clicking the Patreon button below to help me reach my current goal, an asiago bacon croissant at Cannelle Detroit! 😋

Michigan State Parks Seeking Employees

Rocky Raccoon by Lexington State Harbor

Michigan State Parks, Trails and Waterways is seeking employees & shared this pic from Lakeport State Park & Lexington State Harbor who wrote: If you ask any of us Rangers why we love our jobs, we would all say the same exact thing: each day is different and you never know what you’re going to run into.

Meet Rocky the Raccoon. He was waiting by the door to the fuel dock, likely to reserve a slip for his boat. Little did he know we don’t open until May 1st. After feasting on crackers, scampering around the side of the dock office and dangling over the water, DNR Harbormaster Travas was able to safely remove him from the premises and told him to come back when we’re open.

Click for a couple more pics of our boy Rocky & if you’re looking for a summer gig, consider these jobs at Michigan’s amazing parks!! (look to be in the $18-30 range)

Happy World Turtle Day from Phillip the Box Turtle!

Phillip the Box Turtle by Kevin Povenz

May 23rd is World Turtle Day, an annual day of recognition that was started in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue to raise awareness about turtles & help preserve endangered turtles worldwide. Michigan has ten species of native turtles including the Eastern Box Turtle – check them all out and Know Your Michigan Turtles! 

Kevin took this photo of Phillip the Box Turtle for the Blanford Nature Center back in 2017. See more in his Animals gallery on Flickr.

Fox Friday: Hanging at the Den

Hanging at the Den by TP Mann

Another year, another pair of fox kits for the Michigan in Pictures family! Last year I christened a pair Oliver & Charlotte based on Michigan’s most popular baby names. Both Oliver & Charlotte have been dethroned, so please put your hands together for Noah & Amelia (#2 & #4 in the US respectively). 

TP took this photo on Sunday. See more on his Flickr!

More foxes on Michigan in Pictures.

River Otters and the Detroit River comeback

River Otter by Ashleigh Mowers

Great Lakes Now has an excellent feature on the return of river otters to the Detroit River that says (in part):

On the cool morning of April 25, doctoral student Eric Ste Marie from the University of Windsor’s department of integrative biology went out for a walk with his partner along the Detroit River prior to an anticipated long day in his lab. Much to his surprise, he saw an animal pop its head out of the water. It was too big to be a mink and, as it dove, he noticed that it did not have a flat beaver tail. Ste Marie ran out to the end of a pier beneath the Ambassador Bridge to get a closer look to check, and there it was: a river otter.

River otters were quite common in southeast Michigan, including the Detroit River, up through the arrival of European explorers and fur traders,” said Gearld P. Wykes, a historian from the Monroe County Museum System. “During the fur trade era, they were much sought after for their fur, along with beaver. Based on historical records, river otters were likely extirpated from the Detroit River in the early 1900s.”

In 1986, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reintroduced river otters into high water quality rivers and streams in eastern Ohio. The river otters thrived. As their population grew, they began to move westward – what scientists call expanding their range. By the early 2000s, they had found a home in western Ohio, particularly near Cedar Point and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, just east of Toledo.

…Biologists studying the Detroit River and resource managers have been excited about the possible range expansion of river otters into the Detroit River. There have been a few anecdotal reports from citizens, but no photographic or videographic proof until Ste Marie was greeted with that ecological surprise on the morning of April 25.

…River otters are considered an indicator species, and their return to the Detroit River after an absence of more than 100 years is a hopeful sign of improving watershed conditions.

Ashleigh took this back in 2016 in Detroit at the Detroit Zoo. Hopefully she gets a shot of them in the wild! See more in her Detroit gallery on Flickr & for sure check out her Go See Do Photography website for more great pics!

More about River otters on Michigan in Pictures.

Two for 2-22-22

Flying Twins by Tate King

I can’t think of a better pic for 2-22-22 than this shot from Tate that I featured 14 years ago. Check out this & others of his most popular photos on Flickr and have a great day!

Another UP 200 in the books!

Off to the Races by Hannah Frames Moments

The annual UP 200, Midnight Run, and Jack Pine 30 Sled Dog races took place in Marquette & the surrounding area last weekend. They share that musher Ryan Anderson of Cushing, WI finished first in the 228-mile UP200 Dog Sled Race followed by Wade Marrs & Nick Vigilante. Michael Bestgen & Joanna Oberg had the top 2 finishes in the 82-mile Midnight Run, and Erin Schouweiler was the top finisher in the Jack Pine 30.

Get all the results at UP200.org.

The photo was taken by Hannah Wescott. You can see a bunch more on her Facebook page & for sure head over to her website to view & purchase her work!

Glowing Flying Squirrels are actually a thing!

Southern Flying Squirrel Showing Biofluorescene by Lee Rentz

Lee’s incredibly cool shot of a southern flying squirrel exhibiting biofluorescence when illuminated by a UV light source led me to this fascinating 2019 New York Times article on the discovery of ultraviolet fluorescence in squirrels:

One spring night in Wisconsin, John Martin, a biologist, was in his backyard with an ultraviolet flashlight. Suddenly, a hot-pink squirrel flew by.

It was a southern flying squirrel, a small, furry creature most active at dawn and dusk. Under most circumstances, it has a warm brown color. But in the beam of Dr. Martin’s flashlight, it sported a gaudy Day-Glo hue closer to something you might see in a nightclub or a Jazzercise class circa 1988.

“He told his colleagues at Northland College, but of course, everyone was pretty skeptical,” said Allison Kohler, a graduate student at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Martin asked Ms. Kohler, then a student at Northland, to look into it. After examining more than 100 specimens of flying squirrels across two museum collections and spotting five more squirrels under UV light in the wild, the researchers and their colleagues reported surprising results last week in the Journal of Mammalogy: The pink is real.

…What the flying squirrels get out of it is still a mystery. Confirming that the squirrels are even capable of seeing in ultraviolet wavelengths will require additional study, Ms. Kohler said.

The researchers have some hypotheses concerning what’s behind the squirrels’ Day-Glo displays. Ultraviolet rays are abundant during the dawn and dusk periods when the squirrels are moving around. So it is reasonable to expect that the fluorescence is visible to other organisms even when there are no biologists with UV flashlights in the vicinity.

The vivid pink color might have evolved to confuse the owls who prey on the squirrels. Those birds of prey fluoresce in precisely the same hue themselves; a flying squirrel may look, superficially at least, like a flying owl.

Or, if it’s confirmed that the squirrels see UV, the color might have something to do with mating or signaling to other flying squirrels.

“It could also just be not ecologically significant to the species,” Ms. Kohler said, noting that future work will delve into the question. “It could just be a cool color that they happen to produce.”

Head over to Lee’s Flickr for more shots of this squirrel & a friend!!

PS: Can I interest you in glow in the dark mushrooms?