Winter 2010
Most years, Lake Michigan wave action piles ice and snow into mounds twenty feet high shown above. In order to see the lake you have to stand on the bluff behind the photo above or climb up the mounds without falling in. Danger lurks around the edges where people can and have fallen through.
It’s now January 2013 and this is the second consecutive season that the sand is left bare from winter’s layers of frost. Normally, looking beyond the horizon view of Lake Michigan is a frozen tundra of stillness. Not this year. Compare the photo above taken in winter 2010 from the two photos below taken winter 2013.
Lake Michigan Unfrozen January 2013
Imprints in the Sand
Below are several interesting samples of coral fossils I found on the Oval Beach, Saugatuck, MI (USA) a few weeks ago exposed from the winter 2013 whirling gusts. Very unusual to find that many at one time. I’ve written more extensively about coral fossils in the “classification” categories in the box to the right. Please feel free to make suggestions identifying these coral fossils further.
Coral Fossil with crystals inside crevices
Coral Fossil with embedded crinoids
Fossil Coral
Fossil Coral (reverse side from above coral)
Side View of Coral or Sponge Fossil
Coral or Sponge Fossil
That has to be a fun place to fossil hunt with Lake Michigan to see too. Enjoyed your finds.
Not only that, I work there in the summer and it’s probably my most favorite job of any I’ve had. Wrote about Oval Beach and my job there at my hubpage column if you wanted to check it out. Thanks for stopping by today! Kathi :O)
Beautiful photos! Love the fossils you found. They have a lot of interest and texture. Coral really shows the history.
Hello Donna, Yes, it’s true these coral fossils were not the usual variety found on Lake Michigan beaches. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting! Kathi :O)
Wow Kathi, love your photos
So many cool finds too! I’ve heard that after big storms on the lake, or in the Spring after the ice recedes, there is a lot of “new” material ashore to look over. I know people in Petoskey, Mi. will do that to find Petoskey stones that were hidden before. The same must be true for any part of the lakeshore I would think. Makes me want to go out looking 
You know, I never heard that before, but it makes perfect sense! So this Spring, right after the melt (cause we finally got snow) I will be sure to go fossil hunting! I’m way further south from Petosky, but we find plenty of them here too! Thanks for stopping by! Happy hunting yourself, KAthi :O)