Hazy sunrise over Lake Superior with soft light reflecting on calm water and a band of pine pollen along the shoreline.

Sunrise No. 1,636 of 2,000+

  • Sunrise time: 5:57
  • Azimuth: 54° ⇡
  • Did the sun rise: Yes
  • Was the sun visible: I guess so

Weather

  • Felt like: 57 ºF
  • Air Temp: 57 ºF
  • Humidity: 90%
  • Wind: 3 mph ⇡
  • Wind gust: 6 mph

Exposure

  • 21mm
  • f/5.6
  • 1/125 sec
  • 100

Location

McCarty's Cove, Marquette, MI

0.3 mile commute

📍 46° 32' 56" N, -87° 22' 48" W

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Musings [105 words]

If you’re thinking, “Why does the water look so green?” the answer is, because it is.

Honestly, this caught me off guard. Several years in, I don’t think I’d seen the shoreline quite like this before.

All of this green sludge looking material is a heavy dose of pine pollen that has lapped up along the shoreline.

Read more about pine pollen.

Honestly, it’s not pretty. It does look like sludge, or some kind of gross sewage runoff. But it’s an entirely naturally occurring thing time time of year.

It made for an memorable sunrise outing, observing all the seasonal changes along my go-to shoreline.

Lake Superior surface coated with floating pine pollen forming a mottled yellow-green layer across the water.
Close-up of Lake Superior shoreline water covered in pine pollen sludge forming a dense yellow-green film with clustered organic patterns.

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