It’s been warm here in Michigan recently since our hard freeze in January, and the ground is soft instead of frozen like normal.
Winters like this one are tricky because the top few inches of soil will thaw and really hold the water if there is still frost underneath. When you get a wet snow melting on top it can get hard to gauge where the edges are, and very easy to start digging into the dirt.
Since it looks like the first picture is next to the road and his bucket is dug in. My guess is that he did this while bucking snow with down pressure on the cutting edge while trying get the icy slush off his driveway.