The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources says, "The woodchuck is present everywhere in Virginia except the eastern shore and the extreme southeastern corner of the state." That's us, no groundhogs. If we had them, and if they poked out of their dens today, they would have been blinded by the sunlight bouncing off the snow. (While the snowfall was light, the cold kept it from melting.) This is also Candlemas and Imbolc.
Snow fell overnight and was over when I got up. We got less than an inch after alarmist predictions of up to a foot. The temperature warning, however, was all too true. I know that winters when I lived in Ohio and Michigan regularly got this cold and colder, but after four decades in Virginia, I have lost my tolerance.
The National Weather Service was full of warnings:
But the snow didn't start falling till nightfall.
Clouds spread as the day went on and the air got a little warmer. The dredging continued. A brown thrasher tackled the suet.
The ice on the creek was broken where the barge had plowed through but it had refrozen overnight. A Carolina wren helped itself to bits of barkbutter with beak wide open. The female Baltimore oriole was up early and headed for the jelly. Or course, white throats poked around the dead vegetation but also visited the barkbutter dish. A myrtle warbler paused on the bench. Another investigated a tabletop. Then the male pileated woodpecker arrived. Some of the songbirds were intimidated, but not the brown headed nuthatch. The red bellied woodpecker ate seeds - he must like something in the mix I bought. A white breasted nuthatch asserted itself despite the house finches. A mockingbird wasn't happy to find barkbutter instead of mealworms. (I emptied the mealworm bag yesterday.) Bluebirds were happy with either food. Blue jays were late noticing that there were barkbutter balls.
A starling came for lunch. The sun lit up its iridescent feathers, but a bluebird was annoyed at being displaced. The white breasted nuthatch came back for more seeds. The oriole ate some barkbutter balls and some suet. She emptied the jelly. Brown headed nuthatches were back. So was a wren. Pine warblers made a late appearance. Soon the barkbutter dish was down to dust, so I refilled it. The creek partly melted during the afternoon, as much from the dredging as the temperature, I think. Maybe the abundant sunshine helped.
The creek was completely covered by ice and did not melt. The sky was mottled with clouds and sunshine was intermittent. Barkbutter balls lured the blue jays. Bluebirds were right behind. Brown headed nuthatches were hungry. White throats scoured the ground but some wanted barkbutter balls. Pine and myrtle warblers got into fights. Titmice seemed to avoid confrontation. A crow walked around briefly. A Carolina wren took over the barkbutter dish.
At lunch, a squirrel tried to break into the seed feeder but Yankee ingenuity won, again. No sooner had it given up than a brown headed nuthatch landed on the perch. A mockingbird landed on the barkbutter dish and found it empty. A pine warbler had to see for himself. Then a bluebird was disappointed. Meanwhile, a downy woodpecker got a meal of suet. A white breasted nuthatch came for seeds, and a barkbutter ball, alas. A Carolina wren was disappointed too. The red bellied woodpecker ate seeds even though there was a block of suet not a foot away.
We restocked all the feeders and word got out. The mockingbird arrived almost immediately after I put mealworms out. Then a flock of blackbirds landed everywhere. A lot of them were brown headed cowbirds. A minute later they spooked and did not return.
