My step-dad in Midlothian sent photos from their Chesterfield County snow on Wednesday and wrote, "After going to bed Tuesday night with the 'total
rain only' forecast from channel 8’s John Bernier, I was tee-totally
shocked when I got up about 6:30 ... and looked out the
window to see about 4 inches on the ground, all the trees bending down,
and snowing like there’s no tomorrow. I had filled up all the bird
feeding equipment late Tuesday, so when I got up to start the coffee,
there were hundreds of apparently migrating grackles all over the back
yard."
"They are so skittish! All I had to do was move at the window,
and they all simultaneously went up in the trees, then in about 5
seconds, all back on the ground."
"So I went out to the garage and spread a
bunch more cracked corn. When it got light enough, I got my trusty
NIKON Coolpix 3200, turned off the flash, and took some grackle photos
through the windows. First they’re on the ground, second in
the trees and third in the bird feeder close by, and fourth below the
feeder in the budding lacecap hydrangea."
"By the time they all left, I
was about cleaned out of birdfood. It seemed to me they were using all
the energy they were 'cornsuming' (ha,ha) by constantly going from yard
to trees and back again. There was a lot of pecking going on too, not
too sociable within the flock. At first, they literally covered the
whole back yard, hundreds of them.
"I love March snow storms as they are here today and gone tomorrow, but I
think yours is going to take a few tomorrows. I
suspect most power failures were blown line fuses as loaded tree limbs drooped
down into the wires. They repair quickly, which accounts for the fast
restoration counts [he retired from Dominion Power]. Hooray for that wood stove! Hooray for friendly neighbors...."
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