T-chaser~ You make it sound like every year a lot of things happen on a schedule with the migration... interesting.
Bailey makes the case that it gets cold, then warm, then cold and sometimes ice forms, but that doesn't mean things freeze... and some birds will migrate because not all the birds migrate at the same time, even of the same species... like how last weekend our mixed bag included blue wings and blue bills.
Very confusing. All the stories I read are when the birds all "crash" into the blocks/stool/decs/set-up/spread when everything is freezing and cold and a guy can shoot all morning.
What you describe does not sound anything like the legends.
Perhaps we will be enlightened by one older and wiser.....
I damn near fell off my chair when the guy on the other site was "blah, blah freezing at The Pas"..... another "Big Push" devotee. You want to time the flight, know where the birds are going to be and hunt there everyday. Saturday we were covered in birds, Sunday the ones that were left suddenly got blind shy. Great hunts both days as we watched my buddy's kid and his friend take a couple 'bills out of flock.
Anyway, carry on. A great MacQuarrie story about this time of year is called "The Little Flight". It's the point when the first movers start showing up and you get a shot at less wary birds. It's not "The Big Flight", but more like the start of the migration...... as it generally gets colder, and the days get shorter, on the same schedule every year!
There are also Redheads in Canada still. We shot a three man of bluebills on Sunday. I will be shooting bluebills on that lake until ice up in November. There are Gadwalls south of us but there are also still tons in Canada. I will be in North Dakota in a couple weeks and if we cannot get on the x field I will be shooting gadwalls out of the potholes. Ducks like to migrate in favorable winds but they will migrate in just about any conditions. Some of my best migrator days have been when we have a high cold front covering the northern part of the continent with clear skies and no wind. There is usually little pressure on those days because most guys think you need a low cold front with clouds and NW winds for birds to migrate. Ducks don't always follow the rules we have made for them.
