Birds-snow-empty/full crops

W

Weimdogman

Well-known member
So 2 of us hunted late Saturday on private ground. A couple sloughs and a abandoned building site bordered by a small slough. We got 4 birds all had full crops of corn.
Sunday 7 of us hunted starting at 10:30 and limited out before 3. Crp grass with willow patches tree plantings and milo and corn food plots. One guy cleaned 9 birds and said crops were empty on all of them? Before anyone jumps to a false conclusion these are all wild birds.
Now all the areas we hunted have empty corn fields bordering them. Sunday had a hard frost and a little more wind but both days made it to about 34.

I did notice a large # of birds out feeding in fields as I drove in Sunday afternoon. Do the birds wait for it to warm up then go feed late? It sure seemed that way. What have you discovered?
 
Not sure how long it takes the birds to digest a full crop, but maybe they could have done that in the amount of time they had if they eaten that morning??? It does get light pretty late now though. so not a lot of time. A5 says they eat in the morning and again at night, that does seem to be somewhat logical to me. When I sit in the tower (deer hunting) in the back corner of our CRP, I see birds heading out at first light and in the evening, I see them returning into the cover as the sun sets. Same birds? Who knows. These are birds on the wing. I am sure many aren't flying for their lunch dates, just depends on where they roosted, where are loafing during the day, where they are going to find food and how far they are from where they want to roost, if they fly or hoof-it. I got off subject a bit (not uncommon for me), BUT it would not shock me to find out that it took a day (or even longer) or to to digest a full crop of corn. If this is the case, maybe pheasants only eat once a day and your group of 9 liked an evening meal....who knows! Do we have a retired guy here that can put some time in during the off season and figure this out for us? There is likely some organization that has studied this already and know the answers to the questions we seek.
 
Weather (sunshine, cold/extreme cold, and wind) all play a factor on when birds decide to feed.
 
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