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The size of the bird does factor into one's perception of their speed. I've shot driven pheasants and partridge in Scotland several times. When switching from one to the other, partridge look to be like little jet fighters. I doubt they're any faster than a pheasant, but because they're that much smaller, they certainly look like they are.

Interesting topic, this took me back to my duck blind, where one early morning a pair of cans were almost a meal for a goshawk. The hawk missed his first pass and was in hot pursuit. The drama caused the two cans to turn towards me with that hawk getting closer and closer. Those two cans must of felt the impeding doom. From my perspective, those two birds kicked in the afterburners and went by me at about 60 yards. I believe I witnessed the full speed of a canvasbacks being chased and those two birds were in a word were gone! Heck, I thought I heard a sonic boom! LOL.

While teal typically fly fairly slow it is their "formation flying", and aerobatics in such, that lend partly to their reputation as fast flyers. Thirty mph is considered the normal flight speed for them, however I once witnessed a huge wad of them doing much, much more than that. I was hunting a flooded field of standing corn, along the L 'Anguille River in eastern AR. A bitter cold front was bearing it's way south, bringing with it tens of thousands of mallards and other ducks. It was about 4:30 pm, and we had mallards constantly working the corn, offering good shooting. Suddenly, I heard a sound I didn't quite recognize, and tried to identify the source. I realized it was high above and looked up to see the biggest drove of teal I've ever seen in a hard dive. They had been migrating at a high altitude, for teal, and spotted the corn. There was somewhere between 150 and 200 in that bunch, as near as we could estimate. The sound of the wings cutting the air all at once was enthralling. I have no idea what top speed they reached in that dive, but they were smokin' it, I promise you.

P.S. It is mergansers that reportedly hold the speed record for ducks. I once read that one was clocked ahead of an airplane at 100 mph.

SRH

Interesting, Stan! I bet that drove of teal was a sight to behold....and savor.

Stan, I haven't seen a pile of teal quite that big out in the hunting field, but the amazing thing to me is it is possible to call the whole swarm into the decoys. That slicing, dicing sound twenty to twenty-five yards out, and filling the whole field of view is kind of special.

We see flocks of 50ish BWTs pretty often. The last time it happened, I took 3 on my first shot. Is that a shot string effect? I don't know, but I sure did not plan it that way and was stunned to see three birds on the water when the smoke cleared after just one shot.

I hunt geese in fields out of a blind. Sometimes we'll wound one and someone has to go out and finish it. Far as I can tell the wind ALWAYS blows in Saskatchewan. I have seen many times when an aimed shot at 30 yards at a standing goose results in a pattern hit windward in the stubble a good two or three feet from the bird. I don't know how you adjust for that when shooting flying in the wind?...Geo

Probably why I have some wounded birds that ought to be gobsmacked!

Geo, I've seen the same when trying to swat a wounded duck on a Kansas river.

Hold into the wind, of course, relative to where you would hold for a given ground speed.

Winter pheasants and wind always come together. I just try to remember to hold up wind and hope for the best.

George; Inanimate objects like clay pigeons go with the wind, so really there�s not much adjusting �for the wind�. Most live animals are affected by the wind too and although they can adjust to wind some in flight (crab into the wind like an airplane) they typically go with the wind, so not much adjustment for wind is necessary when they are in flight, imho. A covey of quail will normally flush with the wind and a skilled quail hunter knows that. An object sitting on the ground is a different matter and just like shooting a rifle, you have to compensate for the wind v

A flyer (pigeon) coming out of a trap can sense the wind direction in a microsecond, it seems. It will make the best use of it, too.



Agreed. The only sound a teal makes that is better than that is that sizzling sound it makes on the grill, when coated with olive oil, salt and pepper.

SRH