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Climbers use snow caves for protection, Alaskan trappers would hollow out a bed in the snow using caribou pelts as ground and top cover , enjoying relative comfort. Similar for partridge, I'd wager. I know , when hunting partridge in Canada we would find them on the wind protected side of old agricultural buildings. They dislike the wind and I assume yesterday, when some drifting was going on, their "burrows" in the snow kept the wind off. The thing that amazed me was how they fearlessly dove into the snow from full flight. If it had been me flying, I would have checked the snow depth and condition before diving in.

I was bird hunting in Ga in the 60s and we had a rare snow and dogs pointed and a bobwhite burst out of the snow and startled me! I hope i did not kill it as i cannot remember. Bobby

It doesn't snow much in GA. When it does I've always tried to get out in it. I once walked into a covey of Bobwhite quail buried in the snow while tracking a buck. Wow!...Geo

We had 14" snow, on flat ground, here in the early '70s .......... January '73, I think.

It has happened to me several times in my few trips to Nebraska in late season. Pretty fun and I generally make a couple of misses out of what should be easy shots when it does. That said a covey flush in the snow seems to be strung out a bit more in time than without snow, so reload and be ready for the straggler. That's my best strategy to date.

I remember that one, Stan. I was stationed at the Infantry School, Fort Benning. I had the weekend off and a wife waiting in south GA. Only way I got out of Columbus was to follow a semi and stay in its tracks...Geo

Years ago, my brother and I were hunting the fencerows of our farm on a bitterly cold morning after a night of blowing snow. There sticking out of a snow drift was the tail-end of cock pheasant. We both thought it was frozen in place, so my brother grabbed the tail feathers to pull it out. We were shocked when the pheasant started cackling and beating the air with its wings. In all the excitement, my brother tossed the rooster into the air, and I managed to drop it dead on the corn stubble. Sort of a farmboy version of a columbaire pigeon shot.

Quite common here to see Gray Partridge do the opposite. When a blizzard begins, they go to short grain stubble or dug ground on hilltops and huddle together, presumably to avoid being covered by hard packed snow. Meanwhile the pheasants die in lower areas with their beaks open and heads stuffed with snow.
During one bad blizzard I had a covey of starving partridge come up to the bird feeders on my deck. One died there in a hole left by my boots. Just another bad day for the sharptails, however, but they are semi-migratory in the northern Great Plains and will move hundreds of miles south if conditions get too extreme. On one winter hunt, we saw a flock of about 150 assemble, wheel around a big wetland till they got about a hundred yards high and then disappear to the southeast. We found they were in the dry bottom feeding on dead snails.

Never seen a pheasant die with its beak wide open and stuffed with snow. Never. Sounds pretty odd and we have hunted them a lot of miles in all sorts of winter conditions.

Ice has always seemed like the big killer to me - for any wildlife.

I’ve come across several coveys of dead quail frozen in their roost in an ice storm. Very sad sight. Very sad. Ice is very hard on my little friends. Been thinking about trying to make a bit of habitat for a couple coveys. If you fail, fail, fail you might as well fail again and I just love to hear old bob calling in an evening.