here is a tip for you yankee bird hunters in cold weather...
wear the warmest and thinnest glove you can find, on your shooting hand...
cut the thumb and trigger finger off the glove...
if it is too cold to hunt with your trigger finger exposed, then it is too cold to be outside...
birds would be hunkered down in a snow bank anyway, so why bother...
unless you really like freezing your ass off...if that be the case, then consider ice fishind without a hut...
Ed, "hunkered down pheasants" in the snow don't always require a snow bank. Just enough to hunker down in, with grass over their heads. It's great fun hunting them in conditions like that before it really turns cold and the snow gets really deep. Out in the morning after a few inches of snow, and your dogs will be finding birds for you where there's not a single sign of them. No tracks. Had a day like that in Iowa just a couple weeks ago. Not all that much snow, but the birds (hens in particular since they generally sit tighter anyhow) required the toe of my boot to get them to flush.
The only problem on that particular hunt was that much of the cover was tall enough to hide the dogs as well as the pheasants. And even though there was not a lot of snow, it was heavy and wet. Clogged the beepers on my dogs' collars, so it was hard to keep track of them. But heavy gloves were not required.
