I didn't read all the posts above so the following may have been mentioned.
Ten years back or so, the University of Arkansas fitted 80 mallards with satellite tracking devices and gave each bird a name. Logging onto their website gave a map of the US and Canada showing the real-time location of the bird's transmitter.
Our group watched the website daily in anticipation to see how the birds moved around or migrated, and WHEN THEY WOULD ARRIVE, for we knew they would. It gave hope, but I remember one winter, that the farthermost south any of them made was for a hen who stopped just north of Monroe along the Mississippi River. She lived out the season there, moving around a few miles, before heading back north in the spring.
It was an eye opener to see so many of them spending the winter along the drainage patterns ABOVE Arkansas and in the mid-west all season.
It's too bad they no longer run the program but you can read about it here.
http://cast.uark.edu/home/research/g...-tracking.html