Chapter 30 Autumn Flowers and Pines
Today, the main purpose is not to work, but to fly eagles out and teach my brothers some technical details of flying eaglets.
Yue Feng knew very well that it would be impossible to learn well by just talking without practicing. So when he encountered the opportunity to take action while rushing up the mountain, he asked the three brothers to take turns to practice and familiarize themselves with some of the techniques of hawking in advance.
This thing also has talent. Although Xiaotao was earlier than Xiaowen and Xiaowu in actual combat, his performance was not as good as that of Zhang's brothers.
Especially Xiaowu, for his first actual battle with Bian Ying, he behaved very steadily. If he hadn't been in the same village since he was a child and knew everything about him, Yue Feng would have even thought that Xiao Wu was an eagle before.
After all, the strength of the Big Blue Harrier lies here. Even if these novices are slightly inferior in hawking skills, even if they walked around Erjiazi Valley, they would not let go of their empty guns.
The difference is how long it takes for the eagle to catch its prey.
If you can get close to the prey and find the right opportunity to take action, you may push the chicken to the ground when it is only ten meters away. If your limbs are stiff and nervous and you will not find the opportunity, the eagle may chase it for dozens of meters.
The eagle has already been put down, and the situation is familiar. As long as there is no serious accident, the eagle cannot be lost.
A group of four people wandered on the hills from around 8:30 to around 10 o'clock, and caught four flying dragons.
The brothers went down the mountain from the south slope and came to the location where the cage net was lowered.
The performance of Qi Cong Net was pretty good, but it failed to catch Yue Feng’s target eagle species.
Three nets, one of which is motionless without being triggered.
The other two nets, one caught a small owl (owl), and the other caught a mung bean-eyed pine hawk (sub-adult male Japanese sparrowhawk) that had just fledged that year.
Other than being cute, the little owl has no domestication value. Its meat cannot be eaten, so Yue Feng let it go on the spot.
But Yue Feng was not in a hurry to let go of the second little pine nut.
In the pine forests on Changbai Mountain, Japanese Jayhawks breed.
This little pine nut, which had just emerged from the nest a few months ago, was the lowest entry barrier for eaglets. The little one only weighed less than two ounces, not much bigger than a shrike.
Yue Feng held the eagle in his hand and examined it. This little eagle has a bead-like head and tender green pea eyes. It belongs to the type that comes out of the nest late and has an extremely small temper among its kind. .
If Yue Feng is serious about playing with him, he can get off the net in the morning, and go to the big market during the day to make a show of his face. Then in the evening, he can get rid of the hair shaft. The next morning, when it is dark, he can do it again for a while, and wait until dawn. , you can put it down when you go out and see the sparrows in the field.
However, due to its size, the prey that this kind of eaglet can catch is limited, and the eaglet is afraid of the cold, so it cannot be released until it cools down for a few days.
So usually no one trains this in autumn. Instead, around May Day in spring, we catch the pine nuts that have not finished moulting after migration, and the sparrows that have just emerged from their nests in May and June.
If you are lucky, you can find persimmon-eye pure pine nuts that have changed into adult feathers early. Eagle, this kind of eagle has good physique and strong hunting ability. It is the best among pine nuts). It can catch thirty or twenty sparrows in one day just wandering around the village.
In the past, the eagle handles of those large eagles that were caged at home (the goshawks that escaped last fall were raised in separate cages and allowed to molt while being raised in human hands) were tied with pine nuts in the spring. Catch birds for the big eagle and feed them to the big eagle.
The big eagle eats live food every day and molts its feathers. The eagle's feathers change quickly and the eagle's physique is good. When it starts to go out in the fall, it has great physical strength and strong hunting ability. The actual performance of the one-year cage. Far better than Huang Yingzi who just came down from the mountain. Of course, if it was a large eagle that had average performance last hunting season, most of the time the eagle handler would not go to the trouble of making a cage. Instead, he would choose to wait until the spring comes and the flowers bloom, leave the eagle for a period of time to make it become fearful of people, and then put it back in again. Return to nature.
In this day and age, raptor resources are relatively abundant, and large eagles that can be trained to catch rabbits and pheasants are not uncommon, but top-quality eagles like the Great Green Harrier are rare to find.
I digressed, let’s get back to the topic.
After Yue Feng picked off the small autumn flowers, he immediately took out a coil of cotton string from his pocket.
I didn’t prepare two pieces for tying the pine nuts, so Yue Feng folded a few strands of cotton rope in half and twisted them tightly, then tied a temporary horseshoe knot to tie the eaglet up.
Idleness is idleness. Since this little eagle has been caught, it can be regarded as a kind of fate. It is rare and rare to treat it casually. If you are brave and good-tempered, it is also a good thing to leave a few handfuls of sparrows at your door to feed other eagles.
Seeing Yue Feng skillfully take out the little grasshopper eagle from the net and tie its legs, Xiao Tao asked curiously: "Brother, why is this little grasshopper eagle tied up? It can also come out. "
Yue Feng grinned: "It's rare to be idle! Even though it's small, it can still catch sparrows! It will probably be put on easily in a while!"
As he spoke, Yue Feng held the newly tied cotton thread open with his thumb and index finger, and then spread his palms.
I saw the little eagle slowly stand up from the state of curling up its legs and hugging the nest. It did not struggle to fly. It was like a timid little boy, with its neck curled up and observing the people next to it. Several sturdy men.
Yue Feng deliberately and gently turned his wrist half a circle, and Xiaoying followed suit and slowly stood firm on Yue Feng's hand.
Yue Feng knows that nestlings are very courageous, but he has never seen one so courageous. He dared to stand up within ten minutes of being put out of the net. Ordinary little eagles who have just been put out of the net are scared to death. , if it is not flat right after it is bolted, 99% of the time it will be 'hanged'.
Based on this alone, Yue Feng was sure that this little guy would definitely be able to be released in a day at most.
"Hehehe, yes, this little guy dares to stand up even when he is off the net! Okay, I just have some free time these two days, so I will play with it!"
The more Yue Feng looked at the little pine nut, The more I like it, the more I let it stand in my hand for a while, then I quickly put it in my hand again.
After the eagle was placed, Yue Feng hung up the cage net again. The brothers walked around the bushes outside the woods along the river and caught two sand half chickens.
As noon approached, the four of them went back to check the nets again. Maybe it was because there were people moving around the forest, but there was no harvest from the three nets.
When he went out, Yue Feng told his family that he would have dinner at home at noon. When he saw that it was time for dinner, Yue Feng waved his hand and went back to eat first.
For lunch, my mother, Meng Yulan, was also a little stiff. She just brought back half-and-half chicken. Then she packed up the pot and stewed potatoes with hazel mushrooms. Feilong made Feilong soup. , there are luncheon meat and canned croaker meat bought from the canteen on the table. Add a fried peanut, plus pork slices and fried onions.
Six simple dishes. Although it is not very high-end, in this era of scarcity of supplies, this table of dishes is still of a high standard.
(End of this chapter)