Chapter 497 Crane and Heron
A bird egg fell by Chen Baoshuan's feet. It was dirty and broken, and the broken eggshell was stained with mud.
From the appearance, it is difficult to tell what kind of bird egg it is at a glance.
Chen Ling pulled at the broken bird egg twice, and the egg liquid had long since drained away.
It probably fell from the tree due to heavy rain last night.
Looking up and taking another look at the huge bird's nest spread out like a disk, Chen Ling thought of the large group of egrets that flew into the farm in the morning, nodded and said: "This nest is the egret's nest, that's right.
But they are not the egrets we have here.
These guys are as big as Qingzhuang.
They are a lot bigger than the egrets we have here.”
The local egrets are indeed relatively small.
And he is a loner and doesn't like groups.
Even if the geese and cranes fly back every autumn, they only follow for a short time to join in the fun.
Then continue to be alone.
Unless it is the breeding and mating season, they act alone at other times.
So apart from looking for fish and shrimps in the river at the back of the mountain, I didn’t even dare to go to the ditch in the orchard. I was chased away by dogs several times, and I was so scared.
"Not from us? That means he flew here with the crane in our village?"
Chen Baoshuan quickly reacted after hearing what Chen Ling said.
He raised his head and looked at the huge bird's nest: "This guy, it seems that our place will really be a geomantic treasure land from now on, everything will run here.
I don't know this. How is it different from the egrets we have here?
Does the meat taste good? ”
This is the simplest way of judgment among country people.
First of all, check whether the meat is delicious.
Let’s talk about whether it looks good or not.
"No matter how big the egret is, it is still a water bird. The meat has a strong smell of water and is not very delicious..."
Chen Ling laughed, and then Wang Qingwen also followed, The dogs ran before him.
He came over and asked what was going on.
After knowing the situation, he smiled and said: "That's not necessarily true, the meat of the cattle egret is not unpalatable."
"Hey, brother, you are a teacher, the cattle egret can be He can’t be considered a water bird.”
Chen Ling immediately joked.
Cattle Egret.
Just listen to the name.
A kind of egret standing on the back of a cow. It is smaller than an egret and has yellowish feathers. The locals like to call them cowherds.
This kind of heron often follows cattle or stands on their backs.
Peck at insects on the grass that are startled by cows.
Or eat the parasites on the backs of cows.
In other words, cattle egrets mainly eat bugs.
Unlike other herons that eat fish and shrimp in the water, they like to be near the water.
This Cattle Egret doesn't like staying near the water.
Just look for bugs in drier places.
So it is not a pure water bird.
Their meat naturally doesn't have much of a watery smell.
But this kind of bird can deworm cattle, so it is considered a good bird.
Unless the year is bad, people generally don’t harm it.
“I am a math teacher, how can I understand this?” Wang Qingwen laughed.
“Aren’t math teachers more powerful? I’m scared when I see a math teacher.”
Chen Baoshuan looked frightened, and a group of children echoed his words.
“No wonder I didn’t dare to speak when I saw Uncle Qingwen. It turns out that Uncle Qingwen is a math teacher.”
“That’s right.”
“Uncle Fugui, this is The bird's nest is too big. Can I go up and take a look? "
"Yes, if one falls, there must be one above."
A group of little ghosts shouted, but they saw the eggs under the egret's nest, and even the little girl was eager to try them.
That's what village dolls are like.
When I see the bird's nests one by one, I can't help but think of ways to get two handfuls.
If you don’t have any eggs, you still have to go up and have a look.
Of course it would be even more exciting to know that there are bird eggs.
"You'd better not go up there. I think it's a bit dangerous here because it's close to the cliff."
Chen Ling glanced around.
This place is at the northwest angle between the back mountain and the west mountain wall.
Next to the steep cliff.
It is not far from the place where mountain donkeys give birth.
Usually the chickens don't come to this place.
Dogs don’t like coming either.
So I didn’t find out when there was an additional nest.
“Let’s go around the big lake on the other side of Yerengou to see if all the birds are hiding there.”
Chen Ling pointed in the direction of the mountain lake.
"Okay, listen to Uncle Fugui and go to Yerengou. Let's go."
Liu Nier waved and ran over first.
They originally followed Chen Baoshuan to the mountains to look for mushrooms and ground ears.
Where to look is not to look for.
You can also follow Chen Ling to see some fun things.
But not far away, when we arrived near the maple forest on the ridge beside the lake, we saw bird nests in the woods and even on the sunken rock caves on the cliffs.
"Mother An Di, all these bird nests must have been built by egrets. Now, Uncle Fugui, you have made a fortune again."
"How can you make a fortune? This bird cannot be sold. ”
“Then eat the bird eggs, eat the bird eggs.”
A group of little kids ran back and forth with their heads raised, laughing, looking at the bird’s nest in the tree.
There are many camphor trees on the north mountain behind the farm, and further west, there are maple trees.
These trees are very tall.
They are all old trees, which are very suitable for these egrets to build nests.
And there are still lush weeds under the big trees.
Wet after the rain.
Everywhere not far away, you will find a variety of mushrooms, large and small.
But now adults and children are not in the mood to pick mushrooms, they are all looking for bird eggs under the trees.
“Ah, there are so many bird eggs here.”
“I have some here too.”
“I picked up three, and one of them didn’t break.”
"Me too, I also picked up one that wasn't broken."
Fortunately, Ruirui didn't follow, otherwise she would have been unable to hold back after seeing this scene.
But it is a pity that most of these eggs were broken.
So the little kids excitedly climbed up the tree one by one.
I actually saw egrets hatching eggs in their nests.
When this group of little monkeys climbed the tree, they made no movement, but as soon as they climbed up, they spread their wings and pecked at them with ferocious squawking.
These little monkeys were so frightened that they screamed, hurriedly avoided, and almost fell down. Chen Ling grabbed him with his feet, put them under the creaking nest, and then refused to show weakness.
"What a ferocious, big bird. Isn't it bigger than the egrets here? It dares to peck us. I will use a slingshot to hit it when I get home..."< br>
“Hit me, honestly. In autumn, I will take you guys to shoot me with guns.”
Chen Ling gave them some ideas.
Chen Baoshuan then echoed: "Uncle Fugui is right, don't come here by yourself without an adult following."
It's not that they are not allowed to dig out the bird's nest, it's that it's too dangerous here. .
The little monkeys are just playing, nothing serious or serious. These bird nests will also attract some poisonous insects during the incubation period.
If you are accidentally bitten and don’t receive timely treatment on the mountain, you will die.
So the two warned them hard.
Then he took them to the lake at the foot of the hillside.
There are very few people here. Except for Chen Ling’s family, or Chen Ling himself, no one else comes here unless they have something to do.
So it seems to be more original than in the mountains and forests.
But it’s not desolate.
The sun didn't come out after the rain today, and the sky was gloomy.
The surface of the lake ripples in the breeze, and the bamboo forest opposite gently sways and rustles, bringing a refreshing cool breeze.
There are also some reeds and calamus growing around the lake, and even a small amount of lotus root.
Many of them were thrown in by Chen Ling last spring. They are growing well and now have delicate pink flowers blooming.
Listen carefully, there are rattling sounds coming from among the reeds.
Hearing this voice, the adults were all refreshed.
"Good guys, there are some by this lake too. It looks like there are quite a lot of them."
One by one, they quickly slowed down and wanted to approach quietly.
But...
Before they took two steps, they saw a red head peeking out from the reeds, its black bean-like eyes staring in their direction. Then it made a loud cry.
As soon as he flapped his wings and put his legs together, he flew into the air gracefully.
Above the lake, it circled and made a long cry.
Then I saw cranes flying up from the reeds.
There are red-crowned cranes and cranes with gray and white hair.
There were probably dozens or hundreds of them, squawking and circling for a while before flying into the eastern sky.
"Good guy, this is a group of cranes. They are so particular, and they even have sentinels."
The adults and children in this group felt quite dumbfounded.
After the surprise.
The little kids suddenly became excited, "Wow, the crane turns out to live here."
It seemed like they had discovered some incredible secret.
One after another, the dogs rushed to the lakeside with the dogs barking impatiently.
The mountain lake is very deep.
It is the original Savage Ditch.
Deeper than the reservoir.
They did not rush forward and used bamboo poles to hit the narrow rows of reeds by the lake. Compared with the reeds in the reservoir and Laohe Bend, the ones here seemed long and narrow. For those people, this is just a small area.
So the dolls discovered the secret after digging around.
Then his eyes lit up, he waved his hands at Chen Ling and the others and shouted: "Uncle Fugui, this is full of cranes' nests, come on, come on."
Chen Ling walked over and took a look. .
Among the reeds, there are nests scattered almost every distance.
These nests have the same shape as bird nests, but they are enlarged many times, like big bowls.
It just hasn’t been set up yet.
Still some semi-finished products.
It turns out that the cranes were busy building nests here just now.
“It’s time to lay eggs too.”
Chen Ling only glanced at it twice before saying with certainty.
Upon hearing his words, Wang Qingwen and Chen Baoshuan hurriedly gathered around to take a look.
Even Xizi’s eyes lit up: “Uncle, is the crane going to lay eggs here?”
“Yes, the crane is going to lay eggs here.”
Chen Ling smiled, the locals often say, 'The north eats eggs, the south eats geese, just watch them in the meantime.' This is talking about wild geese, but it's not all kinds of cranes.
Except for egrets, magazis, water camels and the like, there has never been a settlement of large migratory birds here.
Every spring and autumn, people go through the motions here.
But now, this group of cranes will build nests and lay eggs here, which means they regard this place as another home.
This means that from now on, they will also live here.
What a joy.
“Wow, this is great, we will also have cranes here in the future.”
"I want to watch the crane lay eggs. After laying the eggs, I want to hold the baby crane and raise it."
"I want to raise it too."
"..."
Only on TV The cranes I saw in pictures in school and textbooks actually wanted to live near my home, build nests, lay eggs, and hatch their young.
The things in the story happened before our eyes.
For the children, this feeling is so happy.
At this time, Wang Qingwen suddenly remembered Zhao Gang who left in a hurry on a motorcycle with his dog in the morning, and couldn't help but burst into laughter: "That Comrade Zhao Gang left in a hurry, and now he missed another thing. It’s a rare thing.”
“Don’t talk about him. I guess Uncle Zhao and the others will regret not following Baoshuan up the mountain to pick mushrooms today.”
Chen Ling said jokingly, missing it. Such an interesting thing, he had already imagined the expressions of the two old men.
……
This person, after becoming interested in one thing, will frequently focus on it.
In the next two days, Chen Ling and his uncle would often quietly search around the mountains and rivers and ditches.
After this exploration.
Sure enough, we found that cranes and egrets were constantly picking up dead branches and straw to build nests.
The same goes for the six red-crowned cranes.
He usually eats and drinks in the village in a grand manner and is waited on.
But at noon or dusk, when no one is around, they will sneak around and pick up dead branches and grass stalks near the wheat field or under the big trees beside the road.
When they see people, they pick up dead branches from a distance and fly away with a squawking sound.
Usually they are carefree towards people, but when it comes to laying eggs, these thieving birds have become cautious.
It's just a sneaky look, which makes people look very funny.
In order not to disturb them, Chen Ling and Wang Qingwen did not take the dogs with them when they came out. They chose some time when they went out to look for food to explore the situation near their nests.
Then I found out.
Like the group of red-crowned cranes, many of the egrets and green herons also build nests in the reeds and grass.
And there are all kinds of places to choose from.
Some are around the mountain lake, some are on the mountain behind the farm, some are by the river ditch at the foot of the mountain, and some are on the grass and trees behind the Tutu Temple...
It sounds like it's not far from the farm.
And the closer there are, the more positions there are. In order to compete for positions, these cranes and herons often fight with each other.
Chen Ling’s family, including Chen Ling, were puzzled at first.
Also thought they were stealing fish to eat.
Later it was discovered that it was not the case.
But to guard against eagles.
(End of this chapter)