Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

The white eagle, with its crop that was about 80% full, had at least three pieces of armor plating torn off from the shaft of its right talon, revealing pink flesh and skin wounds underneath.

This is the wound from the rabbit bite. Although it tripped over the rabbit's foot and didn't bite completely, it still managed to lift the roof tile, causing a noticeable injury.

The injury looked serious, but Yue Feng initially judged it to be a minor cut to the skin and flesh, without damaging the bones or tendons.

The eagle's talons are functioning normally; it only needs simple treatment and will recover in a few days once the scabs form.

What truly made Yue Feng frown was the eagle's primary wing feathers and large tail feathers.

Just now, while fighting with the fox in the haystack, the white eagle spread its wings and tail to the ground to maintain its balance.

During this process, three wingtips on the left wing showed varying degrees of creases.

In addition, two of the large feathers on its tail were broken.

The creases on the wingtips are relatively lighter, but the creases on the large tail feathers are quite obvious. Although they are not broken, the normal structure of the feather tube has been completely destroyed and must be treated.

"What's wrong, Xiao Yue? You don't look well!"

After seeing Yue Feng frown, Xiao Weimin asked him with concern.

Yue Feng sighed: "The eagle's wingtip and tail feathers are broken! Its shaft is also injured! Damn it, that darn fox has ruined our important business!"

"The eagle's large feather is broken? Where? Let me see!"

Yue Feng pointed to the problematic areas and showed them to Xiao Weimin: "Look, look here, here, and here! They all need to be fixed!"

"What should we do? Is it too much trouble?"

Yue Feng sighed, "Let's go home first! I want to find a way to deal with it!"

For eagles, their feathers and talons are their hunting tools.

If the wingtip is broken, flight speed and balance will be easily affected. If the tail feathers are broken, slowing down, turning, and changing direction will all be affected.

Furthermore, for a top-tier falconer with aspirations, releasing a falcon should be as precise as if it were cut by a knife or axe. This reflects both the skill of the falconer and the pursuit of mastery in falconry.

The eagle has left its owner's grasp, leaving behind a trail of broken and mangled feathers. Wherever it goes, it will be a laughing stock if seen by knowledgeable people.

This top-quality white eagle Yuefeng has already been promised to Xiao Weimin. When Lao Xiao goes back after filming is over, he will definitely take it with him.

The damage to the feathers is irreversible in a short time, and if it is not repaired properly, it will directly affect the reputation of Yue Feng, a top-notch falconer.

And so, after Yue Feng said he was going back, the crew packed up their equipment and followed him back.

He hadn't gone far when Yue Feng saw something that infuriated him.

The red-haired old rabbit who had successfully escaped by diverting the blame and killing someone else hadn't gone far. It was currently squatting on the small earthen mound to the south, observing the group of people walking back.

The red fur on its back was exceptionally vibrant under the sunlight, but in Yue Feng's eyes, it was a blatant provocation!
"Damn it!" Yue Feng couldn't hold back and cursed again.

Xiao Weimin followed Yue Feng's gaze and looked over. When he saw the distinctive red-haired old rabbit squatting there looking around, his anger flared up.

"Damn it! This rabbit hasn't run away yet! Come back tomorrow, bring a gun. If the eagle can't catch it, shoot this bastard dead!" Xiao Weimin said, somewhat angrily.

Yue Feng took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, saying, "No need for a gun. If it doesn't work tomorrow, I'll bring my big black eagle from home! If I can't kick it to death, then I'm just incompetent!"

"Okay, we can also film some footage of different eagles catching rabbits! Let's do it your way!"

"Let's go back first, we can talk about other things later!"

"it is good!"

……

After returning to their car with the prey that Cheng Ying had caught that day, Yue Feng and his group retraced their steps.

Once home, Yue Feng immediately got to work without even having lunch.

In fact, professional falconers have corresponding techniques to deal with the problem of broken falcon feathers.

The feathers of adult birds of prey have hollow shafts in the middle, with some air chamber-like fuzzy support structures.

If a hawk's feathers are accidentally broken during release or other circumstances, there are several different ways to handle the situation.

The first type, where the crease is relatively minor, can be addressed by bringing the spout of a boiling kettle close to the crease.

High-temperature steam will heat the crease.

The air chambers inside the feather shaft are affected by thermal expansion and contraction, much like the principle of ironing clothes; slight creases can be repaired.

The second method, if it's a large tail feather and the feather is broken from the middle or near the base of the tail, is not effective in restoring it with hot water steam.

The barbs are severely creased, and the flocculent air cell structure has been completely destroyed.

At this point, to repair it, you would typically use sharp scissors to cut along the crease, and then use a sewing needle of suitable thickness with glue as a structural connector to reconnect the broken feather shaft.

The third type is birds of prey with severely damaged feathers. For example, if someone who doesn't know any better catches a top-quality falcon and doesn't properly raise it, but instead puts it directly into a chicken or duck cage.

Eagles cannot freely roam in cages, and in their desperate struggles, their wings and tail feathers are often severely damaged.

In this situation, it would be quite difficult to restore the eagle's ability to fly.

Alternatively, you can be ruthless and cut the broken feathers all the way to the root, then manually pull them out a few days later and wait for new feather tubes to grow naturally.

Alternatively, one could collect shed feathers from other birds of prey and repair them by cutting, gluing, and other methods to restore the eagle's feathers and enable it to fly again.

Now, the feathers of the white eagle, especially the sharp creases on its wings, can be treated with high-temperature steam first. The feather shafts here are too thin to be joined with a needle.

Yue Feng first used his eagle-patterned coat to wrap the white eagle and temporarily restrain it. Then, he carefully placed the kettle spout at the crease of the eagle's wingtip.

As the white steam took effect intermittently, the originally very obvious creases visibly healed.

After repeated cooling and this process was repeated several times, the creases on the wingtips recovered to about 80-90%. If it does not suffer similar damage again, it will definitely be able to fly without any problems.

After fixing the broken wing tip, Yue Feng went back inside to find some sewing needles and got to work.

Attaching feathers to an eagle's tail is a delicate task. If there is even the slightest mistake, such as the feather shafts not fitting properly or bending, it will directly affect the bird's flight performance.

Yue Feng found a local egg, then took out the egg white, dipped a sewing needle in the egg white, and then poked the center of the feather shaft with the needle tip.

Once one end is secured, repeat the process to secure the other end.

Once the egg white dried, the broken tail feather was successfully reattached. Most of the splice was inside the hollow quill, with only the original crease faintly visible. It took Yue Feng almost an hour to finish repairing these few broken feathers.

Unfasten the white eagle's coat and hold it in your hand.

The white eagle seemed to realize that its feathers were damaged. It shook its feathers a few times with some unease, and then turned its head to comb the creases in its tail feathers.

The tail feathers that are attached with steel needles will have a slightly different weight than before. This slight difference will not have a significant impact on the eagle's flight, but the eagle can still sense the difference.

This feeling is similar to when someone has a cavity and the dentist fills it with filling. It takes time to get used to it, and once you get used to it, you won't notice it anymore.

Yue Feng finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the eagle turn its head and preen the broken feather several times before gradually calming down.

Although I haven't been able to re-feather the eagle, my skills are still there, and the feathers on the white eagle have been processed perfectly.

Seeing Yue Feng's relaxed expression, Xiao Weimin reminded him, "The feathers have been reattached, but the wounds on the eagle's talons haven't been treated yet!"

Yue Feng slapped his forehead, turned around and went into the house to get hydrogen peroxide and Yunnan Baiyao for disinfection.

This minor external injury doesn't seem serious. Simple disinfection to prevent inflammation is all that's needed. With the raptor's powerful recovery ability, it will heal in no time.

After another round of applying medicine, the eagle's problem was finally temporarily resolved.

"Everyone's been busy all morning and must be hungry! Let's eat!" After putting the eagle on its perch for a short rest, Yue Feng finally felt his stomach growling.

Well, I was so focused that I didn't even realize I was hungry.

After lunch, Yue Feng became somewhat idle, while Xiao Weimin and the others got busy.

Although we didn't catch many prey in the morning, we captured a lot of classic footage.

The chase scene where the white eagle successfully catches its first prey, the subsequent chase scene with the red-haired rabbit, and the scene of it eating the fox after catching it are all very valuable footage.

Since we weren't going out in the afternoon, the staff naturally couldn't be idle. They needed to roughly organize the footage, make corresponding written records, and wait for the detailed editing and processing later.

After treating the eagle's broken feathers and external injuries, Yue Feng initially thought the problem was minor.

But in the afternoon, he noticed a detail and frowned to himself.

The white eagle standing on the scaffold raised its injured talon, and in broad daylight, the falcon was doing a one-legged pose with only one leg.

Seeing this, Yue Feng's heart skipped a beat, and he had a bad feeling.

As evening approached, Yue Feng took another look at the location of the wound on the white eagle.

Compared to when I returned at noon, after an afternoon of development, the wound on the white eagle has shown signs of swelling.

This indicates that although the bite from the rabbit did not cause a serious wound, it certainly caused some damage to the muscles and fascia beneath the eagle's talons.

Only in this situation would an eagle's claws swell!

Yue Feng carefully touched the eagle claw with the back of his hand and felt that the local temperature was slightly higher than normal.

"Director Xiao, the condition of this white eagle is a little more serious than I expected at noon! The eagle's injured talon is swollen!" Yue Feng said to Xiao Weimin.

"Your paw is swollen? Is it serious? Should we go to a hospital or something and get a professional to treat it?"

Xiao Weimin was quite nervous when he heard that the eagle's claws were swollen, since these things directly affected the filming schedule, and they also needed to be taken back with them when they left.

Yue Feng shook his head: "I feel that the problem is not too big!"
The rabbit bit the eagle's exposed shaft, so it should have some kind of soft tissue contusion or other internal injury! But I can assure you, there was absolutely no broken bone or tendon!

Otherwise, the injured talon wouldn't have been strong enough to overcome the red fox!

"what is it now?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll go to the village barefoot doctor and find some golden-edged earthworms. I'll grind them into powder, mix them with the meat, and feed them to him. That should reduce the swelling!"

"Okay, if it doesn't work, we'll think of another way! It would be such a waste if such a good eagle had problems with its talons!"

"OK!"

After a brief exchange, Yue Feng said goodbye and left home to find medicine to treat the eagle's injuries at the village's barefoot doctor's house.

Yue Feng returned in less than half an hour.

He took out a piece of gray powder wrapped in paper from his pocket, then mixed it with a portion of blood food meant for eagles, and fed it directly to the white eagle.

Since the eagle was injured, the practice of keeping it up all night by lamplight was definitely not an option. After feeding it extra meat, Yue Feng tied the eagle to its perch to rest.

That night, Yue Feng got up several times to check on the eagle's condition.

This guy spent the whole night in a pose where he stood on one leg with his head tucked under his wing.

The next morning, when Yue Feng checked the white eagle's claws again, the wounds had scabbed over and dried, and most importantly, the swelling had subsided. The eagle was now able to land its claws on the ground from time to time.

"Alright! I'll rest for another day, and I should be back to normal by tomorrow! In three to five days, the scabs should have healed!" Yue Feng said with a rather cheerful mood.

Xiao Weimin also breathed a sigh of relief. He exhaled a puff of smoke and asked, "So, are we still going to shoot footage today? You said yesterday that you were going to take Big Black Eagle to catch that red-haired old rabbit. Are we still going?"

"Go, why not go! That damn thing injured our eagle yesterday and didn't run away, it even dared to mock us! We have to catch it, chop it into eight pieces and stew it with radishes!"

"Hehe, wild rabbit stew with radish, this stuff is delicious!"

"Let's eat first, and then we'll set off! Wild rabbits all have their own territories, and that old red rabbit from yesterday is definitely still in that area!"

"Today I'll show you how long it takes a truly top-tier falcon, working in tandem with a skilled hound, to take down this cunning old rabbit!"

"The Black Eagle and the Azure Dragon team up? Don't they fight? I saw that Gouzi was quite wary of the White Eagle yesterday!" Xiao Weimin's curiosity was piqued again upon hearing this.

“Fight? Those two don’t fight! In our hunting team’s eagle and hound gang, Big Black Hawk is the boss of all the hunting dogs! His status is second only to me!”

Yue Feng smiled and explained, then went to the warehouse to retrieve the large black eagle, and called Canglong over.

"Azure Dragon, carry the Great Black Eagle and take it for a spin around the yard!"

After saying this, Yue Feng casually placed the big black eagle on the dog's back.

The next second, Xiao Weimin saw a somewhat comical scene.

The Azure Dragon wasn't afraid of the Black Eagle at all, and carried the Black Eagle around the yard in circles.

Looking at the large black eagle again, it didn't even lift its eyelids, squatting there completely relaxed. (End of Chapter)