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

After releasing the hawk, Yue Feng and Grandpa Liu checked the bait pigeons again to make sure there were no problems. Finally, they rearranged the net and hung it back on the bamboo pole.

“This old hawk must have been caught in the net for a while! Look at all the hawks flapping their wings around it!” Little Eagle Liu remarked, glancing at the details on the ground.

Yue Feng grinned: "It's nothing, the eagle isn't injured, and the decoy is fine too. It's just a little delay!"

Shall we go check out the second shipment? I have a feeling it's arrived over there too!

Little Eagle Liu nodded and said as they walked, "Judging from your first reaction, I know you're a true eagle lover at heart! Even eagles you don't need are still on your mind!"
When I was learning to catch and train eagles from my master, the old man mentioned this to me before: when catching eagles with nets, you must be careful to patrol the nets!

If we skip a single trip during the middle of the trip, the eagle caught in the net might suffer for half a day longer!
Caught in a net is great in every way, but it's really bad for eagles. If you're unlucky enough to fall into the net, your fascia on both sides of your wings will get caught in it. If the eagle is a bit restless, it might even injure the fascia over time!

Even with the most meticulous care, such an eagle, once properly raised, will most likely never be able to fly!

Yue Feng sensed a hint of self-reproach in Grandpa Liu's voice, so he comforted him, "Haha, it's nothing!"
Winter is not an easy season for ice fishing!
It's only fair that you're feeling better today, so it's perfectly reasonable for you to play a little longer! The eagle isn't injured either, so there's no need to feel so guilty!

"At worst, we'll just patrol the net a few more times in the coming days!"

Upon hearing this, Little Eagle Liu glanced at Yue Feng and said, "You know, you're quick-witted! All you do is say nice things to comfort this old man."

Old Li is extremely addicted to fishing. He learned something from you this time. I'm afraid that after catching the eagle, he'll still be thinking about ice fishing. In this freezing cold, the old man really can't stand it for long!

Besides, we came all this way in Xiao Dong's car! It's all out of courtesy!

Yue Feng grinned and said, "Grandpa, don't worry about that! We came to catch eagles to help Xiao Dong. Although he'll definitely give us some money as a token of appreciation after we complete the task, we can't offset the goodwill with money!"
Besides, you and my Uncle Li also have shares in the club!
"What's wrong with letting Xiao Dong be the driver a few times? The guys who hang out with Young Master Jin aren't that fussy!"

"Hehe, if you put it that way, then this old man won't be so bothered!"

Don't worry, everything's fine!

……

The two people, one old and one young, chatted quietly as they walked, and before they knew it, they had arrived at the location of the second mountain area.

The path along the reservoir was closer to the flat area near the river fork that Yue Feng had chosen, so the two of them went there first.

On the flat ground beside the river fork, with no obstruction, Yue Feng and Grandpa Liu could see an eagle crashing into a net from a great distance.

"Hehe, I knew it was a hit! Another one!" Yue Feng muttered to himself, then scurried off to the edge of the net.

When I got closer, I saw the true face of the eagle on the ground.

A sub-adult white-tailed eagle from that year.

Seeing the character "鹞" in the name of an eagle, some people might think it's a hunting eagle similar to a sparrowhawk, and wonder if it has some special physical characteristics that give it this name.

Actually not.

The white-tailed harrier is not a special breed of sparrowhawk, but a separate species of raptor that is classified alongside the sparrowhawk.

Because of its relatively long lower legs, this creature is sometimes called "stubble-legged hawk" in some local dialects. It is a kind of hawk that looks good but is useless, and its status is similar to that of ordinary hawks, which are all untrainable miscellaneous hawks.

The white-tailed eagle must have been caught in the net not long ago, struggling incessantly. When it saw people approaching, it struggled even more violently, while making chirping noises.

Yue Feng knew that this guy was as powerful as the snake-eagle with its long legs, so he took out an eagle-shaped jacket from his bag to attract the eagle's attention and covered the eagle with the jacket.

As it flailing its claws at the eagle's coat, Yue Feng seized the opportunity to press down on the white-tailed eagle's back.

After successfully controlling the white-tailed eagle, they calmly removed the net.

It was in perfect condition, with its whiskers and tail intact. Yue Feng waved his hand, and this time he didn't even bother to ask Grandpa Liu. He simply let go and threw the eagle into the air.

"Damn! What a disappointment! We caught a shriveled eagle from back then! There are quite a few mixed eagles around here at the reservoir!" Yue Feng said to Liu, the little eagle who had arrived later, while tidying up the nets.

Grandpa Liu jogged over, a little out of breath: "There are indeed quite a few eagles. The winter before last, I even saw an eagle here at the reservoir!"

"Eagle? What kind of eagle? A golden eagle?" Yue Feng immediately became interested upon hearing the word "eagle".

Grandpa Liu shook his head: "It shouldn't be a golden eagle, it's more like a steppe eagle or a black eagle! Look at its wingspan, it's huge, and it's coiled up on top of my head without moving at all!"

A few days after I got back, I was drinking with a friend who makes specimens, and I casually mentioned this incident. He got quite excited when he heard it.

Large specimens can be worth some money! He urged me several times, but I never told him the location!
These flying animals, it's not easy for them to survive the dead of winter. Let's try our best not to harm them!

Hearing this, Yue Feng nodded. The old man's attitude was the same as Yue Feng's: take only what is needed and do not cause harm.

Seeing Yue Feng re-hang the net, Grandpa Liu said quietly, "I wonder how my net is doing!"

In previous years, that area had the second highest success rate for harvesting, second only to the hawthorn orchard! Let's go take a look!

"Let's go!" Yue Feng carefully swept away the footprints beside him and backed away.

The free-falling net beside the river fork and the free-falling net in the middle of the three groves were not far apart. After walking for less than five minutes, the two arrived at the location of the third net.

The net remained perfectly still, with all four sides hanging there intact, and the pigeons tied inside looked just as normal!

I'm completely free!
Seeing that everything was normal after his arrest, Grandpa Liu curled his lip and said, "Tsk tsk, that's a bit of a slap in the face!"
I figured this place, since it's been netted, would at least yield some catch, but I got nothing at all. You might as well have caught a white-tailed eagle!

"Haha, just lucky! It's all uncertain! If you know how to catch them, just catch one that's useful. Whether it's an old hawk or a white-tailed hawk, catching more of these mixed hawks won't do any good!"
There's still one more net; let's go check that out!

Yue Feng chuckled and turned to head towards the last spot where the net had been cast.

The net had just been emptied, and this was the last one. Little Eagle Liu's expectations weren't too high, since the terrain here wasn't as advantageous as before.

And so, filled with anticipation, the father and son arrived at the first spot where they had been caught.

From a distance, Yue Feng saw a black and gray eagle soar into the sky from the middle of the net.

"Holy crap, an eagle! It got startled and flew away!"

When Yue Feng saw this scene, his heart skipped a beat.

The distance was too far, over a hundred meters, so Yue Feng could only make out the eagle's outline and general color scheme, but not the specific details. However, the way it took off vertically from the middle of the net and soared into the sky was a very vivid memory for him.

As mentioned earlier, the self-trapping net has a shape and size. The net used by Little Eagle Liu here is two meters long and one and a half meters wide.

The net surrounds the pigeons in the middle. If an ordinary eagle wants to catch a pigeon, it will definitely swoop in from four directions to catch the pigeon and make it crash into the net.

In all the years Yue Feng has been catching eagles, the only exception is his own big black eagle.

Not only is the Black Hawk clever, but it can also land in the self-trapping net to eat without touching the net, and it can even take off vertically.

Now, in the reservoir, he's unexpectedly encountered the same thing again. How could Yue Feng not be excited?

Little Eagle Liu also witnessed this escape scene, which was clearly different from that of an ordinary eagle.

"Tsk tsk, what kind of eagle is this? Interesting! Let's go take a look!" Grandpa Liu said meaningfully.

Yue Feng: "Let's go! This eagle is definitely no ordinary creature!"
Apart from my black gyrfalcon, I've never seen an eagle that can freely enter and exit a trap without crashing into it!

This is the second one I've seen today!

The two of them jogged over and quickly saw the state of Zi Luo in the net.

The pigeon was strangled to death, and many feathers on its back and neck were plucked off. Judging from the state of the plucked feathers, it had been killed no more than five minutes ago.

Before even seeing the wounds on the pigeon, Yue Feng had already gleaned some information from the circumstances of its death.

"That eagle's something else, old man! It crushed the pigeon in one swipe!"

Little Eagle Liu nodded, opened one side of the net, and took out the dead pigeon tied inside.

"It's really powerful. The eagle's claws must be incredibly strong. Otherwise, even if a normal eagle catches a pigeon, it would still be barely alive for a while before it dies, even if it scratches and plucks its feathers!"

Look at the feathers on its body. Not many have been plucked yet, but the pigeon is already completely dead. This shows that it was seriously injured!
Normally, only large birds of prey like eagles have talons with that kind of power!

As he spoke, Little Eagle Liu continued to pluck the feathers off the pigeon's carcass with his bare hands. After a flurry of activity, the pigeon was basically bald, leaving it completely naked.

Now, the position of the eagle's talons could be seen clearly.

There are two deep triangular notches on the back and side of the crop, which are fatal wounds caused by the most powerful rings of the eagle's talons. There are also small wounds from the middle and side claws on the side.

Seeing the wounds left by the eagle's claws, Yue Feng carefully examined his neck and other areas for any injuries.

After a thorough inspection, the pigeon showed no injuries to its neck. This detail immediately put Yue Feng's mind at ease.

"Xiaofeng, why are you shaking your head? Look at the marks left by those big claws. If you squeezed it, the pigeon would bleed to death!"

Little Eagle Liu was still immersed in the excitement of the reasoning and reconstruction process, and looked at Yue Feng shaking his head with some curiosity.

Yue Feng said, "I'm checking the pigeon carcass for bite marks on its neck and head. Judging from this, the eagle we just saw wasn't a falcon!"

Eagles have powerful talons, while falcons have relatively weaker talons, but they prefer to use their sharp beaks to bite the neck of their prey during hunting.

Whether it's the Great Black Hawk or other falcons, they all have similar habits. Even a small falcon as big as a stag beetle will kill a sparrow as soon as it catches it.

Grandpa Liu nodded: "No wonder you shook your head! This is definitely not a wound left by a falcon!"
Judging from the eagle's takeoff posture and body proportions, I feel it must be a large eagle, and not just any large eagle from back then; judging from its coloration, it's at least a two-year-old eagle!

Faced with Grandpa Liu's judgment, Yue Feng was at a loss for words.

His attention was focused on the enormous impact of the eagle soaring vertically from the net, and he hadn't noticed the eagle's size or proportions at all.

“Ordinary eagles don’t have such thick talons. This eagle gives me the feeling that if it has talons this big, it must weigh more than two pounds and seven or eight ounces!” Yue Feng said calmly.

“Yes, I think your judgment is correct! Ordinary eagles definitely can’t grow such big claws. Look at the spacing between these claws!” Little Eagle Liu pointed with his fingers as he spoke.

"What do we do next? Move to another spot? Or should we take this net back first? If the eagle comes back, the current net definitely won't be able to catch it!" Yue Feng asked, looking at Little Eagle Liu.

The eagle knows to avoid being caught in the net and knows to take off vertically when people arrive. So tying up a new pigeon and waiting for it to come is pointless and will only result in another pigeon losing its life.

Yue Feng did have a corresponding solution, such as using a rope or other "unorthodox" technique, but he wasn't prepared on hand right now. In addition, out of respect for Grandpa Liu, he decided to listen to his opinion first.

Little Eagle Liu thought for a moment: "The eagle didn't get to eat the pigeon meat, which means we still have a chance! Let's leave the net for now and come back first thing tomorrow morning with a new tool!"

"A new tool? What?"

"Set up a swatting net! Place the swatting net directly inside the self-trapping net! Dig shallow pits in the ground to disguise it, cover them with loose soil, and tie pigeons on them! No matter how smart it is, it can't be as smart as a human!" Little Eagle Liu said with a very clear mind.

"Hey, that's a good idea!" Yue Feng nodded immediately upon hearing Grandpa Liu's plan.

The principle of a swatting net is similar to that of a mousetrap, except that the frame of the net is several sizes larger!

The triggering method is to step on the pedal or stick. As long as the position of the decoy is controlled and the net is disguised, any eagle that dares to try to sneak in from above the net to steal food will be caught 100% of the time!
"Let's go back first, we'll leave this for now!" Little Eagle Liu stuffed the dead pigeon into his pocket and decisively turned back.

Yue Feng was quite surprised to see that the old man had come up with a plan to capture this special eagle in such a short time.

This strategy is much smarter than Yue Feng's own method of catching eagles with a rope.

If we had used a net when we were catching the black eagle, we might have caught it during the time we went to catch it, instead of wasting so much time and only meeting it again when we went into the mountains to hunt.

The appearance of that special eagle made Yue Feng and Little Eagle Liu quite excited on their way back.

It's not a big deal if we can't catch it right now. Time is on the hunter's side. As long as we have a good eagle, we'll catch it sooner or later.

On the way, Grandpa Liu told Yue Feng more details about his hawk-catching net. Yue Feng was even more impressed, realizing that the old man had a unique skill in catching hawks.

This swatting net alone is a mechanism that even ordinary hawkers wouldn't know how to use!
The combination of being caught in the net and then slammed into it was enough to ensure that the eagle would never return.

I just don't know how old this clever fellow is, and whether he'll be suitable for training once we catch him. (End of Chapter)