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

"It doesn't have wingtips, but rather pointed wings like a swallow's! However, there's something strange about it; I feel this eagle is quite large!"

"Hmm?" Yue Feng frowned slightly upon hearing Xiao Weimin's words.

Xiao Weimin continued to explain: "I made a point of observing your two black and white gyrfalcons when they were flying around before, so I can understand the approximate size and proportions of falcons in the air!"
That eagle this morning, I have a feeling, was probably slightly larger than your gyrfalcon!

Upon hearing this, Yue Feng immediately perked up.

"Bigger than my family's giant black eagle? And its wingtips don't have wingtips?"

Xiao Weimin nodded with great certainty: "Yes! It should be at least the same size as a black eagle, and a size larger than the relatively common peregrine falcon and saker falcon!"

Because I spend so much time handling photography equipment, my spatial perception is better than the average person's; I definitely wouldn't be mistaken!

Yue Feng frowned slightly and thought for a few seconds before saying, "If you're not mistaken, it might be a gyrfalcon that came from the nearby mountains!"
The gyrfalcon is already the largest known bird of prey! There aren't any larger ones!

Upon hearing Yue Feng's guess that it might be a gyrfalcon, Jin Long couldn't help but interrupt, asking, "What? It might be a gyrfalcon? Isn't this a bit early in the season? Aren't gyrfals active at much higher latitudes? Can they come to Eagle Village in autumn at this time?"

Yue Feng shook his head: "I don't know! There are very few records about the gyrfalcon in China. Even my family's older generation only left behind a few words!"

The big black eagle I keep at home was encountered in the mountains during winter, and then I managed to catch it! The other little white eagle was also the first time I saw it that winter!

"What should we do then? Let's keep watch at the eagle post on the sunny side, just in case it comes back?" Jinlong suggested.

Yue Feng clicked his tongue: "Even if it comes again, we still can't do anything about it!"
The area was covered in dust, making it too conspicuous. Eagle came several times but couldn't entice the prey and left; he must be wary of these things!

"If only people could fly! If it dared to come, we could just fly over and catch it!" Jinlong casually made up a joke as the conversation flowed.

What was said in jest was taken seriously by the listener; a flash of lightning seemed to strike Yue Feng's mind in an instant.

I've got a plan!
"I've got an idea. If it dares to come any closer, maybe we can get our hands on it!" Yue Feng said with great certainty.

"What's the trick? Tell us!" Jinlong, Ye Xiaojun, and Xiao Weimin all turned to look at him with curiosity.

Yue Feng waved his hand and looked at Jinlong: "Don't rush to tell us the tricks. Those who are safe should hide first. Let's hide and see if it comes or not!"

"Young Master Jin, could you please go to our eagle enclosure on the shady slope and retrieve the owl I caught?"

When it came to important matters, Jinlong didn't hesitate: "Okay, I'll go get it. Do you need anything else?"

"Bring me my tool bag from the mountain too!"

"it is good!"

Jinlong responded and headed towards Yingpu on the shady side, while the others all hid back in their shacks on the sunny side.

Encountering a rare specimen resembling a gyrfalcon while hunting eagles is about as likely as winning five million dollars in the lottery with a two-dollar bet.

Even though Yue Feng's family has a considerable stock of gyrfalcons, they still attach great importance to this rare wild-caught falcon.

If we manage to get our hands on one, we can at least put in the effort to try pairing them up and expand the genetic diversity of our gyrfalcon population, which is of great significance for long-term breeding.

The group hid in the shack, and for a moment it was so quiet that they could hear each other breathing.

About twenty minutes later, Jinlong took down the owl and the tool bag and returned to the hut on the sunny slope halfway up the mountain.

"We've retrieved the item. What's the next step? Should we replace the bait with an owl? Or try to catch that falcon like we caught the golden eagle?" Jinlong continued to ask.

Yue Feng shook his head: "You just said that we humans can't fly, that reminded me! I've got an idea! We humans can't fly, but decoys can! I'll give them a crooked trick!"

"A crooked trick? How do you do that?"

"Let's have the lurer carry the net on its back for the eagle to catch!" Yue Feng said mysteriously.

"Let the luring bird carry the net on its back for the eagle to catch? What does that mean? The eagle's net is so big, the luring bird can't carry it!"

Faced with Yue Feng's seemingly illogical answer, the crowd couldn't grasp the point at all.

Yue Feng didn't explain further, but instead took things out of his toolbox and got busy.

The first thing was a thin leather vest made for the pigeons.

This thing is designed to reduce the damage to bait pigeons from long-term hawk hunting. With ordinary methods of tying pigeons, frequently pulling on the hawk's crutch can easily cripple the pigeon's leg.

After putting on a vest, the rope is tied to the back of the vest, which will not easily cause harm to the pigeons.

But this time, Yue Feng's thoughts changed. With Jin Long's reminder, he remembered seeing on a forum in his previous life how foreign falconry enthusiasts used carnivorous pigeons to carry slipknots to catch peregrine falcons.

Despite its considerable weight and impressive flight speed, the gyrfalcon's actual carrying capacity is not particularly high.

Take Yue Feng's black eagle as an example. The maximum weight it can carry when flying with its prey is only a little over one or two kilograms.

Yue Feng had observed and measured this data more than once during the spring when the gyrfalcon couple went out hunting to raise their young.

Once the captured prey weighs more than two pounds, the black eagle will use its sharp teeth to dismember the prey and only bring back a portion of it.

Using a regular, clumsy pigeon as a snare to catch a large falcon is risky because the weight difference is too great. Even if you manage to snare the pigeon, the falcon can easily snatch it away.

But if you replace the bait with that two-pound owl, it's a different story.

As long as the falcon Xiao Weimin mentioned dares to show itself, Yue Feng will deliberately let the decoy carrying a full set of snares go. As long as the falcon dares to strike, then everything will be fine!

Yue Feng took out tools from his toolbox, punched a lot of small holes in the leather vest, and then fixed a loop made of thick nylon thread to each hole.

In less than an hour, the leather vest with rope loops was made. The back was covered with a dense array of loops, so that if the falcon dared to swoop down, it would most likely get its feet caught and be unable to escape easily.

"Young Master Jin, take off that owl's eagle coat! Give me a hand and help me put this leather vest on it!" Yue Feng called out.

Now everyone realized what Yue Feng was up to.

"Damn! You're always full of clever ideas! So that's what it meant to put an owl on a net!" Jinlong couldn't help but complain.

"Hehe, be careful not to get scratched by the owl, its claws are pretty sharp too!" Yue Feng reminded him.

Jinlong had personally trained and hunted golden eagles, so he naturally knew the power of these birds of prey's claws and the details of how to avoid scratching them.

He carefully untied the eagle coat and used his hands to restrain the Ulin Owl, which was still intact.

The two men worked together to put the owl in a leather vest, then checked it to make sure it was secure and wouldn't fall off.

The fully armed owl looked like a mutated hedgehog, its back covered in dense ropes, enough to trigger trypophobia in anyone who saw it.

Yue Feng inspected his masterpiece and was very satisfied with it.

"Tsk tsk, not bad! The actual wearing effect is even better than expected! It's definitely enough!"

"Such a big owl, wouldn't a gyrfalcon be able to carry it away?" Xiao Weimin asked curiously. Yue Feng shook his head: "Most likely not! Falcons have limited wing width, suitable for swooping down, not for riding in the wind! Their carrying capacity is much smaller than that of raptors with wider wings! But if you're still worried, we can add some weight!"

"Counterweight?"

Yue Feng nodded and, as if by magic, took out several net weights for self-falling nets from a hidden compartment in his tool bag.

These things are all made of lead, and each one weighs about an ounce.

Yue Feng used a rope to thread through the eye of the lead weight and fix it to both sides of the leather vest, so that the owl's total weight was two ounces heavier than its original weight.

A two-pound owl carrying a two-ounce lead weight and a leather vest weighing a little over an ounce can definitely fly a short distance without any problems.

Once the falcon catches the other's foot, the lead weight becomes an extra burden.

Seeing that Yue Feng had handcrafted a new bait for catching eagles, everyone couldn't help but look forward to the falcon that had visited the eagle shop several times.

This wait lasted for a whole day.

The three Yue brothers stayed there from morning until almost evening, but they didn't see the falcon.

Of course, there were other gains as well. During the day, they caught two broken goshawks, a male and a female, which were not worth taming, so Yue Feng released them on the spot.

As dusk approached and the sun began to set, Xiao Weimin still hadn't seen the falcon, and he felt a little embarrassed.

"Ugh, what a waste of your day! That big guy might have flown away!"

Yue Feng, on the other hand, had a much better mindset. Raptors have a very large activity radius, and when they first discovered the Great Black Hawk, it wasn't just once or twice that they managed to capture it.

Yue Feng stayed on the mountain for a week but still didn't get anything.

Yue Feng laughed and comforted him, "Haha, it's alright! Nothing is 100% certain! Great falcons usually hunt in the morning. After they've eaten their fill, they might find a place to rest or continue their migration with the wind!"

There's no strong wind today, so I reckon the birds of prey will continue to linger around here. We'll have another chance tomorrow!

"Alright, shall we stop here for today and head down the mountain?"

"Okay, let's go down the mountain!"

……

After a brief exchange, the group went down the mountain together and took a car from the foot of the mountain back to the guesthouse in town.

Today's whole day wasn't a complete waste of time. Yue Feng managed to keep the black-faced blue eagle, and the red-haired eagle with a white back that scratched Xiao Ma could also be kept as a color sample.

When they returned to the guesthouse, all the hawk hunters who had scattered to catch hawks during the day had returned. Those who had caught hawks were waiting for Yue Feng to select them in the small square.

After last night's selection and communication, the eagles brought today are of significantly higher quality.

The birds were mainly peregrine falcons and goshawks, and I also saw a male saker falcon (a type of falcon) from that year.

The breeds were all right, but luck was a little off. There wasn't a single eagle that looked good. They were either two or three-year-old eagles or mediocre fledglings from that year, with no value in keeping them.

After inspecting the release of the birds in person, Secretary Li approached with a smile.

"Comrades, the shrike you asked me to catch has been caught! Do you need anything else?"

Yue Feng glanced down at the birdcage being carried by the staff member next door. Inside, several bull shrikes were making a ruckus, and the most temperamental old one had even bruised its nose.

"Thank you, Secretary Li, these few are enough! We've troubled you!"

Secretary Li waved his hand repeatedly with a big smile: "No trouble at all. The crew member was injured by an eagle. I have already sent someone to accompany him for treatment. If we have any manpower available, I can arrange for someone to go and help!"

"No need for that. Where are the wounded? Are they staying in the hospital?" Yue Feng asked again.

"No, I wanted to send them to the city hospital for the highest standard of treatment, but the wounded refused. They had their wounds cleaned and bandaged and came back. They should be in their guesthouse room now!"

"Okay, thank you!" Yue Feng said again.

"As usual, we've prepared a feast at the same place we ate yesterday. Shall we have a bite to eat there?" Secretary Li invited sincerely.

In this kind of situation, you definitely have to give them face.

Yue Feng knew that Secretary Li had done so much to make friends with these people from the capital. If he couldn't even be bothered with such formalities, it would be difficult to ask for help later.

After all, Yue Feng had received help from them, so he wouldn't put on airs over such a small matter.

"Okay, no problem, we'll change our clothes and head over!"

……

That evening, another sumptuous feast was served.

After a few days of eating and drinking with Secretary Li, the group had a lot more to talk about.

Jinlong and Ye Xiaojun are both experienced young masters, and they have a lot of experience in how to handle these relationships.

Sometimes, even a seemingly casual remark can make Secretary Li feel flattered, and he might even raise a full glass of liquor and drink it down in one gulp.

Yue Feng knew he wasn't the main character, so he ate his food quietly, occasionally opening his mouth to say a few words, and then left after he was full and said goodbye.

After dinner, Yue Feng and the others returned to their sleeping rooms.

Yue Feng won't be able to go to bed early tonight.

The two large eagles, one red and one blue, that were brought back needed to be fitted with eagle harnesses and other protective gear, and then their hats were put on them before they were placed on the perch and crouched down for temporary shelter.

The tiny chick eagle and the large tiger duck, which had been fed water in the morning, were also fed water again.

After serving all four eagles, Yue Feng took out a cotton thread roll he always carried with him from his tool bag and began to skillfully tie neck collars for the sparrows.

Secretary Li arranged for someone to catch a bull shrike, which is even more useful than the common brown shrike. Although it is slightly smaller, it is just as ferocious.

Yue Feng fastened the collar, selected a sub-adult bull shrike from that year, tied it to the bird, then found a thin stick, filled a basin with clean water, and began training the bird.

The shrike was terrified of water. Even with one end of a collar tied around its neck and the other to a thin stick, it struggled and darted about desperately. It would rather hang itself than give up.

But it's different when there's water in the basin below. This guy only accidentally brushed a little water against the tip of his tail, and immediately became well-behaved.

No matter how much Yue Feng shook the stick in his hand, it wouldn't fly away.

Yue Feng, carrying a basin of water and picking up a live bird, arrived at the outer room of the suite where the four of them had met.

The plan was simple: a brief chat before bed, followed by tidying up the magpie. (End of Chapter)