Chapter 59: The pigeon caught in the net was eaten
Going up the mountain to hunt eagles sounds exciting, but in fact only people who have been there know how boring it is. From the time I set up the nets before nine o’clock to the time I stayed there until twelve-thirty in the afternoon, I didn’t see a single eagle in the clear autumn sky.

At this time, there were no entertainment devices such as mobile phones. Yue Feng looked out through the gaps in the roof made of pine needles. After making sure that there were no birds of prey around, he crawled out of the shack.

After stretching his arms and legs, and then going to the haystack behind to get some water and solving his personal problems, Yue Feng put on his backpack and strolled to check on the other four places where he had been caught.

There was no movement in the first three self-trapping traps, but when I looked at the last self-trapping trap from a long distance away, I noticed something was happening.

After Yue Feng walked in, he found that the net near the south side had fallen down, but there was no eagle in the net bag. The pigeon tied in the middle of the net was eaten by someone unknown. The pigeon’s head, neck, and chest meat were all eaten up, leaving only pigeon feathers on the ground and a spine without much blood or flesh.

This is also the disadvantage of using a self-trapping net to hunt hawks. It is easy to do when people are not around, but it also has a price. In addition to birds of prey, other small predators such as bobcats, foxes, or other small predators can harm the hawks.

Yue Feng took out a spare pigeon from his backpack, tied it up, hung the net again, added some clean water to the bait in the middle of the net, and then returned to the shack.

After waiting for half an afternoon, there was no movement.

Time passed unknowingly and it was 4:30 in the afternoon. Just when Yue Feng thought that there was no hope for the day, the tiger on the pole at the door of the shack suddenly became nervous.

A relaxed tiger bird is actually a very lively and active bird. When it has nothing to do, it will stretch its wings and smooth its feathers. When it is bored, it will lower its head and peck at the rope around its neck. These reactions are all normal.

But at this moment, the tiger was normal in the previous second, but in the next second it suddenly folded its wings, retracted its neck, and squatted on the pole without moving, as if it had encountered some natural enemy.

Yue Feng knew something was wrong after just one look at Hubula, so he looked upwards through the gap in the shack.

About seventy or eighty meters in the air, you can see a dark shadow hovering above your head.

Because of the backlight and the high distance, it is normal that the eagle’s patterns and colors cannot be seen clearly. Not to mention the human eyes, even with a mobile phone camera, unless adjusted in professional mode, the image quality will most likely not be ideal.

Upon seeing this, Yue Feng immediately pulled the lure in the middle of the net with one hand and held the net rope tightly with the other hand.

The tense state lasted for about ten minutes, and Hubula recovered from his tense state of alertness with his neck shrunk to a relaxed state.

Yue Feng knew that the eagle in the sky must have flown far away.

This situation is very common when hunting large eagles. The goshawk is actually a arboreal bird of prey. It usually lives in the forest and only during the migration season will it fly high into the sky on the air currents.

When hungry, goshawks in the sky will swoop down to hunt, but after all, it is not their main method of hunting, so the number of times they can lock onto prey and attack is far less than the total number of migrating birds of prey.

The sun began to set, and around five o’clock, Yue Feng decided to go down the mountain. The mountain wind was cold at night, and it was a long way home, so he had to go down the mountain early.

Yue Feng took down the bait and picked the baits from two of the nets.

There are many animals active in the mountains at night, from small weasels to big raccoons, all of which can harm the pigeons, so Yue Feng will not let all the pigeons spend the night in the mountains.

Leaving two decoys and taking two away can not only ensure that the risk is controllable, but also try your luck early in the morning, after all, the predation window period for birds of prey is at dawn. If you are lucky, you may find that the eldest eagle has been caught in the trap just as you go up the mountain. Then Yue Feng will complete the task ahead of time, pack up and go back home.

The next morning at around four o’clock, Yue Feng got up early and went up the mountain. He didn’t even have breakfast. He picked up a few steamed buns made of two grains of flour from the stove and put some pickles in his pocket, which he took as his lunch for the day.

By the time they reached the top of Hutou Mountain, it was already bright in the sky. Yue Feng saw the self-trapping nets that had been confiscated last night from more than ten meters away. The nets hanging on all four sides were not triggered, but the bait tied inside had been eaten again!

The ‘crime scene’ was exactly the same as yesterday, with large patches of pigeon feathers and leftover food on the ground.

Damn! What the hell is this thing that actually recognized me as a bait?
The net was dropped but nothing was caught, and the bait was lost. Yue Feng could accept that, after all, the net was not omnipotent, and it was normal for it to not be able to hold something after being triggered.

But the nets on all four sides were well formed into an iron barrel formation, but the lure in the middle was disturbed by the same shape!

The grid is five fingers wide, and small animals such as weasels can barely get through, but the possibility of entering or exiting without being triggered is very small.

Yue Feng cleaned up all the feathers and debris on the ground, took out the last spare pigeon from his backpack and tied it up again. After checking to make sure there were no omissions, Yue Feng walked towards the next self-trapping net to confiscate the bait.

From a distance, Yue Feng saw that the net was triggered and there was an eagle entangled in the net on the ground.

Yue Feng was delighted and walked quickly forward.

When he walked in, Yue Feng found a huge leopard weighing more than three and a half kilograms with its feathers turned yellow-brown, which was tightly entangled in the net.

The scientific name of this big leopard is Buzzard accipitridae. It is a bird of prey of similar species to the common buzzard that Zhu Erhai exchanged for the goose. It is one size larger than the common buzzard. Judging from the color of its feathers, Yue Feng judged that this big baby should be over five years old.

As a falconer, Yue Feng knows how difficult it is for these birds of prey to survive in the wild.

Later, Yue Feng saw a foreign statistical data that showed that the probability of sub-adult birds of prey that left the nest that year surviving the first winter and molting their feathers was less than half, and the probability of surviving more than three years, owning their own territory and finding a stable mate was less than 10%.

The vast majority of birds of prey are eliminated by the cruelty of nature. Those that survive and grow to four or five years old are the elite among the elites of the same species.

It was also because of his deep love and awe for these beautiful creatures that Yue Feng had no intention of killing the buzzard and taking it home, even though it weighed only three or four pounds and could provide a meal for his family after slaughtering it and cleaning it up.

If these adult eagles are released back into the mountains and forests, they can give birth to a nest of eagle chicks every year. The death of each adult bird is a loss to the nature’s ecology.

Even though Yue Feng loves money and his family’s life has just started to get better, his original intention of liking Raptors has never changed. He only takes what he needs and does not cause any extra damage.

Putting on gloves, Yue Feng took the eagle net off the buzzard’s body, then checked to make sure it was not injured. He pinched the buzzard’s two claws, then picked up the eagle and threw it into the air.

There is another chapter at 8 o’clock in the evening. I will continue to ask for votes. I will give you a spoiler in advance. I will catch a real eagle in the evening!

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(End of this chapter)