Chapter 195: Little Eagle Catches Pheasant, the Art of Aerial Interception

No matter how old a person is, he or she is still a child in the eyes of his or her parents. Zhang Cuilian hugged her precious daughter and patted her back gently a few times, just like when she coaxed her daughter to sleep when she was a child.

……

After Zhang Cuilian had communicated this to her daughter, at least Zhang Cuilian and Wang Jianguo knew her daughter’s attitude.

Zhang Cuilian returned to the east room and told the old man about it. After learning that his daughter had no objection, Wang Jianguo felt that this matter might have a chance.

The couple whispered for a long time, and no one noticed that their youngest son Wang Mingyu, who seemed to be asleep and motionless on the kang next to them, had his eyes slightly open.

On the other side, Yue Feng returned home with the box of bullets. He made no loss in these two “deals” today. Although he gave away a lot of meat, the bullets were hard currency.

Including the ones given by Guo Jianfeng, plus the half box given by Wang Jianguo, there are at least several hundred bullets in total. This way, there is no need to worry about bullets in the short term. Even if I bring 300 bullets for Uncle Zhao next time I go up the mountain, the remaining bullets will be enough for this winter.

After returning home, Yue Feng put away all the bullets and placed them on the top of the cupboard. When not going up the mountain to hunt, the gun and the bullets must be separated. If no one is at home and Jingjing brings her friends home and becomes interested in the gun and hurts someone, it will be a big problem.

As for the safety of his home, Yue Feng never worried about it. There were four ferocious hunting dogs tied up in the yard. The four half-grown puppies in the house had been well fed and well fed for some time, and their shoulder height was nearly 60 cm. Who would dare to stroke their whiskers?

After putting the bullets away, Yue Feng went to the east room to say hello to the old man, and then lay down on the kang early. He had to stay up late in the second half of the night and sleep a little in the first half, otherwise he would not be able to hold on until the next day.

Yue Feng slept from nine in the evening to one in the middle of the night, and was woken up by his father in a daze.

Yue Feng was very tired after walking on the mountain road for two consecutive days, but his young body recovered quickly. After a few hours of rest, he had regained most of his spirits.

After getting up, washing his face and refreshing himself, Yue Feng took the small eagle from his father’s hand, which had been idle for two days and had not been used for hunting.

The nights of keeping the eagle awake were very boring, but Yue Feng did not find it boring. The little eagle had already completely relaxed in his hands, but Yue Feng would turn his wrist every once in a while, or touch the eagle’s head, neck and other vital parts to make sure the eagle did not fall asleep.

In this quiet night, Yue Feng was thinking about many recent events, including the sick black bear that attacked people, the wild boar king’s footprints as big as cow hooves on the mountain, and the hot-tempered Uncle Zhao.

In a trance, Yue Feng’s thoughts drifted to Wang Xiaona again.

Since his rebirth, Yue Feng has tried his best to improve his life, and he doesn’t know whether Wang Xiaona can appreciate his current self.

Before he knew it, it was getting light outside the window. Yue Feng put on his thick cotton-padded jacket and went out of the house, walking around in circles in the yard with the little eagle on his back.

When it was bright, it was time for the little eagle to spit out the feathers in its crop. It shook its head several times and spit out the feathers in its crop.

Yue Feng bent down and picked up the hair shaft which was still stained with a lot of mucus. After pinching it open and observing it carefully, he found that the shaft was very clean. Apart from some water, there was no peculiar smell and no blue or green digestive fluid.

This shows that the eagle is in very good health. After breakfast, take it outside for a walk to help the eagle consolidate its experience of hunting in human hands.

At six o’clock in the morning, Xiao Tao and his two brothers gathered at home on time. They had gone up the mountain to hunt for two consecutive days. The game from the coal mine canteen was delayed for a day, so Xiao Tao and his brothers could not take a rest today. They had to go up the mountain to release hawks to stabilize the daily team income.

After breakfast, the four of them each mounted their own hawks and went out. Yue Feng, however, took the small hawk and headed straight for Heicunzaigou.

Yue Feng had already seen the little eagle’s ability to catch rabbits, and it was not wrong to describe it as steady, accurate and ruthless.

But I don’t know how this skill of catching pheasants performs in actual combat.

Heiguanzaigou has always been Yue Feng’s private land for raising eagles and catching pheasants. Except for him and Xiao Tao coming here occasionally, it is vacant most of the time, waiting for the density of the pheasant population to recover its ecological niche through natural migration.

Since the heavy snow, Yue Feng has only been to Heiganzaigou once. In addition, Xiao Tao has come here twice with his family’s iron-backed red eagle. After that, he has never been here again.

This time, Yue Feng was quite confident. The farm had been idle for such a long time. In the past, he would scatter soybeans or corn kernels after releasing the hawks. Now there must be a lot of pheasants.

Sure enough, several hundred meters away from the Black Coffin Valley area, Yue Feng had already heard the sound of a large pheasant cackling as it flew.

Hearing the pheasant’s call, the small eagle on the arm immediately went into combat mode, looking around with its sharp eagle eyes, ready to take off and catch the pheasant at the slightest sign of trouble.

Yue Feng held the eagle steadily, grasped the two openings tightly, and strolled to the upwind position of the Black Coffin Valley. Looking around, he saw a large area of ​​white snow at the bottom of the valley, and almost all the short grass was covered with snow foam.

However, if you look closely, you will find that many shrubs and trees above the ditches on both sides are yellow or grayish black. These are where the pheasants spend the night and forage during the day. Various grass seeds or grains left over from the autumn harvest are all food for the pheasants to spend the winter.

Yue Feng walked up slowly and saw the pheasant poop frozen into a lump under the bushes.

Yes, if there are pheasants staying here at night, there must be some during the day as well.

Thinking of this, Yue Feng started driving the pheasants. He held a thin pole in his left hand and knocked it every few steps, specifically looking for bushes that were not completely covered by snow where pheasants could hide and forage.

I had walked less than thirty meters when suddenly, a fluttering sound came from the ground twenty or thirty meters away, and a huge male pheasant flew out from the snow like a helicopter taking off.

Upon seeing this, Yue Feng immediately loosened the two weapons in his hands.

Suddenly, the little eagle lowered its head, bent its body, kicked the ground with its strong legs, and chased after it, flapping its wings continuously.

Yue Feng’s judgment when releasing the rabbit before was verified again in actual combat. The flying speed of this little eagle was very fast, even slightly faster than the big iron-backed red eagle with big wings, thick waist and well-developed muscles.

The large male pheasant took off from the ground, but flew less than forty meters before it was intercepted in mid-air by the small eagle that was chasing it from behind.

Yes, you read it right, it’s an aerial interception!
The flying posture of this little eagle catching a pheasant is somewhat similar to that of a falcon. After catching up with the prey, it can obviously grab the prey with one claw and directly land on the ground to surrender and end the fight, but it doesn’t do it that way.

Relying on the absolute advantage in speed, he kicked the rooster in mid-air. The rooster was intercepted and attacked, and a bunch of chicken feathers scattered in the air.

After hitting the big rooster with one strike, the little eagle made a turn in the air, swooped down again, and accurately grabbed the big rooster’s neck.

The necks of birds are more fragile than those of mammals like rabbits. Yue Feng started running as soon as the eagle caught up with the pheasant and pulled off a handful of feathers. By the time the eagle swooped down and pinned the pheasant to the ground, Yue Feng had already run seven or eight meters.

Just like that, when Yue Feng walked up to it panting, the pheasant under the claws of the little eagle had already stopped moving. It was suffocated to death by the vicious little eagle, which had strangled it by the throat.

The entire process of chasing and hunting was still fast, accurate and ruthless, with no one alive under its claws. The claws of this little eagle were much more cunning than those of the iron-backed red eagle at home.

Since the pheasant was already dead, Yue Feng was not in a hurry to change food. He just squatted beside it and let the little eagle pluck its feathers for a while. When half of the feathers on the neck were plucked out, Yue Feng took out his leg hook and cut a hole in the pheasant’s neck to let the blood out.

Seeing the blood, the little eagle became even more ferocious. It tore the skin on the pheasant’s neck in big mouthfuls and swallowed all the torn skin into its stomach.

The eagle’s beak was on the rooster’s neck, not the thick meat on the chest, so Yue Feng let the eagle peck at it. After it had eaten about seven or eight mouthfuls of flesh and blood, he slowly took out the meat roll to feed the eagle from his bag.

After feeding the eagle three meat rolls in a row, Yue Feng felt that it was enough. He covered the little eagle’s claws with his sleeves, waited for the eagle to loosen its claws, picked up the pheasant, blocked the eagle’s sight with his body, and stuffed the pheasant into his bag.

The little eagle was far from full with just a little meat skin and a few thin meat rolls. This guy worked efficiently and expended little energy, and his feathers were loosened in just a few minutes.

Yue Feng held the eagle and continued to drive the stick, moving from the bottom of the ditch to the north side. Before he reached the gentle slope on the north side, the second pheasant flew out from no more than ten meters under his feet.

This time it was a hen that was half a size smaller, and the little eagle chased after it again.

The second actual hunting was like a replica of catching the big rooster just now. With the absolute advantage in flying speed, the little eagle’s hunting posture was quite simple and crude.

He chased after it and kicked the pheasant in mid-air, causing its feathers to fly everywhere. Taking advantage of the opportunity when the pheasant’s flying posture went wrong and fell to the ground, the little eagle swooped down and grabbed the neck to subdue it.

The whole action was seamless. When Yue Feng quickly caught up with it, the pheasant, whose trachea was pinched, began to open its mouth to gasp for air.

Yue Feng was, after all, an experienced eagle handler. He had seen eagles catching prey while flying in circles, and he had also seen eagles hitting stakes while hitting targets. However, this was the first time that Yue Feng had seen an eagle attack like a falcon, kicking and grabbing its prey without leaving any alive.

This little eagle is slightly smaller in size, which was originally a disadvantage. However, its smaller size allows it to fly faster, which has become an advantage. In addition, its hunting method of kicking and grabbing directly at the vital points makes its hunting efficiency extremely high, and it saves a lot of effort for the falcon itself.

If the iron-backed red eagle at home is a model of a bird that is strong and powerful and relies on its physical fitness to kill prey, then this little eagle is a top hunter that has developed hunting skills to an extremely high level.

If you give such an eagle as a gift, people who know the business will definitely give it a thumbs up and say it is awesome after seeing the small eagle working.

Two chapters with 6000 words, and another words in the afternoon!

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(End of this chapter)