Chapter 30: Autumn Flowers and Sun Pine
The main purpose of today is not to work, but to use the opportunity of releasing hawks to teach my brothers some technical details of releasing hawks.

Yue Feng knew very well that he would never learn well if he just talked about it without putting it into practice, so when there was an opportunity to take action in the mountain, he let the three brothers take turns to practice and familiarize themselves with some falconry techniques in advance.

There is also a kind of talent involved in this matter. Although Xiao Tao was able to release hawks in actual combat earlier than Xiaowen and Xiaowu, his performance was not as good as the two Zhang brothers.

Xiaowu, in particular, was very steady in his first actual combat with a flat-eagle. If they hadn’t grown up in the same village and knew each other well, Yue Feng would have even thought that Xiaowu was a falconer.

After all, the strength of the Greater Green Harrier is there. Even if the level of these novices in flying hawks is a little poor, they have not fired a single empty shot during their stroll in Erjiazigou.

The difference is how long it takes the eagle to catch its prey.

If an eagle gets close to its prey and waits for the right moment to attack, it may be able to pin a chicken to the ground within ten meters. If its limbs are stiff and nervous and it doesn’t look for the right opportunity, the eagle may have to chase it for dozens of meters.

The eagle had already been released and was in a familiar location, so unless there was a major accident, the eagle would not be lost.

A group of four people strolled on the hill from around 8:30 until around 10 o’clock and caught four flying dragons.

We went down the mountain from the south slope and came to the location of the cage net.

The performance of the Qilong Net was pretty good, but Yue Feng’s target eagle species was not caught.

There were three nets, one of which was not triggered and remained motionless.

The other two nets, one caught a little owl, and the other caught a green-eyed autumn-flowered pine hawk (a subadult male Japanese sparrowhawk) that had just flown out that year.

The little owl had no value in domestication except for being cute, and its meat was inedible, so Yue Feng released it on the spot.

Yue Feng didn’t rush to let go of the second pine nut.

Japanese sparrowhawks breed in the pine forests on Changbai Mountain.

This little pine eagle, which had just been out of the nest for a few months, has the lowest entry threshold for being a young eagle. The little guy weighs less than two taels and is not much bigger than a mountain shrike.

Yue Feng held the eagle in his hand and looked at it carefully. The little eagle had an abacus-shaped head and tender green eyes. It was the type that left the nest relatively late and had a particularly mild temper among its peers.

If Yue Feng was serious about it, he would set up the net in the morning, bend the frame during the day and go to the big market for a day, then set up another wool axis in the evening, and bend it for a while before dawn the next morning. When it was daybreak, he would go out and release the sparrows he saw on the ground.

However, due to its size, this little eagle can only catch a limited number of prey, and it is afraid of the cold, so it cannot be released if the temperature drops within a few days.

Therefore, generally no one trains these in the fall. Instead, around May Day in the spring, people catch pine cones that have migrated back but have not yet finished molting, and sparrows that have just left their nests in May and June.

If you are lucky, you may be able to find a persimmon-eyed, clean-haired pine nut that has already shed its sub-adult feathers early (clean-haired pine nuts refer to sub-adult eagles that have shed their fetal feathers early after a winter last year. This kind of young eagle has a good physique and strong hunting skills, and is the best among pine nuts). If you wander around the village and release them in a day, you may catch thirty or twenty sparrows.

In the past, falconers who kept large eagles in cages at home (they would keep the goshawks that had been released last autumn in separate cages and let them molt under human control) would tie pine nuts to the eagles in the spring to catch birds and feed them.

The eagles that eat live food every day and molt their feathers quickly have good physical fitness. When they start to go out in autumn, they are strong and have a strong hunting instinct. Their actual performance in the cage for one year is far better than that of the yellow eagles that just came down from the mountains that year. Of course, if it is a big eagle that performed mediocrely in the previous hunting season, the falconer will probably not bother to make a cage, but choose to wait until the spring when the flowers bloom, put the eagle in a cage for a while to make it afraid of people, and then release it back into nature.

Nowadays, birds of prey are relatively abundant, and it is not uncommon to see large eagles that can be trained to catch rabbits and pheasants. However, it is hard to come by a top-quality eagle like the Great Green Harrier.

We’ve strayed off topic, let’s get back to the point.

After Yue Feng picked the small autumn flower, he immediately took out a piece of cotton string from his pocket.

There was no two-piece rope prepared in advance for tying the little eagle, so Yue Feng folded several strands of cotton rope in half, twisted them tightly, and temporarily tied a horseshoe knot to tie up the little eagle.

I have nothing to do anyway, and since this little eagle has been caught, it is also a kind of fate. I can just flatten it and admire it. If I am brave and have a good temper, I can throw a few sparrows in front of my house to feed other eagles. It can also be a good thing.

Seeing Yue Feng skillfully taking the little hawk out of the net and tying its legs, Xiao Tao asked curiously, “Brother, why do you tie up this little grasshopper hawk? Can it get out of the enclosure?”

Yue Feng grinned: “I have nothing to do anyway, so I’d like to catch something rare! Don’t underestimate it because it’s small, it can catch sparrows! This is a chick that just left the nest not long ago. I think it won’t be difficult to catch it after flattening it for a while!”

As he spoke, Yue Feng pinched the cotton thread that had just been tied with his thumb and index finger, then spread out his palm.

The little eagle was seen slowly and tremblingly standing up from the position of curling up its legs and hugging the nest. It did not struggle to fly. Just like a socially anxious little boy, it shrank its neck and observed the burly men next to it.

Yue Feng deliberately turned his wrist half a circle slowly, and Xiaoying followed suit by taking a step, and slowly stood firmly on Yue Feng’s hand.

Yue Feng knew that young eagles in the nest were brave, but he had never seen one so brave. It had only been less than ten minutes since it was put in the net and it dared to stand up. Normally, young eagles that have just been put in the net are scared to death. If they are not held fast right after being tied up, they will most likely “hang themselves”.

Based on this point alone, Yue Feng was certain that this little guy could be put down in one day at most.

“Hehehe, it’s great. This little guy dares to stand on his hands after getting off the net! Okay, I happen to have some free time these two days, so I’ll play with it!”

The more Yue Feng looked at the little pine nut, the more he liked it. After letting it stay in his hand for a while, he quickly flattened it in his hand.

After the eagle was put away, Yue Feng hung up the riding cage again. The brothers then strolled around the bushes outside the woods along the river and caught two sand chickens.

Near noon, the four went back to check the nets again. Perhaps because there were always people active near the woods, all three nets yielded no results.

Before going out, Yue Feng told his family that he would have lunch at home. When it was time for lunch, Yue Feng waved his hand and went back to eat first.

For lunch, my mother Meng Yulan also prepared a little hard. She put the sand half chicken she had just brought back into the pot, stewed potatoes with hazel mushrooms, and made Feilong soup. On the table, there was luncheon meat and canned yellow croaker meat bought from the canteen. In addition, there were fried peanuts and fried pork slices with onions.

There were only six simple dishes. Although not very high-end, it was still of high standard in the era of material scarcity.

(End of this chapter)