Chapter 61: Black Strange Hawk
At this moment, Yue Feng felt his heart pounding frighteningly fast in his chest, thumping like a drum.
People who haven't experienced this feeling cannot truly understand it. Catching a top-tier, exceptional Great Eagle with your own hands is like a fishing enthusiast catching a hundred-catty big carp. This feeling is like a drug to those who love Hunting Eagles.
Although its talons were already grasped by Yue Feng, this Great Eagle still wasn't settling down. While chirping, it pecked at Yue Feng with its sharp beak.
Yue Feng suppressed the excitement in his heart and carefully wrapped the Hunting Eagle with a Hunting Eagle jacket. After securing this Iron-backed Red Great Hawk, he once again marveled at its excellent condition.
Placed side by side with the ordinary yellow chicken hawk next to it, the chicken hawk looked emaciated like an underdeveloped chick, while this Iron-backed Red had a broad chest and very developed muscles on both sides of its keel. Even wrapped in the Hunting Eagle jacket, its outline was still visible.
Yue Feng looked up at the sky outside. Without realizing it, it was already approaching noon.
Logically speaking, Yue Feng had successfully completed his task of catching a Hunting Eagle, which took two and a half days.
However, Yue Feng hesitated for a moment and didn't rush to go down the mountain and go home immediately.
Anyone with experience in catching Hunting Eagles knows that the migration of Hunting Eagles has peaks and troughs. You might wait on the mountain for seven or eight days with no results, but then on a day with suitable wind direction, a flock of Hunting Eagles passes through, and you can catch quite a few in a single day.
Starting from the Common Buzzard this morning, Yue Feng had already caught three big treasures in one morning. This indicated that today was a good day, and there might be more Hunting Eagles.
Anyway, the preliminary preparations were done. Going home at this time would just mean resting at home. He might as well stay on the mountain for another half-day. What if he was lucky in the afternoon and encountered other unlucky ones, catching one or two more?
Having made up his mind, Yue Feng took out the steamed buns and pickles he brought from his backpack and ate a little something slowly with the clean water from his thermos.
After eating and drinking his fill, Yue Feng observed his surroundings, then came out of the shelter and went to inspect his self-setting nets again.
The harvest from the self-setting nets also indirectly verified Yue Feng's guess.
Out of the four self-setting nets, two were triggered, and they actually caught two old Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Female)s with good appearances.
Looking at the old Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Female)s whose heads and faces shimmered with purple light, Yue Feng reluctantly chose to release them.
These guys, like the Common Buzzard from this morning, were all adult old fellows over three years old. Although their bones were sturdy, they were too wild and untamed, making them unsuitable for training.
Yue Feng released both of these old Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Female)s, then reset the nets to their hanging state and leisurely returned to the shelter.
More long waiting.
There wasn't much activity during the noon period. Starting from around two in the afternoon, the watch birds began to show various warning states.
The latter half of the afternoon kept Yue Feng busy. Old Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Female)s, Common Buzzards, Common Buzzards, and even a two-year-old Xiao Hu successively visited Yue Feng's Hunting Eagle catching ground.
The first three types of raptors have been mentioned. Here, let's briefly mention the last one, Xiao Hu.
What Falconry keepers call Xiao Hu is scientifically named Peregrine Falcon. The male is called Xiao Hu, and the female is called Duck Tiger. Peregrine Falcons are also a type of falcon, but they are more often kept by nobles and aristocrats for amusement rather than used for work by ordinary Hawk Keepers.
How to understand this sentence? This has to start from the hunting methods of different species of raptors.
Like Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Northern Goshawk, these are raptors of the Accipitridae family, Accipiter genus. They are all forest-dwelling raptors, natural opportunists, primarily using short-distance surprise attacks and pounces as their main hunting methods.
In the jargon of Hawk Keepers, these are considered long-legged, short-winged Hunting Eagles. After being trained well and taken out for work, they are efficient and practical for hunting in the field.
Peregrine Falcons, on the other hand, belong to the Falconidae family, Falco genus, and are grassland-dwelling raptors. They like to live in open areas like grasslands, coastlines, etc.
While they also perform surprise attacks, they primarily rely on their extremely high stooping speed to chase prey.
Their wings are sickle-shaped, similar to swallows. Their level flight speed is low. When hunting, they excel at gaining an altitude advantage, then converting altitude into speed, using their super-high stooping speed to attack targets.
In the eyes of old-generation Falconry keepers, these long-winged Hunting Eagles are slow to start when hunting on the ground, and their talons are much less powerful than those of Hunting Eagles. Therefore, they are not practical for solo hunting in the field.
The more reliable way that has been passed down is to use falcons and sighthounds in relatively open terrain like plains or mountain meadows for rabbit hunting.
There is a Chinese idiom, 'Rabbit rises and falcons fall' (tù qǐ hú luò), which describes the scene of ancient rabbit hunting.
In earlier years, some nobles and aristocrats did raise these creatures. They didn't seek efficiency in hunting, nor did they lack the harvest. More often, they sought the thrill of the hunt itself.
Yue Feng can barely make ends meet now, and he isn't arrogant enough to want to raise a falcon. Therefore, even though this two-year-old Little Dove-Tiger had a decent appearance, Yue Feng released it without hesitation.
Unconsciously, the sun was setting, and it was evening. Seeing that there were no more opportunities, Yue Feng came out of the shelter and began to dismantle the nets and ropes on the ground.
In this era, within a hundred-mile radius, there are very few people who understand how to catch and train Hunting Eagles. Yue Feng wasn't afraid of others knowing about this Hunting Eagle catching ground on Tiger Head Ridge, so he only took down and took away the nets, ropes, and lures. The net frames and ground stakes made from local materials were all left in place.
After simply packing up his belongings, Yue Feng headed towards the area where he had set up the self-setting nets.
There were no abnormalities in the first few locations. Yue Feng collected the lures and nets one by one. At the last self-setting net, something unexpected happened.
From over thirty meters away, Yue Feng suddenly saw a pure black strange hawk shoot up from the middle of the self-setting net like a spring onion from dry land, soaring into the sky. In the blink of an eye, it flew up to dozens of meters high, circled a few times in the air, and quickly disappeared in the southwest direction.
What the heck?! What was that?
Yue Feng exclaimed in a low voice and strode towards the last self-setting net.
When he got closer, he saw that the four self-setting nets were still properly hung. The new pigeon that had just been replaced in the middle that morning was still holding its last breath, trembling weakly while spitting blood.
Presumably, it was because Yue Feng arrived too coincidentally. The Hunting Eagle had just entered the net enclosure and stepped on the pigeon but hadn't had time to start eating when it was encountered by Yue Feng and fled in a panic.
This pigeon was definitely going to die. Yue Feng held the pigeon in his hand and observed it, then personally plucked all the pigeon's feathers. Finally, on its back behind the neck, he found a fatal injury.
The pigeon was scratched by this strange hawk. Two large and two small wedge-shaped blood holes were left at the base of the wing on its back.
Yue Feng used his hand to measure the positions of these four blood holes, and in his mind, he pictured the posture of the Hunting Eagle's talons gripping the pigeon.
With this comparison, Yue Feng was greatly surprised.
An important supporting character is about to appear. Shouldn't you give me some votes to encourage me? The data for the second round of recommendations is poor, and I'm under great pressure. Please, godfathers, I beg you!
