Chapter 58: Automatic Drop Net and Pull Net
It's true that the old wild Shrike has a bad temper, but this guy also has a weakness: he's very afraid of water.
Yue Feng held the pole with the Shrike tied to it and placed it above the water basin. The Shrike, who was just struggling wildly as if 'hanging' a second ago, suddenly became docile.
Either fall into the water basin and get soaked, or stand properly on the pole. It's a simple choice between the two.
After the Shrike stood steady on the pole, Yue Feng moved the water basin away. Gradually, this Hu Bu La (Shrike) became accustomed to moving on the pole and was no longer so afraid of people.
After all, the size of the Hu Bu La (Shrike) is much smaller than that of a raptor. In less than a morning, Yue Feng had him accustomed to being tethered. With people coming and going during the day, the Hu Bu La (Shrike) quickly adapted to the presence of people around him. After a few failed struggles, he slowly accepted his fate.
Approaching noon, Yue Feng took some lean meat from the storage room and wet it with water to feed the Hu Bu La (Shrike). After being hungry all morning with nothing in his stomach, the Hu Bu La (Shrike) tentatively took a bite, then quickly began to eat heartily.
After filling his belly, this Hu Bu La (Shrike) stood on the pole, preened his feathers, stretched his wings, and had already adapted to his new life.
Such a Hawk Keeper's bird, after being exposed to crowds in the afternoon and evening, will basically be ready for use.
While Yue Feng was handling the Hu Bu La (Shrike) during the day, his father, Yue Lei, wasn't idle. His son needed to prepare five sets of nets for this trip up the mountain, and his father, as the logistics manager, was responsible for making them.
Fortunately, a five-finger-wide Great Eagle net doesn't have many knots per net panel, so the netting process is fast.
Yue Lei spent the entire day, plus some overtime in the evening, finishing all the net panels.
With the Hawk Keeper's bird and the net panels, only the decoys were missing.
For catching small eagles, decoys like Sparrows are sufficient, but to catch a Great Eagle, the best decoy is a pigeon with a small speckled pattern.
Qian Er's family in the village raised pigeons. Yue Feng went to his house after dark with money and bought ten pigeons at a high price of one yuan each.
At night, the pigeons were all in their coops, so ten pigeons were quickly acquired. After paying the money, Yue Feng carried the pigeons home.
Early the next morning, Yue Feng packed food and water in his satchel, grabbed his knife, and headed up the mountain.
This time, the mountain Yue Feng went to was not the usual mountain ridge where he released his hawk to catch small chickens and Gray Dogs.
To catch a Great Eagle, the best hunting ground nearby is Tiger Head Mountain, about an hour and a half away from Xing'an Village. This mountain range has relatively steep terrain and is more than a hundred meters higher in altitude than other surrounding mountains, making it a strategic high point on these ridges.
During autumn, the season when raptors migrate, they use updrafts to fly, thus conserving energy.
This Tiger Head Mountain faces southeast, making it a good place to catch eagles regardless of whether the wind blows from the southwest or the Northeast. Yue Feng caught many eagles here in his previous life.
One year, during the peak migration days, Yue Feng had a glorious record of catching four Great Eagles in a single day. On average, as long as the time was right and the wind direction was suitable, catching one or two Great Eagles was not a big problem.
Furthermore, it was still 1980, a time when raptor resources were much richer than in his previous life. When Yue Feng agreed to Niu Fusheng, he had already evaluated these factors in his heart.
Today, Yue Feng's main task on the mountain was to clear the hunting ground.
Clearing the hunting ground means bringing tools for cutting firewood and tidying up the selected area for setting nets.
There aren't many large ancient trees on Tiger Head Mountain; it's mostly covered with small pine trees and shrubs.
After leaving home, Yue Feng rushed towards Tiger Head Mountain, reaching the mountain from his memory of his previous life after an hour and a half of walking.
He selected the netting area, leveled the grass and shrubs on the ground, and then chose thin wooden sticks about two fingers thick to bury in the ground in a square shape.
These few spots are for setting up automatic drop nets, which only need to be checked three times a day: morning, noon, and evening, without requiring constant human supervision.
The so-called automatic drop net is actually an improved version of the cage net. Four sticks are buried in the ground, forming a square. Four net panels are then hung on two adjacent sticks to form a completely enclosed square structure. The top of the net panels is secured with slip knots, and the bottom is tied. A pigeon is tied in the center of the four nets as bait.
When an eagle flies overhead and spots the automatic drop net, it will dive down to attack the pigeon, thus plunging into the automatic drop net and getting trapped, unable to move.
The advantage of this net is that it doesn't require constant human supervision, but it also has drawbacks. It is said that Great Eagles that have learned from previous experiences and are net-savvy can see through this kind of human trap and will only circle and observe from above after spotting the bait, without launching an attack.
This type of automatic drop net can catch Great Eagles, but in terms of success rate, it is much lower than the second type of net.
The second type of net for catching Great Eagles is called a pull net.
The Hawk Keeper who catches eagles will use bamboo poles or thin wood to make a frame and create a single-panel pull net. The pull net is raised at a small angle or placed directly on the ground, with a pigeon tied in the center area under the net.
When the Hawk Keeper's bird in the shelter spots an eagle passing overhead, it will display some special fearful actions and reactions, and then the Hawk Keeper will quickly grab the rope of the pull net.
When the raptor in the air locks onto the pigeon in the center of the net and dives down to attack, the quick-eyed and quick-handed Hawk Keeper pulls the pull net, trapping the Great Eagle inside.
These two methods of catching Great Eagles are usually sufficient with just one type, as raptors are not like radishes and cabbages; even during the peak migration days, their overall numbers are still small.
But Yue Feng, in order to shorten the time spent catching eagles, went straight for a double-pronged approach.
In one day, Yue Feng cleared a total of five sites: four small ones and one large one.
By the time Yue Feng finished setting up the shelter for staying and catching eagles at the pull net site, it was already 4:30 PM.
Early the next morning, Yue Feng carried the decoys, along with eagle nets and other tools, and headed straight for Tiger Head Mountain.
At this moment, it was already the Cold Dew solar term, and cold air currents were gradually moving south, with signs of the North wind gradually picking up.
For several consecutive days, although the weather was clear and crisp, the temperature in the early morning and evening had dropped to single digits.
Why write about the solar term and wind direction? Because these things directly affect the harvest from catching eagles on the mountain.
While traveling in the morning, Yue Feng would occasionally look up at the sky. The occasional fleeting glimpse of a raptor would increase Yue Feng's confidence.
Upon arriving at Tiger Head Mountain, Yue Feng first set up the four automatic drop nets one by one, then took his gear to the last pull net site.
Hanging the net panels, tying the ropes, hammering in the stakes, and tying the decoys – after a busy session, Yue Feng completed the initial preparation work.
He then used a few pine branches to simply mark the ground around the area, and then, carrying the Hawk Keeper's bird, he ducked into the erected shelter.
Once inside the shelter, he inserted the pole with the Hawk Keeper's bird tied to it near the entrance of the shelter. Then, in the area beneath the pole, he dug a shallow pit about seven or eight centimeters in diameter and twenty centimeters deep. Everything was ready; all that was needed was the east wind (favorable conditions).
It seems the recommendation for the new book entry is gone, and the timing for the second round of smart recommendations wasn't accurate, causing my data for the second round to suffer greatly.
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