Chapter 11: Plucking the Strings

The progress of training the Great Sparrowhawk in "calling from a distance" was even faster than Yue Feng had anticipated. It took only three pieces of meat and less than ten minutes for the bird to be able to fly to him from eight meters away.

"Calling from a distance" is a game of interaction between the falconer and the hawk. It cannot be played too much each day; after all, every time the hawk succeeds, it eats a significant amount of meat. Once its belly is nearly full, the hawk becomes distracted, and further training becomes ineffective.

After the third successful recall, Yue Feng brought out the pre-prepared hawk food bowl and began feeding the bird properly.

Having caught three pieces of prey today, the hawk had expended a fair amount of energy, so Yue Feng provided a generous portion. The bowl contained hazel grouse meat mixed with fine down feathers dampened in blood. He fed it all to the Great Sparrowhawk, and by the time the meat was gone, the young hawk’s crop was bulging.

Based on Yue Feng’s extensive experience, the Great Sparrowhawk was about eighty percent full!

Poor Great Sparrowhawk—from the moment it was netted and brought home until now, this was finally its first full meal.

In Yue Feng’s mind, if he could consolidate the recall distance tomorrow and keep the bird at fifty percent capacity for a day to maintain its edge, he should be able to remove the tether and release it for hunting by the morning of the day after tomorrow!

After feeding the hawk, Yue Feng carried it on his arm until it was time for lunch.

The lunch dish was hazel grouse stewed with potatoes. Before it was even off the stove, the room was filled with the savory aroma of chicken. To ensure everyone in the family could have some meat, his mother had cut the two hazel grouse caught today into small pieces. Although there wasn't much meat, the family of four ate with great relish.

Once the potatoes and chicken were gone, the chicken broth at the bottom of the basin was also delicious. Breaking up steamed buns and soaking them in the broth until they were saturated, then picking them up with chopsticks and putting them into his mouth—the feeling of that savory flavor exploding on his taste buds was even better than eating the meat itself.

Although there still wasn't enough meat to go around, seeing the satisfied smiles on his younger sister’s and parents' faces made Yue Feng feel happy himself.

As long as he worked hard, life would get better! Once the hawk was well-trained and he could release it without the tether, that would be the time to achieve "hazel grouse freedom!"

Yue Feng muttered to himself.

That afternoon and evening, he continued to carry the hawk, "flatten" it (keep it calm), and expose it to light. The next morning, after the bird was ready, Yue Feng once again set out from the village with the hawk on his arm.

It was the same hunting ground by the small river as yesterday. Yue Feng worked with the hawk until after nine o'clock, ending the battle with a total of three hazel grouse and one grey magpie.

The Great Sparrowhawk, which had been eighty percent full yesterday, remained in stable condition while working in the field today. Upon returning home, Yue Feng prepared the hawk food and continued to consolidate yesterday's recall training.

The very first recall stunned Yue Feng.

At a distance of 15 meters, he raised his hand to show the meat, and the bird came the moment he called!

For the second recall, Yue Feng increased the distance to twenty meters. For the third, he went right out of the courtyard gate, and the result was the same: as soon as the command was given, the hawk flew straight toward him, skimming the ground.

In the words of an old falconer, the bird was "straight as a die," and it was stable enough to be released without the tether.

Because the Great Sparrowhawk was performing so well, the standard of their lunch had risen sharply over the last two days. Two hazel grouse yesterday, three today—all cleaned and put into the pot, making his little sister very happy.

After the recall training, he fed the bird to fifty percent capacity, and the afternoon and evening routine continued as usual.

By the next day, Yue Feng was up at the crack of dawn. He put the hawk on his arm, shouldered his side bag, and didn't even bring the tire-rubber cord used for the tether—he was traveling light.

From the time this sparrowhawk was netted until now, the number of prey in Yue Feng’s hands had reached nearly ten. It truly lived up to what the older generation of falconers said: the more you fly a hawk, the tougher it gets, and the more spirited it becomes. When it goes out into the field, its eyes dart around, and it can spot the slightest movement or trace from far away.

Without the restriction of the tether, Yue Feng’s timing for releasing the hawk was much freer. The previous two days, he had only dared to let go when within ten meters; today, he released it from over twenty meters away.

Hazel grouse, being small gallinaceous birds, are not good at flying. Unless they start fleeing from forty or fifty meters away, once the distance closes to within twenty meters, even the fittest individual in the flock has no chance of survival against the fierce pounce of the Great Sparrowhawk.

The few flocks of hazel grouse active around the bushes by the small river were caught nine times by Yue Feng in less than a morning.

Repeatedly ambushed and captured by the sparrowhawk, these hazel grouse had become wily; at the slightest sign of trouble, they liked to dive into the bushes.

However, this minor difficulty couldn't stump an experienced falconer like Yue Feng. When he saw the birds hiding in the bushes, he would pick up a stick and beat the brush to drive them out. As soon as the birds flew out, he would raise his hand and release the hawk.

Without the tether, the Great Sparrowhawk performed all sorts of mid-air maneuvers and aerial catches. It hadn't missed a single hazel grouse yet—a one hundred percent success rate!

Seeing this, some might ask: how much work can a top-tier sparrowhawk do in the hands of a master? How much prey can it catch?

Yue Feng didn't know the theoretical limit, but he remembered his own record with a young hawk from his past life.

One autumn, Yue Feng had used a cage net to catch a light-colored, heart-chested hemp-yellow sparrowhawk that was slightly inferior in quality to the current Great Sparrowhawk. He took it out from dawn until he returned at three in the afternoon, harvesting a total of 33 pieces of prey of various sizes. He gave a few away on the road back to the village, and after cleaning them at home, he still stewed a huge pot.

Unknowingly, it was nearing noon. Yue Feng looked at the hazel grouse wrapped tightly in socks inside his backpack with great satisfaction and decided to head home for lunch.

Because he had been catching hazel grouse, Yue Feng had circled to the opposite side of the small river. It wasn't worth going back the same way, so he simply walked back along the forest path by the river.

He hadn't gone far when he heard a faint, sharp, and crisp "zizizi" sound coming from the other side of the ridge.

The next second, Yue Feng stopped dead in his tracks!

People who don't live in mountainous areas might not know what animal makes this sound, but Yue Feng knew: this was the famous "flying dragon"!

As the saying goes: "The finest delicacies are dragon meat in the sky and donkey meat on the ground."

The "dragon meat" in this proverb refers to the hazel grouse (the bird).

The scientific name for the flying dragon is the hazel grouse. It is a forest-dwelling bird, slightly larger than the hazel grouse (the smaller variety), with males weighing about a catty and females slightly smaller, around seven or eight taels.

This bird is now a second-class protected animal in the country, but in 1980, there were no animal protection laws. In the Changbai Mountains at this point in time, there were plenty of them!

If he could catch a few of these alive and take them back, they could be sold for a high price!

One of the reasons Yue Feng hadn't rushed to release the hawk to catch the more valuable flying dragons was that the newly trained hawk wasn't yet stable. Today’s performance without the tether had given him enough confidence.

Thinking of this, Yue Feng carried the hawk and hurried toward the direction where the flying dragon had called.

(End of chapter)