Chapter 4: Riding the Cage Net, Catching a Young Eagle by the River

"Fine, as long as there’s chicken to eat, I’ll do whatever Second Brother tells me to!" the youngest sister agreed readily.

Seeing how close the siblings were, Mother stopped scolding the youngest and said helplessly, "You, you just know how to spoil her! It’s still a long way until the snow falls; it’s only just autumn, and the leaves haven't even finished falling yet. Where are you going to catch a hazel grouse for her?"

Yue Feng grinned. "Heh heh, this mountain man has his own clever tricks!"

...

They finished dinner quickly, and the sky had turned completely dark.

Yue Feng took the family’s only electrical appliance—a flashlight—down from the sideboard and led his sister out into the yard.

"Second Brother, what do you want me to help you with?" the youngest sister asked, tilting her head curiously.

Yue Feng pointed to the eaves of the shed, which were thatched with rice straw. "There are some house sparrows nesting in there. I can’t reach my hand in, so you help me reach in and catch them. I have a use for them!"

"House sparrows? Roasted house sparrows are delicious!" Jingjing, the little foodie, only heard that there were sparrows under the eaves; she didn't take in a word of what Yue Feng said afterward, her mind filled only with the thought of roasting them.

Yue Feng shook his head. "No, I have a big use for these sparrows! It directly relates to whether we can eat hazel grouse in a couple of days. Be good, Jingjing, listen to me!"

"Alright!" In the little girl's mind, hazel grouse must definitely taste better and have more meat than house sparrows, so she suppressed her cravings and agreed.

After the brief communication, Yue Feng held the flashlight in one hand and carried Jingjing in the other as they arrived under the eaves.

Back when it was getting dark in the evening, Yue Feng had already observed that sparrows were nesting under the shed's eaves. To catch a sparrowhawk tomorrow morning, these sparrows were essential as bait.

Yue Feng swept the flashlight under the eaves, then pointed to a small hole in the straw the size of an egg and whispered to his sister, "There should be one or two in there! Don't be afraid or make a sound after you grab them. There should be more under the other eaves, don't scare them away!"

"Mm-hmm! I've caught them before, I'm not afraid!" Jingjing replied.

The next second, Yue Feng held the flashlight in his mouth to illuminate the hole, then lifted his sister up, keeping her steady as she approached the eaves.

Yue Feng’s guess was spot on. Jingjing’s small hand fit perfectly into the hole. With a quick grab, she pulled out two fluffy house sparrows.

"Second Brother, I caught them, two of them!" Jingjing was excited, but she remembered Yue Feng’s instructions and kept her voice low, clutching the two sparrows tightly in her small hand, not daring to let go.

"Don't be nervous, put them in the cage!" Yue Feng set the youngest sister back on the ground and opened the small rolling cage at his feet.

The two sparrows were put into the cage, and as soon as they were inside, they began to struggle wildly.

"Well done, there should be two more by the window! Keep going!"

"Okay, okay!"

Soon, Yue Feng repeated the process. After pointing out the location to his sister, the youngest sister reached her chubby little hand under the eaves again.

This time there was a small mishap; Jingjing only managed to grab one firmly. The other struggled a few times and broke free from her grip, leaving behind only a handful of tail feathers.

"One flew away! And it pooped in my hand!" Jingjing muttered unhappily as she stuffed the one in her palm into the cage.

"It's alright, three is enough! Go inside, wash your hands, and get to sleep early!" Yue Feng comforted his sister, checked that the cage was securely closed, and carried it into the house.

At five o'clock the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, Yue Feng climbed off the kang.

His mother was in the outer kitchen, stoking the fire to make corn porridge. Yue Feng didn't even eat breakfast; he tucked two steamed buns into his pocket, grabbed the cage, the hanging net, and his falconry kit, and left the house, heading straight for the small woods by the river outside the village.

There is an art to choosing a spot to set a net for catching young hawks. For small raptors like the sparrowhawk and the Japanese sparrowhawk, the migration cycle is quite long during this season. The elders say they wait for the wind—that is, air currents—to ride them south in concentrated groups.

In the spring, the migration is for breeding, returning from wintering grounds to breeding grounds, and the cycle is short, lasting at most half a month.

In the autumn, the migration of raptors spans a much longer period. Different raptors distribute themselves in multiple waves from the beginning of the "End of Heat" solar term until the "Light Snow" term. Besides that, some hawks in the low-lying forests choose not to migrate and spend the winter in their breeding grounds.

It had just passed the "Cold Dew" solar term, and there hadn't been any strong northerly winds in the last few days, so the raptors were choosing to stay active in places with abundant food.

Where is there abundant food in the wild? It’s always near forests and water sources.

The place Yue Feng chose to set his net was just such a spot for catching young hawks.

It was a small forest mixed with Manchurian ash and mountain poplar. The ground was clean, and there were some small bushes on the outer edge near the riverbank.

Yue Feng strolled around the woods by the river and soon chose a spot suitable for setting the net.

The so-called "riding cage net" is actually quite simple. You choose a suitable spot, hang the net on trees on both sides using slipknots to temporarily secure it, and place a long rolling cage in the area under the net, perpendicular to the net's main line, with bait inside.

This way, if there are raptors active nearby, they will easily spot the birds in the rolling cage. When the raptor attacks the birds in the cage, the birds will scramble back and forth in the long, cylindrical cage. In the process of chasing them, the raptor will accidentally hit the net, pulling the slipknots loose.

The net then falls under the weight, trapping the raptor inside.

This type of single-panel net is very simple and convenient for catching small to medium-sized raptors. Those with the means can choose different locations to set up multiple nets to increase the success rate.

Of course, Yue Feng only had one net. After setting it up quickly, he wandered around the riverbank.

In the village woods in the morning, various bird calls rose and fell. The temperature was around seven or eight degrees—not too cold, but not exactly comfortable either. Yue Feng didn't care that his pant legs were getting damp with dew as he walked around, observing and checking for subtle traces.

Before the snow falls, tracks by the river are not easy to identify, but Yue Feng still relied on his keen eyes to find signs of yellow weasels and hazel grouse activity.

He silently memorized these traces; once he caught a hawk and trained it, this area would be his hunting ground.

Slowly, the sky brightened, and the sun rose.

Without realizing it, several hours had passed, and Yue Feng circled back to the location of his net.

From a distance, he saw that the two slipknots on the net had come loose.

Yue Feng stepped forward quickly and soon discovered a young hawk trapped in the net next to the rolling cage.

It was a female Japanese sparrowhawk, a sub-adult.

Raptors are always larger in the female sex, and the sparrowhawk is no exception.

This young hawk weighed about three taels, its pupils narrowed to pinpricks from fright, and its body was covered in the characteristic plumage patterns of a sub-adult, which anyone in the know could recognize at a glance.

Yue Feng’s target for today was a female sparrowhawk one size larger. This sub-adult that had only left the nest a few months ago wasn't what he was looking for. Yue Feng gently removed the hawk from the net and let it go.

He rearranged the net, checked the bait under the cage to ensure everything was fine, and found a large, thick tree thirty or forty meters away to hide behind, sitting at the base of the tree to doze in the sun.

Less than half an hour later, just as Yue Feng was feeling a bit sleepy, he heard a sharp, urgent chirping sound.

He glanced toward the net and saw that another hawk had knocked it down.

From dozens of meters away, Yue Feng could see that the hawk that hit the net this time was clearly a size larger. At that moment, the hawk’s wings were tangled in the net, and it was struggling incessantly, but the more it struggled, the tighter it got.

Yue Feng stepped forward quickly. After just one look, he hurriedly crouched down to secure it.

He had caught a sparrowhawk!