The Top Fishing
Chapter 683 - 290: Lakeside Hunting

Chapter 683: Chapter 290: Lakeside Hunting

"Uh, Pan Hunting, does that mean letting Little White fly high? Is that what you mean?"

Lin Yang: "Yes, when it’s stable, the higher it flies, the better, so when I saw Little White repeatedly climbing in circles around me, I didn’t blow the whistle in time.

Actually, today I blew the whistle because I noticed that after several circles, Little White had stabilized its flying height, or else, I would have let it continue climbing."

"Uh, today’s height must have been a hundred meters, right? Is that enough?"

Lin Yang shook his head: "Not nearly enough. I’ll feed him a small amount, let him rest for a while, and then fly again once he has digested his food at noon.

This initial height of a hundred meters for a major Pan is already high, but for hunting Little Swans, it’s still not sufficient. I estimate we need at least one hundred fifty to one hundred eighty meters to stand a chance."

Close to noon, indeed, he let Little White take a major Pan again.

This performance was almost no different from the morning, as Little White maintained a habitual flying height of around 100 meters.

After a session of Pan Fei, Lin Yang continued feeding the meat, and after returning to camp, added rabbit fur to feed the last portion, placed the falcon on the stand, then took the drone and left the camp to get busy.

"Streamer, we left Little White at home, what are we out here doing?"

Lin Yang: "I’m setting up some snares for trapping Thunderbirds. The traps I set up previously haven’t been maintained the last few days and are mostly ruined.

The live prey needed for later Pan Fei sessions are ideally pigeons, but since there aren’t any here, we’ll have to make do with Thunderbirds. The principle is the same."

After busying himself for over an hour, Lin Yang set up more than a dozen snares of various sizes in an area where Thunderbirds were active.

A large handful of various colored seeds and pine nuts, previously secreted away by little squirrels, were requisitioned by him again.

Before it got dark, Lin Yang checked the traps around the hunting ground; luck was poor, catching only one young female Thunderbird that weighed less than a pound; he shook his head slightly.

"Bad luck for you, you’ll be used for training tomorrow."

The next morning, he took Little White back to the hunting ground, but this time, his pocket contained a lively Thunderbird.

After being caught in a trap by Lin Yang, this Thunderbird was unlucky; its eyelids were sewn shut by him with needle and thread.

Similar to yesterday, before training, calling from afar, and Pan Fei took place. Little White’s flying height was fairly stable. After reaching about 150 meters, it began to circle and Pan Fei.

Lin Yang silently counted and roughly timed the duration of the Pan Fei, trying to extend the time of Pan Fei as it was also part of the training.

About ten minutes later, the tree tops in the distance began to sway slightly.

Seeing this, Lin Yang was alerted. Similar to yesterday, as the temperature rose, wind started blowing over the hunting ground.

Large and medium-sized birds are experts at using air currents, and Little White, sensing the breeze, instinctively began to climb higher.

Just as it adjusted its wing angle to climb, he suddenly blew his whistle; at the same time, Lin Yang threw the Thunderbird high into the air.

Deprived of its ability to see due to its sewn eyelids, the Thunderbird could only fly in small circles, desperately climbing to a height, shooting up several tens of meters in just a few seconds, much like a helicopter.

The whistle was the command. Little White quickly spotted the climbing Thunderbird and dove down from a great height.

A kick in mid-air!

This kick was swift and decisive. Amidst a cloud of feathers, the Thunderbird, used for training, was lifeless before it even hit the ground.

As one of the primary foods in Spear Falcon’s diet, Little White was even more familiar with Thunderbirds than with Snow Rabbits. After capturing the Thunderbird mid-air, it flapped its wings and descended toward Lin Yang.

Seeing that Little White showed no intention of flying away with the prey, Lin Yang felt a weight lift off his heart; another hurdle was passed.

Given Little White’s weight, it was capable of carrying a prey the size of a female Thunderbird over a long distance; if Little White’s bonding training had even the slightest flaw, it might have carried the Thunderbird away to a preferred spot to eat out of fear.

Fortunately, Lin Yang was lucky. Little White’s bonding was sufficient. It settled a few meters away and began plucking and preparing to eat calmly.

"Damn, that kick was cool."

"Yes, almost as stunning as the first time we saw Little White catch a Thunderbird."

"The Thunderbird’s flying posture just now was a bit weird, why was it spinning upward? What’s the principle behind this, did the streamer tamper with something?"

"I’m more curious about the underlying logic of such training by the streamer, there must be some rationale, right?"

Lin Yang nodded: "First, let me answer why the Thunderbird, once released, flew upward in circles. Before coming here, I sewed the Thunderbird’s eyelids closed with a needle. This isn’t me being cruel; it’s actually needed for training. Without visual orientation, most birds tend to fly upwards. If the eyes weren’t sewn, the Thunderbird might fly erratically and I might lose the falcon."

As for the underlying training logic, it involves using the opportunity to release prey to train Little White to keep climbing in height, which I call positive reinforcement."

Positive reinforcement works like this: when Little White is climbing, I deliberately release prey. After a few times, it will link climbing height with the appearance of prey. Eventually, every time Little White ascends, it will instinctively climb in anticipation of spotting prey, thus achieving our training objective."