Now, all the mountains around Tamugimata Village have turned completely red and yellow. This is the most beautiful season of the year. In the mountains, nuts and mushrooms can be easily found here and there. I’m deeply impressed by nature’s blessing. But, a harsh winter is coming soon. We, every living thing, have to prepare for it.
The time is getting near when I start to train my hawk. For the last 3 years, I have used a golden eagle for hunting as well as a hawk eagle. But basically, I hunt with a hawk eagle. Hawk eagles are the biggest kind of hawks. They usually hunt wild rabbits, but occasionally, attack even foxes or raccoon dogs. One of the hawk’s best assets is its eyesight. It is said the eyesight is 8 times more acute than that of humans. They can find small animals 2 km away.
One day, when I was hunting in the mountains, my hawk eagle found something and took off suddenly. I ran after and reached him at a beech tree on a slope. He was looking into a hole in the snow at the root of the tree. I thought that he drove something into the hole, so I inserted my hand deeply into it. Then something bit at the back of my hand. It hurt so badly, but I caught the living thing and pulled it out. Guess what was that? That was a squirrel. My hawk eagle recognized this small animal by its slight motion from far away. Hawk’s eyesight is really great.
Another great asset is its talons. Hawk’s talons are very sharp. As for hawk eagles, the longest one is more than 5cm. Besides, their grasping power is very strong. It is much the same as that of grown-up men. Once I got nearly blinded by the talons. Hawks never attack game unless they feel hungry. So the training must be done keeping them hungry. One day, the moment I opened the door of a hawk’s cage, my hawk eagle came flying at me. As I went into the cage headfirst to give him food, I was caught directly in my face with his talons. I thought I might go blind at that moment. But fortunately, the talons didn’t hit my eyes. I found later that one of them stuck 5mm above my eyeball.
Matsubara Hidetoshi