Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl-Chapter 185 - : Spring Hasn’t Arrived, but the Birds Have Returned

Chapter 185: Chapter 185: Spring Hasn’t Arrived, but the Birds Have Returned

Upon hearing Chen Ying’s question about where her children had gone, Big Spirit Cat Mother said they had recently wanted to go on adventures and hadn’t gone far, just wandering around the village.

Regarding overnight stays, tree holes, burrows, firewood sheds— they could sleep anywhere and didn’t necessarily have to go back.

More importantly, during the New Year’s period, there were more people in the village and more children, several of whom would bother the Large Spirit Cat Cubs when they had nothing else to do. That’s why the cubs didn’t like to go back to rest.

Hearing what Big Spirit Cat Mother had said, Chen Ying understood where the problem lay.

After returning, she gave Yin Li’s sister a key to her house and called her aunt, asking her to come over three times a week to clean, and to keep the door locked the rest of the time to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.

The expression on the neighbor’s face next door was a bit awkward; they were too embarrassed to quibble with Chen Ying.

The one leading the kids to make trouble with the Large Spirit Cat Cubs was their child.

They had just reached the newly built shelter area in the village and had not yet had the chance to open the door when they heard people shouting from the hillsides that wild boars had entered the village.

In the past, wild boars were one of the three protected species and were not supposed to be hunted at will. In recent years, villages near the mountains had suffered greatly from wild boar disturbances.

In many places ravaged by wild boars, they had been removed from the protected species list.

However, being removed from the list did not mean that wild boars were unprotected; hunting them still required official approval through formal procedures.

Xiaozhai Village was still one of the better-off ones. Last year, several households in Linluo Village had their crops destroyed by wild boars, and they only received a modest amount of compensation.

Last autumn, an incident occurred in Linluo Village—a wild boar entered the village for a rampage, nearly injuring people. Fortunately, the men in the village banded together, wielding staffs and hoes to drive the wild boar away.

Throughout the winter, the whole village was on edge, fearing the return of the wild boars.

The group of wild boars that came to Xiaozhai Village consisted of two adults and five young; no male boar was seen.

The wild boars, walking along the mountain road, were scared by the villagers brandishing various items and hurriedly ran into the mountain hollow.

A young man with enough courage followed them to have a look and reported back that there were several more boars there.

“That male boar is so big, almost two meters! It’s making grunting noises while eating in the hollow; it sounds really frightening.”

The hollow was less than five hundred meters from the village, and the elders often went there to gather firewood on the slopes. Concerned by this news, they asked the village committee to drive the wild boars away.

Chen Ying found Cadre Xiao Qin to inquire and discovered that in just three to five years, several incidents of wild boars causing trouble in the villages had occurred.

Although there had been no casualties, crops and vegetable gardens, as well as several households’ chicken coops and duck pens, had been damaged by wild boars.

“This number of wild boars seems a bit too much, should we apply to hunt a few?”

The application process was rather cumbersome; approval would only be granted if it was confirmed that the wild boars were causing severe problems.

Chen Ying covered her mouth with a fist and coughed a few times, which made Xiao Qin considerate. He followed her outside.

“Let’s not mention approval for now. I’ll see if there’s a way to drive this group of wild boars away. Ever since that old boar died, there haven’t been any wild boars living in the Wild boar forest near Huaqiu Valley. Maybe we can drive this group there.”

The proliferation of wild boars indicated a scarcity of apex predators in this area. He was worried that the Big Cats would impact the ecosystem around Jiamu Gully too much; with this group of wild boars, at least some of the pressure on the food chain could be relieved.

Small roe deer meat tastes good, but so does young wild boar meat.

Let’s leave the competition of nature to nature itself.

With things on his mind, Chen Ying didn’t stay long in the village, hurriedly returning to the rescue station. He found Jinya and asked it to pass a message to Leopard Sister’s family.

“Piglets are delicious!”

Jinya’s mouth watered, “I’ll go find Leopard Sister right now, can I eat one too?”

“You hunt and eat if you can, who am I to stop you? But be careful, those wild boars are really fierce, especially the males with their armor-like hide. Watch out, or you might break your teeth.”

Jinya wasn’t afraid, and she didn’t even like eating big boars; their meat was tough and hard on the teeth.

The little piglets were tender and she could eat two in one meal!

Watching Jinya and Little Jin rush off to find Leopard Sister, Chen Ying headed back to the small building to take an afternoon nap.

There was still meat and vegetables left from the New Year’s feast to this day. Just heat up something and cook a pot of noodles for a lavish dinner.

After sleeping until past seven, Old Gao and Little Sen were finishing the last step of processing the birdhouses.

Seven or eight of various sizes and styles, all with a rustic charm, they were sure to be highly rated by the birds.

“I plan to install these three on the trees up front, we can start after dinner. Tonight, I’ll finish these three, and tomorrow we’d go install the others.”

The three small birdhouses were for small birds, even the cameras were tiny, fixed in the corner, perfectly capturing the whole interior of the birdhouse.

When it came to climbing trees, Chen Ying could definitely outdo Little Sen.

He and Old Gao, one per tree, quickly secured the birdhouses.

Installing birdhouses was an art, they needed to be over six meters up on a tree’s main trunk.

They had to be fixed on the trunk, avoiding any tilt or backward angle, and if necessary, they could tilt slightly forward to prevent rainwater from entering the nest.

The entrance of the birdhouse should face east or southeast, against the wind and facing the sun, giving the parent birds a sense of security and fostering early egg-laying and hatching.

The usual spots for placing birdhouses were on the edge of forests with rich vegetation and ample water, or at the intersection of farmland and forested areas.

At the same time, the selected spot should be near a water source with abundant vegetation, facilitating the birds’ feeding and hiding.

After installation, it was best to plaster mud or a mixture of mud and grass on the roof of the birdhouse to blend it better with nature.

When making birdhouses, care must be taken to prevent any light leakage. If there were gaps, they could be filled with wood glue and then covered with a layer of mud, or camouflaged with tree bark.

Artificial birdhouses were common in city parks or green belts, but Old Gao was doing this in the forest to better observe birds’ hatching behaviors.

So, when creating them, he chose materials and sizes based on the species of bird and their preferences.

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Even the shape of the birdhouse entrance was critical, with ovals and irregular shapes attracting different types of birds.

After installing the birdhouses, some arrangement was necessary to make the birds feel comfortable before they would settle in.

The detailed work of arranging the birdhouses was something Old Gao would do by himself.

Under his direction, Chen Ying and Little Sen fixed the small birdhouses onto the trees, then they had to draw distribution maps, tagging the trees and nests for easy future patrol and inspection.

Old Gao said he might be sent on a trip anytime, and the follow-up inspection and maintenance would be taken over by colleagues from the Bird Research Institute.

A week later, with the help of the Bird Research Institute staff, all ten large birdhouses were installed, and then it was time to carry these birdhouses to designated spots for installation.

Old Bear Gully and Wild Boar Forest were favorite habitation spots for hawks and there was a broadleaf forest in the middle, where every year, more than a dozen species of birds breed.

By early February, they had installed fifty birdhouses and equipped twenty sets of high-definition cameras.

The week after the birdhouses were installed, Chen Ying woke up to find the sound of birds was much louder. It felt like overnight a thousand birds had surrounded the rescue station.

(Let me see who’s staying up late)