Mr. Herr was a family friend of Mr.Li Shi and an excellent falconer. He had spent a few days living close to the snow line up on the Snow Jade Mountain with his new Huang Ying. She had taken eight pheasants which considering how tough they were to catch in this terrain, was no mean feat.

This picture was taken after a good days hawking and the Huang Ying is being fed up for the night.
The white feather hanging from the hawks train is a cockerels tail feather and is called a Yemal. It is a very effective indicator as to where the hawk is as it fly’s across valleys and into the distance.
The hawk may blend into the cover of a tree but the white Yemal blows in the wind like a white flag for all to see. These days the Yemal is backed up with a tail bell which is useful in low dense cover and the two together are a great advantage in hawk location when telemetry is not available.

Having learnt my falconry with goshawks and in the days before telemetry I really could feel happy with this system, especially in such hilly country where electronic signals can play the fool with you.