Heron alert

[Kat]

An unwelcome pest showed up today.  I'm sure I've got goldfish missing.  Put up more fishing line & will have to try & cover some of my other ponds.  I scared it enough that it went up on the roof & was watching me.

[Rad Michelle]

oh man, i dont have anything like that here i guess its a blessing, but it looks really pretty considering i havent experienced the aftermath

[tinkster]

have one thats been here afew times also. It got one of my fishies.  I covered with net also. Its been back but the dogs scared it off.. not sure if it would have tried to go through the netting or not.

tink

[PondmaninAL]

oh man, i dont have anything like that here i guess its a blessing, but it looks really pretty considering i havent experienced the aftermath

Michelle, you left out a word. You should have said,"i dont have anything like that here yet. Now you have cursed yourself.

[Esther]

Um Kat---are you sure that was a heron??? Maybe it was just delivering a baby!!! 

[Kat]

Yep, if not this pest than other pests 

Esther--no baby delivery here as I'm too OLD for that, LOL.  But I guess this means trying to save the goldfish eggs again to replace the fish I lost.

[miguynmkoi]

EEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!  Get outta Kat's ponds!      Sorry it got some of your fishies  :'(

[Kat]

Well, this heron has been particularly aggressive in coming back to the ponds.  I put fishing line around & over my 8x8 pond & it is keeping the nasty bird out of that one.  Put trellis sheets over my stock tank ponds but the heron will now stand/sit on top of the trellis to watch for the fish 

Today I spent 5 hours in the rain draining & cleaning 5 stock tanks with wakins/watonai from last year's spawn.  These are the best/better/keepers to raise, so that is why I'm so fustrated with the heron.  Anyways, I figured if there were no fish that the heron could get to maybe it will stop coming.  So at least it didn't get all of the fish & my not filtering my stock tank lily ponds helped hide the fish. 

[Julles]

Sorry you're having that trouble, Kat.

Some friends of mine from the Houston Pond Society, they have a smallish pond near their house, but their yard backs up to a... I guess it's a drainage ditch, or maybe just an "occasional" stream.  Anyway, they claim they never have problems with maurading water birds.

Well, Saturday at the monthly meeting, they sat sad-faced and told how they had just lost several of their precious fish, due to a heron or similar bird that had just discovered their pond.   

[Jerry]

Scott said what I would have YET!!!

[miguynmkoi]

Sorry you're still having problems Kat.  Your babies are very pretty though.

[marla]

Fantastic pics Kat, even though most of us ponders hate this bird it is a reagal looker.  Those wakin/watoni are very cute, nice group.  Thought I saw one flying over yesterday, but it seems early, but I'm not taking any chances. Ice has melted off my main pond and the lily/goldfish pond is half open.  Nets are up on the main pond and the open water of the lily pond.  Don't want to loose any more fish, it's bad enough I found 3 dead from the winter.

[Kat]

I found the heron at my big pond with all my special sarassa/longfins/keepers that the fishing line had previously worked to keep the heron out.  Earlier this week I had pulled my lotus pots out of that pond in order to divide & set them outside of the ponds for the growing season.  Now that the pots are gone the bird had access to that side of the pond.  Blasted bird had squeezed himself in between the strands of fishing line & I'm sure it has gotten a lot of my fish.  Feathers & surface scum from it sticking its head into the water.  At this point I have no idea what I'm going to do other than to drain the pond & sell those fish, too.  :'(

Maybe with warmer temps I could use one of those motion water squirters hooked up to a faucet.  This has been the MOST aggressive heron that I've ever had to deal with.

[whiskyb]

I have one of the motion activated sprinklers. It seemed to work pretty well during the warmer months but as soon as I removed it for the winter this guy showed up again. Between him and the mink I am not having much fun some days

[marla]

Oh no, so sorry to here , hope you have some survivors....is it that same male that keeps showing up.  We have so many in our area with the marshes and lakes, we tried the water sensors...works good for a while in the spring..then the plants grow up and as the wind blows it was always setting it off, and it learned where to walk to not get hit...we tried one of those floating aligators they say work, well the birds we have must not winter where there are alligators, cause they don't seem to care.  I have used nets on the ponds now for years, first thing when the ice is gone.  I don't like them but I'd rather have my fish...and after a few weeks in spring they come to realize they cant get in and there are plenty of natural areas to fish.  I do leave the nets up but when I'm home and out the nets are off till night.  I have found that the use of small like 24" shepards hooks around the pond to raise the nets up (and then the net drops to the ground) gives hieght so the bird cant walk on it or stab through it, and the taller plants can still have room to grow.  I get them at HD, they are black and like 12'x 12'