We had the pond a total of about one month when I had a week long invasion from snakes and marsh birds. The birds turned out to be Least Bitterns....they got my cute little Sarasa comet and my baby tancho koi.
I bought one of those predator nets. I have caught a whole bunch of water snakes trying to get into the pond (they get on top of the net and cannot dive.) We actually caught and relocated about ten snakes in less than a week. I have gotten
really good at catching snakes.
One of the watersnakes we caught.
We had one bird attempt to get through the net. The net held and the bird flew off as we approached.
So anyway. I set up the main pond fountain yesterday. Nothing spectacular...just a little bell fountain. My uncle is an electrician and he just installed some more outlets out by the pond for me (yay!) so now I can run all the fountains and pumps. I had it all set up yesterday afternoon.
This morning, it looked like a tornado went through the pond. The two main pumps were knocked off their supports, plants were knocked over. But the net was still mostly in place. It was so strange.
Before my cup of coffee, I was wading around in the pond. The prefilter was missing from both pumps, hoses were undone. I fished all that out from the pond bottom. I uprooted the hornwort untangling it all.
This afternoon as I put the plants back in place, I found bird feathers in the pond. I am thinking maybe the bird got tangled...or maybe the bird panicked at the sight of three large dogs...or maybe an overly excited pooch tried to get in to catch the bird.
But...I gotta praise that little net. I have it about a foot above the water's surface, anchored with rocks all along the edge. It was moved and definitely sagging into the pond...but none of my fish are missing!
some of our goldies and our favorite piggy...Cow Koi
(edited for a typo)
