Blue Heron

We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a heron
come around here, until, today.
My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate one
of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is a 14 foot
high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond. Would putting a
small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the heron. He has been back
since this afternoon but he knows where he can get a quick meal now. I am
sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW netting wouldn't be a very good
option since we don't have anyplace to secure it. Here is a link to a videos
of the pond...
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv
I think you can see why we can't really secure a net.

I wrote up this primer once upon a time...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Help, something is eating my fish!
Build it and all of a sudden all of nature shows up in your backyard
eating your fish!

Herons, raccoons, snakes, bullfrogs and kingfishers are some of the
most common predators in backyard ponds.

What works to keep them away?

Depends on how your pond is set up and your individual predator ~

Try:

putting up an electric Fido Fence around the pond
or the more expensive Pond Guardian fence
setting up a motion activated sprinker, sometimes two for determined
predators
setting up a humane trap for raccoons (call Animal Control)
netting the pond
stringing fishing line here and there and everywhere to flummox
herons
putting in a 'heron scarer' decoy for kingfishers
(go to www.froogle.com for info and price comparisons)

Lethal methods are discouraged as some of these
animals are federally protected and you can get in a lot of trouble
which cuts into pond dollars and pond time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Good luck and let us know if you try any of these methods
and how they work. (Labrador abuse works at our pond ;-)

k :-)
http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info
http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond

"Goldlexus" <> wrote in message
news:6%hfi.4946$pT4.3080@trndny06...
> We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a
> heron come around here, until, today.
> My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
> goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate
> one of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is a
> 14 foot high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond. Would
> putting a small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the heron. He
> has been back since this afternoon but he knows where he can get a quick
> meal now. I am sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW netting
> wouldn't be a very good option since we don't have anyplace to secure it.
> Here is a link to a videos of the pond...
> http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv I
> think you can see why we can't really secure a net.

I've heard it said that herons are territorial and will not come around
when another heron is around. With that in mine, some have suggested
placing a Heron statue near the pond. I'm skeptical of this as I've never
tried it or needed to (though I did have a large hawk visit my pond last
winter, but apparently without incident). But you could try it and see if
it works. Netting is the best deterent, but you said that isn't an option,
so perhaps others here can give you different advice than I have. One
thing that you shouldn't do, of course, is to harm the bird, since it is a
protected species. Good luck.

George

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:56:29 CST, "Goldlexus" <>
wrote:

>We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a heron
>come around here, until, today.
>My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
>goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate one
>of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is a 14 foot
>high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond. Would putting a
>small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the heron. He has been back
>since this afternoon but he knows where he can get a quick meal now. I am
>sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW netting wouldn't be a very good
>option since we don't have anyplace to secure it. Here is a link to a videos
>of the pond...
>http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv
>I think you can see why we can't really secure a net.

My heron scarecrow sprinklers have worked for me.
http://www.aquaticponds.com/Pest%20Control.htm Click on the video. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Thanks for the advice, I may try some fishing line. That would be managable
with our pond set up. Another question, are there certain times of day that
they may come around? Haven't seen the booger since he nabbed the one
goldfish. The fish don't seem skidish either perhaps it happened so fast
they don't even know there were/are in danger. Also, why on earth after
having these fish for over 3 years did a heron show up.? Never seen one
before today.

"George" <> wrote in message
news:ADjfi.1042$...
>
> "Goldlexus" <> wrote in message
> news:6%hfi.4946$pT4.3080@trndny06...
>> We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a
>> heron come around here, until, today.
>> My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
>> goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate
>> one of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is a
>> 14 foot high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond. Would
>> putting a small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the heron. He
>> has been back since this afternoon but he knows where he can get a quick
>> meal now. I am sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW netting
>> wouldn't be a very good option since we don't have anyplace to secure it.
>> Here is a link to a videos of the pond...
>> http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv I
>> think you can see why we can't really secure a net.
>
> I've heard it said that herons are territorial and will not come around
> when another heron is around. With that in mine, some have suggested
> placing a Heron statue near the pond. I'm skeptical of this as I've never
> tried it or needed to (though I did have a large hawk visit my pond last
> winter, but apparently without incident). But you could try it and see if
> it works. Netting is the best deterent, but you said that isn't an
> option, so perhaps others here can give you different advice than I have.
> One thing that you shouldn't do, of course, is to harm the bird, since it
> is a protected species. Good luck.
>
> George

Exactly the same happened to me - no 'visitors' for 8 years and then
suddenly a couple of months ago I got up in the morning and a huge bird was
standing within feet of my conservatory door gazing in the pond. I thought
he's eaten the lot as the water was all churned up and not a single fish in
sight.
It took 2 days for them to start emerging from the bottom of the pond under
the plants (thank God, safe), so they must have been very distressed by the
attack.
I rushed out and got a very good Heron replica which is still standing on
the edge of the pond, but it's not 100% effective as the Heron came around
again although didn't attack. So - I resorted to netting, expecting it to
look dreadful.
However, I got black, very fine netting and stretched it very tightly over
the main pond, pegging it down in the soil behind the rocks - you can hardly
see it. And it works - no more visitations !! I can sleep again at night
knowing my little friends are safe.
It's not necessary to net the waterfall obviously as there's no fish there -
couldn't you do the same thing somehow across your main pond, pegging the
netting behind the rocks ? I used wire 'corners' which I snip off each end
of wire hangers to peg the netting - they make very flexible pegs which can
be pushed into small cracks, they are strong and virtually invisible.

"Goldlexus" <> wrote in message
news:6%hfi.4946$pT4.3080@trndny06...
> We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a heron
> come around here, until, today.
> My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
> goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate one
> of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is a 14
> foot high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond. Would
> putting a small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the heron. He has
> been back since this afternoon but he knows where he can get a quick meal
> now. I am sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW netting wouldn't be
> a very good option since we don't have anyplace to secure it. Here is a
> link to a videos of the pond...
> http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv I
> think you can see why we can't really secure a net.

"Goldlexus" <> wrote in message
news:6%hfi.4946$pT4.3080@trndny06...
> We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a heron
> come around here, until, today.
> My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
> goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate one
> of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is a 14
> foot high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond. Would
> putting a small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the heron. He has
> been back since this afternoon but he knows where he can get a quick meal
> now. I am sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW netting wouldn't be
> a very good option since we don't have anyplace to secure it. Here is a
> link to a videos of the pond...
> http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv I
> think you can see why we can't really secure a net.
===========================
My connection is too slow to watch videos but we had a similar problem. We
made some changes and netted the ponds and the large grow-out and goldfish
tanks behind the house. We not only had herons but kingfishers, snapper
turtles, water snakes and bullfrogs cleaning out our ponds. Jan claims
success with those motion activated water sprinklers. Other people mention
fishing line around the pond. These things may work for herons but are not
much use against the others.
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }<((((*> ~~~ }<{{{{(ö>

"George" <> wrote:
> "Goldlexus" <> wrote in message
> [ . . . ]
> I've heard it said that herons are territorial and will not come around
> when another heron is around. With that in mine, some have suggested
> placing a Heron statue near the pond. I'm skeptical of this as I've
> never tried it or needed to (though I did have a large hawk visit my pond
> last winter, but apparently without incident). But you could try it and
> see if it works. Netting is the best deterent, but you said that isn't
> an option, so perhaps others here can give you different advice than I
> have. One thing that you shouldn't do, of course, is to harm the bird,
> since it is a protected species. Good luck.

I started with a very lifelike Heron statue by the pond. It was of no
value. I gave it to a friend in Texas, who now has it watching over his
herd of plastic Pink Flamingos in his front yard. Then I got enough garden
"hoop" fence to surround the pond, similar to the left hand picture on the
'borders' page at http://www.gardman.co.uk/asp/product...os_borders.asp,
but taller. They're steel, covered with green plastic. I think I bought
them at Home Depot. The tops were high enough that I was able to attach
bird netting to the top, secured with tie wraps near the bottom. No more
Heron problem. ;-)

HTH

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !
~Semper Fi~

"Goldlexus" <> wrote in message
news:7Nnfi.507$ss5.224@trndny03...
> Thanks for the advice, I may try some fishing line. That would be
> managable with our pond set up. Another question, are there certain times
> of day that they may come around? Haven't seen the booger since he nabbed
> the one goldfish. The fish don't seem skidish either perhaps it happened
> so fast they don't even know there were/are in danger. Also, why on earth
> after having these fish for over 3 years did a heron show up.? Never seen
> one before today.

A lot of the country is in a drought, so he may have initially been
attracted by the water, then found that there were easy pickings there.

George

> "George" <> wrote in message
> news:ADjfi.1042$...
>>
>> "Goldlexus" <> wrote in message
>> news:6%hfi.4946$pT4.3080@trndny06...
>>> We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a
>>> heron come around here, until, today.
>>> My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
>>> goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate
>>> one of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is
>>> a 14 foot high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond.
>>> Would putting a small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the
>>> heron. He has been back since this afternoon but he knows where he can
>>> get a quick meal now. I am sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW
>>> netting wouldn't be a very good option since we don't have anyplace to
>>> secure it. Here is a link to a videos of the pond...
>>> http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv I
>>> think you can see why we can't really secure a net.
>>
>> I've heard it said that herons are territorial and will not come around
>> when another heron is around. With that in mine, some have suggested
>> placing a Heron statue near the pond. I'm skeptical of this as I've
>> never tried it or needed to (though I did have a large hawk visit my
>> pond last winter, but apparently without incident). But you could try
>> it and see if it works. Netting is the best deterent, but you said that
>> isn't an option, so perhaps others here can give you different advice
>> than I have. One thing that you shouldn't do, of course, is to harm the
>> bird, since it is a protected species. Good luck.
>>
>> George
>

On Jun 24, 6:45 am, "Goldlexus" <nospamallo...@nospam.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the advice, I may try some fishing line. That would be managable
> with our pond set up.>

We thought the fishing line sounded good too - then we watched the
heron
tip toe over and thru the fishing line. We then moved on to netting
the pond.
That worked, although the heron was able to stab a fish thru the net
but couldn't
extract it. The fish did survive but does carry a scar.
Now we rely on the motion detector and haven't seen a heron since it
was
installed.
Bonnie
NJ