bad bad night

[addy1]

Put up chicken wire, around 2 sides of pond after small heron like bird sighting a few days ago, fishing line along the bog wall, pond is deep there. each line 6 inches from the other.

Have the security camera set to alert, sitting here having dinner get the alert, glance at tv screen, don't see anything, head for windows, see a great blue heron in the pond, swimming like a duck trying to get a fish, look at fish cam all the fish are five feet down. Honey shoots bird shot up into the air, heron takes off. In reviewing the recording the heron walked up and down the bog until it found the perfect place to duck under fishing line and flop into the pond. Never see it get any fish. The heron is nicely swimming jabbing its beak into the water after the fish.............. Fishing line criss crossing the pond, it does have an issue taking off as we are screaming at it, sort of hops up onto the bog wall to fly off, tangled in the lines.

So to save the fish, run outside go to the veg garden to get some more chicken wire for the bog wall. Yanking up the chicken wire, get stung by a swarm of yellow jackets...................... both arms, chest hurts like all get out.

Hubby about had a heart attack over the whole episode, but the fish are fine!

Now sitting here having a drink well more than a drink maybe two or threeeeeeeeeeeeeee and it is dark, back to full alert at sunrise until we get more chicken wire.

 

[baeya]

OH MY GOSH ADDY!!!! I feel so bad for you! So glad the bleep bleep bleep didn't get any fish. So sorry you got stung by bees, glad your "feeling" better...hicup
I worked on my bog a little, have several blisters....hubby texted me, after he finished golfing with his buddies, to join him for dinner at the local hangout so I got a little hicup, too :0

 

[taherrmann4]

That sucks Addy... Hope you feel better, man I wish I was watching your cameras when you were out there running around, that would have been a funny sight.

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, what an experience, Addy! Bet your fish will be freaky for a while! Will be interesting to hear how they act. Do you feed them, or do they scavenge for all their food? I know ponds have tons of food, just wondering as I don't remember. They say after an attack, the fish all are frightened for a while. No wonder! That sucker swimming trying to get a fish! I had never heard of that, thought they only would go on the edge and stand! They are HUGE, too! Glad you made it hard for him to get in, and harder to get out. Hopefully he/she won't be back, but glad you're going for reinforcements tomorrow. So sorry to hear about the yellow jacket attack! Worst part about them is that they can sting you multiple times, and they do not let go once they are in attack mode! Used to ride horses in the woods, dryer the summer, the worse the attacks were, as their ground nests kept getting larger and larger with their brood. Seems you have a next to get rid of now, too!
And, way to go to your Honey, shooting at that bugger! Woot woot!!!

 

[baeya]

We had a Heron that was scoping out my pond last year, saw him several times standing next to it. Well, one day the power in our village went out for no apparent reason and we heard later that a Heron had flown into the electrical transformer thingy behind our house........awwwww, poor Heron....never saw him again! My pond doesn't have any ledges around it, all sides go straight down. Low side is 3 1/2' deep to 4 1/2' deep on the other end. I don't think he ever got anything but a yelling and screaming me chasing after him!

 

[CountryEscape]

Way to go, Baeya! Maybe Addy needs a transformer nearer to her property. I saw a Great Blue about 2 miles from my house along a creek bank. I know they are in the area, it's whether or not not will come into my yard, up to my deck, to take a look into my koi pond. I'm hoping that my 1 acre farm pond, which is VERY shallow, will serve any herons in my vacinity.

 

[j.w]

I was able to view it and saw the darn bird sneaking around the pond looking for a way in and then saw him plop in nose down in the pond and then float around looking for fish. He sure wasn't there very long before you and your honey came out. I wish the camera had sound tho when you blasted those shots off to scare him away. He didn't look like he got any fish. Hopefully the fence will work now. So sorry you got stung by the darn bees and hope tomorrow is a much better day for you both.

 

[jneg]

How about installing an electrical fence like the ones made for cows? I've seen them in action and if scares the heck out of a 2000lbs cow imagine how a Heron will feel :lamp5: Seriously I hope you can restore the safety for your fish and I really hope the stings get better soon, a few cold ones will do a great job towards that.

 

[CometKeith]

Wow Addy, Good luck recovering from your stings. At least you scared the Heron away.

 

[addy1]

We do feed the fish, right now they are all hanging out about 3 feet down in the deep end, I have not gone out yet to see if they will eat.

The yellow jackets chased me for around 100 feet as I ran for the house, screaming for my hubby to open the slider.......... Even had to run up a flight of deck stairs, with a yellow jacket escort......

Our pond is deep, the only shallow area is the first foot of the walk in, then it drops from around to over 1.5 feet deep within 1 foot of the walk in.

It appears that the bird scoped out the fishing line, finally found a place that it might be able to make it through to stand on the bog wall to fish. What it looks like is the bird tripped on the fishing line and fell into the pond head first. Just yesterday I drained the pond down by about a foot to work on the skimmer, cutting it in, need a cap, so had not refilled the pond. From the bog wall the bird would need to reach down almost 2 feet to get a fish, if it was right next to the wall of the pond.

The bird took 45 minutes to advance on the pond, scope it out, and fall in. It is unreal how slow they move. Our alert was going off quite a bit, it was windy, without the bird moving you can't even see it. We kept looking because of the small heron looking bird that had tried to fish out of the shallow end the other morning. So we were looking every time the camera alerted. I saw the movement of the bird falling, that made us go to the window and scope it out.

Here is a sequence of pictures not real good, off the dvr.........


It even yawned to get the mouth ready!

 

[addy1]

then it tripped and fell in



The dark spot in the center is it falling in


Here it has both wings out getting uprighted


Swimming and trying to catch a fish


It had to get up on the bog wall or the taro pot (can't tell) to take off


Flying as honey shot bird shot into the air. Told him no shooting into the pond, don't need holes in the liner

 

[taherrmann4]

Addy when you click on your pics they do not enlarge much.

 

[addy1]

Addy when you click on your pics they do not enlarge much.

They won't the size is around 4-20kb I did screen captures from the dvr recording

 

[koiguy1969]

sorry to hear addy....

 

[addy1]

sorry to hear addy....

Thanks, luckily no fish loss, unluckily sure did get stung, taking benadryl brain a little goofy from it, the stings itch and hurt at the same time

At least we weren't in florida watching it fish from our pond, we were here and taking action. The fish have grown enough to be easily seen now, think that is what has caught their attention.