- Joined
- Jun 5, 2015
- Messages
- 683
- Reaction score
- 576
- Location
- Chicago (W suburbs)
- Showcase(s):
- 3
- Hardiness Zone
- 5b
- Country
About a week ago I surprised a Little Blue Heron (not Great Blue) near my pond (not in it) and he flew off. My netting is held up about 2.5 feet off the surface. I was headed out the door, so I figured I could protect a bit better when I came home.
When I came back home, he was there again and this time flew off with one of my younger Sarasa comments. This time I draped some of the netting over the sides of the stakes holding it up, but I left the side where I have a fishing line fence undraped.
I found him in there again on a third morning having stepped over or through the fishing line fence. I scared him off and he got tangled in the netting trying to get out. He did get out before I could get down there. When I did get to the side of the pond I saw some spatters of blood on a rock, but no evidence of another missing or injured fish. So it must have been a juvenile which grew in the pond or a frog that was the source of the blood.
So now I've done an even better job draping it, but that's not ideal either as smaller birds may get tangled in it. I saw this particular heron a day or two after the latest incident (on a tree scoping out my yard), but now he seems to have moved on. I hope later in the summer to be able to remove the net entirely when the pond has nearly full cover from plants.
When I came back home, he was there again and this time flew off with one of my younger Sarasa comments. This time I draped some of the netting over the sides of the stakes holding it up, but I left the side where I have a fishing line fence undraped.
I found him in there again on a third morning having stepped over or through the fishing line fence. I scared him off and he got tangled in the netting trying to get out. He did get out before I could get down there. When I did get to the side of the pond I saw some spatters of blood on a rock, but no evidence of another missing or injured fish. So it must have been a juvenile which grew in the pond or a frog that was the source of the blood.
So now I've done an even better job draping it, but that's not ideal either as smaller birds may get tangled in it. I saw this particular heron a day or two after the latest incident (on a tree scoping out my yard), but now he seems to have moved on. I hope later in the summer to be able to remove the net entirely when the pond has nearly full cover from plants.