WELL Mr Heron came back!

[addy1]

I have removed some ever greens they were in the way and always stuck me, irritated my skin. I turned off the pond, which shuts down a water fall that comes from the 1000 gallon pond to the big pond. And Mr Heron found the one path into the pond and enjoyed a good snack. My yorkies went crazy barking at, it flew away came back about 5 minutes later. Flew as I tried to snatch a few pictures of it sitting on our dead maple tree.

It will be BACK! I now need to go down and put up another piece of netting.

 

[addy1]

Its roosting post

 

[combatwombat]

Wow. Action shot right in front of the camera. I wouldn't think you'd have too much of a problem with herons since your pond is deep with pretty steep sides, but I guess if the fish hang out at the edge, they're going to be eaten.

 

[addy1]

I wish, before I put up the net they were here every day. Fish are crazy, the heron walks into the shallow walk out end, they come running to eat what gets stirred up and get eaten.

That fish was hanging out on the bog wall shelf, got a lot of plants there, around 18 inches deep or so.

 

[j.w]

Man those birds are keen, fast and patient! Must fix net fast cuz you know he/she will be back now all the time.

 

[Lisak1]

Great shots @addy1 ! And special thanks to the heron for dining right in front of the camera so we could all admire his prowess as a hunter! Right down the old gullet with that fish - nice sized one, too!

 

[addy1]

He came back x 3 finally gave up to the barking yorkie................they could see it out of the window and went crazy.

 

[rubyduby]

Those yorkies are lion hearted...Not scared of a thing...Same with frenchies...
Love the pics and video of the heron. They have to be the most patient animal on the planet.
I was able to watch two storks today. Really cool birds....

 

[GBBUDD]

That didn't look like and shubunkin

 

[addy1]

That didn't look like and shubunkin

I have throw backs. Some of the fish are staying black/gray with a golden tone. A little school of them. You will probably end up with them also.

A lot of them have the long flowing tails that a lot of my shubbies have. I guess to keep the pond "pure" I would need to catch and purge. Nope they get to join the crowd.

 

[addy1]

I have nothing but shubunkin colored fan tails, they, so far, have had one pure white baby, one subie color, one gray and white, one white.

 

[brokensword]

I have throw backs. Some of the fish are staying black/gray with a golden tone. A little school of them. You will probably end up with them also.

A lot of them have the long flowing tails that a lot of my shubbies have. I guess to keep the pond "pure" I would need to catch and purge. Nope they get to join the crowd.

I have those too; and some interesting half-breeds from shubunkin/comet/sarassa hook-ups. Got a couple that look more like koi with white base and black+orange spots/blotches. Haven't seen any shubunkins ever go white--I figure my white ones are from original white sarassas.

I actually like the long finned bronze/dark ones; they show up nicely when swimming with the herd of orange and whites. Gives more texture to the pond. And when I had a long finned black koi (didn't make it; lost him the first month last spring), I'd always get confused by the long finned bronze gf and had to look hard to see if it wasn't actually the koi (a karasu, in this case).

I am surprised you didn't lose a more colorful one to the heron and it got one of your most camoflauged versions! Wrong place wrong time and no doubt, the water being cooler slowed it down.

Did you get the 'hole' fixed so no heron outbreaks continue to happen???

 

[PondGirl2021]

I have removed some ever greens they were in the way and always stuck me, irritated my skin. I turned off the pond, which shuts down a water fall that comes from the 1000 gallon pond to the big pond. And Mr Heron found the one path into the pond and enjoyed a good snack. My yorkies went crazy barking at, it flew away came back about 5 minutes later. Flew as I tried to snatch a few pictures of it sitting on our dead maple tree.

It will be BACK! I now need to go down and put up another piece of netting.

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Poor fishy’s. Hopefully you’ll fix the problem soon

 

[addy1]

I am surprised you didn't lose a more colorful one to the heron and it got one of your most camoflauged versions! Wrong place wrong time and no doubt, the water being cooler slowed it down.

Did you get the 'hole' fixed so no heron outbreaks continue to happen???

If you watch the heron, when it is on the far side of the pond you see it alert and look over. Then it slowly stalks over to the other edge and snatches the fish.

Yep area is fixed, I had to loosen the net to drop it lower. Never thought about the fact the bushes were gone would make a nice heron path. We have not seen one here in years. They fly over but never stop.

Fixed it about 3 hours after the heron made its visit. We were gone all day today moving our old boat to a new slip, going to check the cams see if it did come back.

 

[combatwombat]

Never thought about the fact the bushes were gone would make a nice heron path. We have not seen one here in years. They fly over but never stop.

It's like military response testing. All the adversarial world powers are constantly tip-toeing into each others territories to test defenses and response times. The herons have been watching all along. They saw a bush disappear and instantly knew it was time to strike!