Winter foliage

[Tara]

Here is my plan so far. I have wind chimes, called woodstock chimes. They sound great as they are tuned to the notes of classical and other music pieces. I'm assuming that as well as having good eyesight, the herons must also be able to associate with sounds of danger. If the Heron decides to case out my pond, it will hopefully see and hear my dogs. So I plan on recording my dogs barking and playing, I will then play it low over night in the shed by my pond, it will hopefully make a dog noise every few minutes. I will also move the old dog bed near the pond. One dog is big by the way.

 

[Tara]

Herons will vomit in the water to simulate food dropping in to get the fish to come to the surface. They are wiley, patient, intelligent, intrepid hunters. If they find you, they will never forget you. I've read that they have an internal GPS - once they find a pond with fish, they "drop a pin" on the location so they can return again and again.

And now your post makes perfect sense @MajorDan ! haha!

I read that when learning about them. In all fairness, they are beautiful, and like all birds of prey seem very smart. It's just a pity that they will most likely want to eat my Koi.

 

[MajorDan]

I have battled the rude armadillos all summer and have beaten them back for now. I will use every tool in the shed to devise a superior battle plan to defend my little pond that still remains to be built. Finally the shipping company said my pond parts will arrive tomorrow. Yeh, back to digging and thinking how to beat the herons with every shovel of dirt I move.

 

[MajorDan]

Maybe a coyote decoy will work...it does seem to scare the geese.

 

[addy1]

Maybe a coyote decoy will work...it does seem to scare the geese.

They learn that a decoy is just that. The floating alligator heads worked for awhile. Then I watched them come and study the floating heads, figured out they were fake and went back to fishing in the pond.

I tried fencing, fishing line over the pond around the pond, they went through it, chicken wire over the pond, they landed on it, and it was a pita. Alligators, heron decoys, nothing worked.

I finally put a gill net hanging around 3 feet over the pond, large weave, the heron can not strike through it and get to the fish. They still fly over every day, I see them pause and look down but they keep going.

If they just took one fish a month I could live with that, but they will fish until your pond is empty. They used to come and fish 2 to 3 times a day, every day. I watched them on the cams , studied their hunting methods and started figuring out how to stop them.

 

[bagsmom]

If you are still planning/executing your build, consider putting in a fish cave. If you watch The Pond Digger's tutorials on you tube, his How to Build A Fish Pond series goes over this in detail. I think the fish cave is one of the coolest things about my pond. I'm sure a patient, skillful heron could still get some fish, but this at least gives them a good hiding place!

( 1 and 2 are out of order for some reason.)

 

[MajorDan]

Thanks, I will put one in. Also thinking about putting in some overhanging ledges 18 inches below water line. My plans are evolving as I try to handle the ground water and sticky clay. Halted digging and am now planning on building concrete walls above ground level by 18 inches so I can reduce the clay I need to dig out. Just trying to find a place for that clay was another problem.

 

[Lisak1]

Just trying to find a place for that clay was another problem.

Many people save that excavated dirt for a waterfall berm.

 

[MajorDan]

My berm will not need much dirt as I plan to setup two bogs, one on either side of waterfall