The great blue heron has been at my ponds every day for a week. I pulled the net off my 153 gallon yesterday so he might be able to get some rosy red minnows. I couldn't remove the big net for fear he'd eat the fish who are wandering into the shallows. I did pull it back off the waterfall area. I took more photos and video of him. He's no longer scared of me! Before, if he even saw me through the window, he was gone. Now, I can jump around outside, and he barely bats an eyelash! My mother insists he's starving to death, and I have to feed him. I told her he only eats live animals. She suggested I let him have some of my pond fish. NO WAY! But, she gets what she wants so I suggested she buy some "feeder goldfish" that I'd put in the kiddie pool. I put 15 gallons, some aquarium salt, and Stress Coat into a kiddie pool and aerated it for 4 hours (then removed the air stone). She put in 11 feeder goldfish.

My mother says the heron is on my big pond right now, probably finding the gap between the waterfall and the big end to get somebody. I went and looked. He's in the shallow end; the net is collapsing from his weight. My mother's trying to get him to go to the other pond with the feeder fish. Somehow, I'll doubt he'll listen. He's like my mother. When the hermit crab she got me died, I told her not to get another one. She came home with one along with the feeders. She dumped them into the kiddie pool without consulting me. I would have told her to float them to bring the temperature down from 70 to 40 degrees F and not to add the dirty store water. She just dumped them in, the shock of a life time. I have yet to look at them, don't have the heart. I'm sure I'd want to save them. With my luck, the heron won't eat them anyway, so I'll have to rehabilitate them, that is if the pond doesn't freeze over, or they die from shock first. My poor fish in the big pond are having little heart attacks now as the heron walks among them. The net is between them but that beak goes right through the net. Ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I can see him out the den window. He's at the 153 gallon pond now, eyeing the rosy red minnows. I yelled at him, and he ignored me. I guess I should give up!

I'm going out there now. Wait for my reply. I guess I'd better put up the new hermit crab too.

Miss me? Nope? I gave the chickens their mealworms and went to check on the feeder goldfish. The heron had one in his mouth so I backed off. I then set up Ellen (my mother's name) the hermit crab in her house. She is tiny and very active and keeps falling over backwards. I then fed the fish, turtle, etc. and did afternoon chores. The heron had left the kiddie pool so I went to check it out. What fish? They were all gone. I never saw them but know they were less than a few inches long. The heron said, "Nice appetizer, now for dinner!" and went back to my 1800 gallon pond to await a "stupid" goldfish to swim in the shallows. Then, he can spear it through the net. That will kill the fish but the heron won't be able to take it up through the net to eat. I have one white goldfish that's been dying for a week; I wonder if this is why. I told my mother feeding the heron would only encourage him. Now, after his "snack," he has more power to go after my pet fish. He's now back at the kiddie pool. I guess he knows my mother will probably send my father out tomorrow to get more victims.

Message to fish: :ph43r:

OH MY!!!!! What a dilema!! It's sooo hard to be a lover of all animals when half of them eat each other! I would just love to see some pictures of the heron, not with a fish in his mouth though :( !! You guys sure do have your fun with the predetors! Hey Robyn, isn't Sunday your relax day???? LOL LOL, ya, I know, people with as many pets as us barely get the time to relax!! Thanks for the story, try not to pull your hair out :P

I heard that if you get a fake heron it would prevent other herons from coming, since they are very territorial. Maybe that might help.

Goodluck!

OH my Robyn what an ordeal. But so is the circle of life something must die in order to live. Not sure what I would do but if a couple of feeder have to be sacraficed in order to save the tribe bye bye feeders just dont look at em. Let your mom tend to the herron feeder and you run around like a mad woman in order to keep the bird away from your big ponds.

Good luck Robyn. I hope all turns out well for ya..
C2

I can understand the circle of life thing but it would 'rip me apart' knowing the bird would only be able to injure the fish thru the netting instead of snatch and run. And I'd be 'saving' the little feeder fish. Robyn, maybe the breed of puppy you want isn't what your mom actually would want. My mom always thought she'd like a small lap dog...then we babysat my sisters yorkie for a month. :o She ended up preferring large non-drooler breeds...no trip hazards and she could lean on them to get up.

Hummm. Robyn maybe you need to get a puppy that would chase herons and quick! :P :rolleyes:

I'm not allowed to get a dog. I wouldn't want him/her outside all the time anyway. As for fake herons keeping real ones away, hear is a photo of the heron behind the fake heron. Perhaps he found his buddy! Sorry the photo isn't clear. These photos are on my site but the ones from yesterday haven't yet been processed. These are from last week.

Thanks for sharing your pictures. They are such a magnificant bird...well... not so much if they are being a pest! We had lots of them were I came from but I don't think they come this far north.

When I came home yesterday, my 2.6-year-old niece was telling me that she saw turtles. I asked my father if they went to the pet store to get more goldfish but he said no. I asked my mother. She then told me a story (never answers directly). She watched the heron eat not one but two of my rosy red minnows and did nothing to scare him off or stop him. She thought it was very interesting, and he deserved to eat them! They did go out and buy 15 more feeder goldfish. This morning, I put a net back over my 153 gallon pond to protect the remaining rosy reds. I only counted about 14 by flashlight last night (I should have dozens). You might say, no big deal! But, it took a lot of work to take a batch of sick feeder rosy reds years ago and make them healthy and into a breeding, self-sustaining population who number 24 to 60 depending on the year in the spring. If the heron just eats a few dozen, that may be it. I meant for some to be taken by predators. The problem with herons is that they don't stop until they eat them all! That pond is 2 feet deep but it's warm today, and the minnows are flolicking in the shallows and surface. The feeder goldfish were all still there this morning. They're orange, orange and white, and bronze/natural. I could tell they weren't 100% healthy but, if I look too long, I feel so bad. I just know I could fix them up! Of course, I have no place for them. I will find out if they're there when I get home. My big 1800 gallon pond is netted except for the waterfall (so I can get off ice in the winter) and overflow, and it looks like it will be like that forever! My plan (if I outlive my parents who won't allow it, I don't lose the house/land, and I have money; none of which is likely) is to enclose the pond with fencing on the sides to keep out deer, dogs, raccoons, and people and the top to keep out herons but still let in songbirds. That's about as likely as my plans to renovate the pond. I wanted to talk about that in my forum too but things are so out of control at home and work that I have no time anymore. I haven't done e-mail today and haven't finished enough. I work on 10 things at once while most of my co-workers do one thing at a time (in a day). They get the praise; I get more work!

The 15 feeder goldfish were gone when I got home. It's easy to see how a single heron could wipe out a new, small pond in the blink of an eye. This kiddie pool was meant to feed him but could just as easily have been somebody's new little pond.

Good Lord Robyn. Do you think koons also maybe getting to the fish? I have never seen one around here (central Ohio) ok well at my ponds we have red tailed Hawks that visit ALL THE TIME to the point that my friends little I dog I watch (yorkipoo) whenever I let him out the hawks come I told her I could not watch him anymore that dog is smaller than the rabbits around here.

do hawks like to get fish out of little ponds or do the fly and dive on bigger ponds?

I always know when the hawk is around though the little birds go CRAZY trying to dive bomb him it gets real loud when he/she shows up.

I so feel for you. Is there anything else you can do?

C2

Good Grief Robyn, you poor girl, you really have your hands full! I wish there was something I could do to help you out! Instead we just write on here more and more and make you busier :( That is sad about your rosy red's, I feel for you and your situation. Your Mom needs a new "pet"!!!! Do you think he will stay there all year round? Do they go south for the winter? What about a soft pellet gun? That wouldn't hurt him (they have plastic pellets) but might scare him away?? I'll even mail you mine!!! LOL I saw this huge bird yesterday up the hill from me. It was sitting in the snow while I was driving by and it was sooo big I thought it was a dog. Right when I stopped to look at it, it took off! I kid you not, it was three feet tall, and the wing span was amazing. My Mom thinks it was a hawk? I thought eagle because they are easily that big and I have huge bald ones here all the time. I have to go on the net and see if hawks get that big. That guy could pick up my 5.5 pound koi like nothing! SCARY!!!!
P.S. We would all love to hear about your "pond plans" one day when you have time!

I've never seen the hawks take fish but my mother watched one grab a singing male wood frog a few March's ago! When hawks fish ponds, it is usually the larger ponds. The time I saw the last 15 feeder goldfish at night, I counted them at night and again at dawn. They were all still there even though the raccoon had come out to eat that night (as evidenced by the food on the porch being gone with dirt in the cat water bowl and raccoon footprints; they tend to make a mess!). So, the raccoon didn't eat any but I'm sure if he'd found the kiddie pool and really was hungry, he could have easily gotten them.

Hawks can certainly take little dogs. Years ago, they killed two of our chickens and maimed another.

The heron should not be here this time of the year. Once the ponds freeze, the heron cannot fish (or get frogs either which they like). My father said he didn't see the heron yesterday, and he dumped the water in the kiddie pool. Hopefully, he has enough fish in his belly to move on to waters that stay open in the winter.

KK, it sounds like maybe you saw a hawk or was it a Griffin? :D

I don't have time to go over my imaginary pond renovations today. I have to rush through e-mails, leave early, and come back to work for our yearly Christmas party tonight. I really don't want to go (done it 10 years now) but it's like required.

I took the net off my 153 gallon pond yesterday morning because we were supposed to get a big storm of ice and snow. I left the net on the big pond except for the waterfall. Well, we only got rain. I was decorating the Christmas tree around 3:30 pm (next to the big catherdral ceiling windows overlooking the pond) when I looked outside and saw this gray thing cuddled up on top of my net. The heron was back! The poor thing looks awful. Out I ran into 30 mph horrid winds to re-net my 153 gallon pond again! The heron hadn't been seen for a few days but I guess he figured he'd come back after his two "free" meals my mother gave him. There are no more free meals so I hope he moves on.